TAMPA, Fla. — In a state with a lengthy historical past of welcoming kids, whether or not migrant kids who arrive in Florida with out a guardian are nonetheless welcomed in the state remains a query even those that advocate for these kids can’t reply.
“Caring for children was one of the things that Florida just has always done, said Melissa Marantes, an immigration attorney with the Orlando Center for Justice. She works with providers in Florida that temporarily house unaccompanied migrant children for the federal government. The children are often sent to the U.S. by desperate parents or other family members in Central and South America who are seeking to give the children a better life in America.
But more than a year after Governor Ron DeSantis signed an executive order prohibiting these migrant kids shelters from getting licensed by the state as part of the Governor’s response to what he dubbed “Biden’s Border Crisis,” Marantes informed us a number of shelters in the state have already shut down their packages for unaccompanied kids. All of them, she mentioned, are faith-based organizations that helped migrant kids by connecting them with foster households till they might be reunited with household in the state.
“We know when dealing with kids, especially really young kids, the family setting is the most appropriate, the least restrictive. So, it’s very that this would be the settings that are closing their doors,” she defined just lately.
It’s a controversy we had been first to reveal final yr when the Dream Center, a migrant youngsters shelter in Sarasota, was compelled to transfer dozens of unaccompanied kids in its care after Florida’s Department of Children and Families (DCF) refused to relicense the ability.
The shelter’s guardian firm, Lutheran Services of Florida, fought again and received. But a yr later, with state licenses again up for renewal, the way forward for that shelter and the greater than a dozen different migrant youngsters shelters throughout the state remains unknown.
“These are very well-performing organizations; they follow the rule of law, they do everything correctly. Yet they’re caught in the crossfire in their ability to serve their kids,” defined Orlando Representative and immigrant advocate Anna Eskamani.
That crossfire just lately prompted His House, migrant youngsters shelter in Miami, to file a authorized grievance towards DCF simply a few months in the past. The group filed the grievance with the Division of Administrative Hearings again in September after DCF denied the ability a new license. The facility has been working in the state because the Nineties and by no means had its license renewal denied till this yr when DCF adopted an administrative rule mirroring the Governor’s order. According to authorized paperwork, the shelter and DCF at the moment are in the method of settling the case.
But it’s unclear how; nobody from the shelter responded to calls and emails from Investigative Reporter Katie LaGrone. In truth, no shelter for unaccompanied youngsters has agreed to communicate out about their newest licensing battle with the state.
Several informed LaGrone they’re involved about being penalized by DCF in the event that they communicate out since most work with DCF on different packages to assist kids and adults in want.
DCF can also be staying quiet concerning the ongoing battle over migrant shelter licenses,
Although a data request was submitted practically one month in the past to learn how many of those shelters have been permitted or denied a new license, DCF has but to present us with any paperwork.
But in an e-mail from Catholic Charities of Miami, which additionally operates a migrant youngsters shelter, a spokesperson mentioned they had been renewed earlier this yr and described their migrant child’s shelter as “the only facility in the state to be licensed for this residential program.”
Why Catholic Charities was renewed and others seem to nonetheless be combating for that renewal, is among the many many questions nobody appears to need to reply.
In the previous, attorneys for the U.S. Department of Health & Human Services, which runs the unaccompanied minor program, informed the DeSantis administration these shelters don’t want a state license to function since they’re federally funded to serve unaccompanied kids. As for the place issues stand now, the feds aren’t saying.
In an e-mail to us late Thursday, a spokesperson from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services acknowledged they’re carefully monitoring the state of affairs in Florida and analyzing potential authorized motion to guarantee these shelters can proceed caring for unaccompanied kids.