Brownsville shelter for migrant kids defends itself after turning away U.S. Senator
Southwest Key Programs, an Austin-based nonprofit running a shelter for unaccompanied migrant children in Brownsville, has pushed back against claims by U.S. Senator Jeff Merkley that it is involved in detaining or mistreating children who have crossed from Mexico.
The nonprofit is a contractor with the Office of Refugee Resettlement within the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. On Sunday night it denied entry to visiting lawmaker Jeff Merkley who had wanted to inspect the Brownsville facility.
“We regret having to turn away Senator Merkley at our Casa Padre shelter,” the nonprofit explained in a statement yesterday, adding that the Trump Administration had not approved Merkley’s visit.
“With ORR [Office of Refugee Settlement] approval, Southwest Key shelters have welcomed elected and other public officials at our facilities in the past, and will continue to do so, because we are proud of the caring environment we provide these children. We have reached out to the Senator and connected with his staff because we would like to see this happen.”
Merkley had attempted to visit the center with five other people while livestreaming his visit on social media. “Thankfully for the safety, security and dignity of the children being cared for there, they were denied access,” the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services stated yesterday.
“No one who arrives unannounced at one of our shelters demanding access to the children in our care will be permitted, even those claiming to be U.S. Senators,” added the Department.
Merkley had said that his staff contacted Southwest Key Programs last week to arrange a visit. During his social media livestream in Brownsville, Merkley said that he wanted to talk to Casa Padre staff “about whether they are having second thoughts about being partners in a process of ripping children away from their families under this new policy.”
The Oregon Senator is critical of a policy announced by Attorney General Jefferson Sessions on May 7 that separates children from their parents when they cross the border into the U.S. The children are sometimes placed in the care of nonprofit organizations like Southwest Key Programs while their parents are either processed for asylum or prosecuted for illegal entry.
‘If you don’t like that, then don’t smuggle children over our border.’
“If you cross this border unlawfully, then we will prosecute you. It’s that simple,” Sessions said last month. “If you smuggle illegal aliens across our border, then we will prosecute you. If you are smuggling a child, then we will prosecute you and that child will be separated from you as required by law. If you don’t like that, then don’t smuggle children over our border.”
According to Southwest Key Programs its role in the process is to “provide round-the-clock services including: food, shelter, medical and mental health care, clothing, educational support, supervision, and reunification support.”
Yet Senator Merkley implied in an interview on MSNBC that the children at the Brownsville facility are not being treated well. “The first room had a series of cages that look a lot like dog kennels in which people who had recently arrived had been put into them — they were very crowded. The individuals had space blankets… [there were] no mattresses. And people were looking very distressed and upset.”
“Adjacent to that is a very, very large warehouse with much larger cages,” he added, saying the cages were for children separated from their parents.
Cindy Casares of Southwest Key Programs pushed back against such characterizations saying, “it is important to understand that Casa Padre is not a detention facility. It is an unaccompanied minor shelter with many layers of oversight: it is licensed for childcare by the Texas Department of Family and Protective Services.”
She added, “All our shelters are regulated by state childcare licensing authorities as well as local and county authorities. Additionally, federal employees from ORR visit our shelters multiple times a week.”
The Trump Administration described Merkley’s visit as a publicity stunt saying, “Senator Merkley should respect the UAC [unaccompanied alien children] program and engage in the appropriate processes, as many of his colleagues have done before him, to visit ORR facilities. We would welcome him to engage in that process so that he may visit the facility to make headway on this important issue, rather than just headlines.”
Brownsville police responded when Merkley visited the premises of the children’s shelter last week. He was not arrested.
Dan Patrick: ‘We need legal immigration reform’
Texas Lieutenant-Governor Dan Patrick last week in an interview on Fox News downplayed the new policy of separating children from their parents: “In terms of families, we want to keep families together but that cannot be an excuse to break our laws. And in terms of family issues we do that with child protective services and social services in our country where we find a child in a dangerous situation. And so the Left is trying to make a bigger issue out of this because they want an open border.”
Patrick had said earlier in the interview, “We need legal immigration reform. Everyone in this country, every Republican knows that. We want people to come here legally. I’d rather for them to pay the U.S. government a few thousand dollars to come into this country, or a few hundred, than pay the cartels, which control the border.
For his part, Senator Bob Menendez, a Democrat from New York, said he was outraged that his colleague was denied permission to visit the Brownsville center. “My team was also barred from touring a migrant processing facility where families are being separated. When the elected representatives of the people can’t observe how our government is operating, we’re in an upside down world,” he said.
Trump himself commented on the issue today on Twitter, saying, “Separating families at the Border is the fault of bad legislation passed by the Democrats. Border Security laws should be changed but the Dems can’t get their act together! Started the Wall.”
