"Tender Age" Facilities For The Youngest Immigrants Described

“It's Haunting”: Officials Describe “Tender Age” Facilities For The Youngest Immigrants Separated From Their Families

US Rep. Joaquin Castro recalled being haunted when he walked into an “infant’s room” at Casa Presidente, a south Texas facility housing children separated from their families at the border, on Monday. The youngest of the four children in the room was 8-month-old Roger, who had been in the shelter in Brownsville for more than a month. Leah, a 1-year-old girl who had been separated from her mother and grandmother at the border, was also there.

The children were made to wake up at 6 a.m. on weekdays and 7 a.m. on weekends. “They have a very regimented daily routine. It’s not a military school, so that’s kind of odd,” Rep. Castro said.

“We’re talking about children who literally cannot even communicate and don’t have the ability to be in touch with their families,” New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio said
Many of the children at the Cayuga Centers in East Harlem had conditions such as lice, chickenpox, and bed bugs ... A 9-year-old boy from Honduras named Eddie was separated from his mother at the border and was sent 2,000 miles on a bus to the shelter in New York City, de Blasio said, adding, “He does not know when he’s going to see his mother again.”

Casa Presidente is run by Southwest Key, a nonprofit that operates 26 such shelters for immigrant children in Texas, Arizona, and California.
Southwest Key CEO Juan Sanchez said Casa Presidente was going to have a “massive expansion.”