Amnesty Report: Child Migrant Facility Violates Human Rights, Should Be Closed

In the latest criticism of Homestead, the country’s only (and increasingly embattled) for-profit detention facility housing migrant children, Amnesty International released a report Thursday claiming it should be shut down for “violating the human rights of thousands of unaccompanied children.”

  • Homestead is run by Comprehensive Health Services (CHS), a part of the Caliburn holding company; Caliburn refused to give Forbes a comment on their report, instead directing us to a letter they wrote to Amnesty on July 10. Caliburn chief executive Jim Van Dusen wrote, “Every day, over 4,000 dedicated government and private-sector professionals are working in the Homestead shelter to provide a secure and happy environment for unaccompanied teenagers arriving in the United States, while striving to expeditiously unite them with appropriately vetted sponsors.”
  • The Amnesty report claims that children’s rights are violated by being housed at Homestead—a temporary shelter—instead of following the standard practice of placing them in licensed, permanent shelters. Child migrants, the report said, averaged stays of 52 days at Homestead in March when the law mandates temporary shelter stays of 20 days or fewer.

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