Homestead Temporary Shelter for Unaccompanied Children is a 3,200-bed migrant children's detention center in Homestead, Florida. Until August 3, 2019, the center had been operated by Comprehensive Health Services, Inc. (CHSi), which is a subsidiary of the homeland security operator Caliburn International. It was believed to be the only remaining for-profit child detention center for migrants.How We Shut Down the Nation's Largest Child Detention Center, Yes! Magazine, Kristin Kumpf, September 9, 2019. The organization has faced severe criticism concerning immigration. Senator Elizabeth Warren had demanded that the detention facility be "closed down", and calls for investigation and oversight grew stronger when it was revealed that the federal government had paid $33 million in just 46 days for 1,200 of the empty beds.Trump Administration Must Explain Why U.S. Taxpayers Are Paying 'Outrageous' 'Trump Hotel' Prices to Keep Empty Migrant Detention Center Running: Congressman, Newsweek, Chantal da Silva, 9/19/19. Retrieved September 10, 2018.

It was reported on February 23, 2021 that the administration of US President Joe Biden will be reopening the detention center.

Governance

As of September 2019, Caliburn International, a security consulting firm, of which CHS is a subsidiary, faced criticism from south Florida media for its role, particularly because President Donald Trump's former Secretary of Homeland Security and Chief of Staff, General John Kelly, sat on the board of and worked as a lobbyist for D.C. Capital Partners (DCCP), before joining the administration in November 2017. DCCP created Caliburn in 2018. Kelly joined Caliburn's Board of Directors after leaving the White House in 2018. He was seen in April 2019 touring the facility on a golf cart.Monique O. Madan and Ben Wieder Although Caliburn, Comprehensive and DC Capital appear to have accrued financial benefits via government contracts during and subsequent to Kelly's serving as White House chief of staff, legal scholar Richard Briffault said Kelly did not necessarily break any ethics and conflict of interest rules: "It sounds like he's running between the raindrops. It doesn't sound great, but most likely he's not directly violating any policies." Briffault said government officials are prohibited from benefiting from their involvement in matters involving specific parties. That meant while he served in the White House, Kelly couldn't directly influence any contract-awarding decision to a DC Capital subsidiary. "This is classic revolving door," he continued. That employment meant Kelly couldn't lobby or attempt to influence government policy for five years, although he could return to his former company.

Caliburn's board of directors includes several other retired former flag rank military personnel including Generals Anthony Zinni and Michael Hayden and Admirals Stephen F. Loftus, Kathleen L. Martin and James G. Stavridis. Other members of the military–industrial complex on the board include scientist and bureaucrat Donald Kerr and Ambassadors Michael Corbin and decorated U.S. Navy Vietnam veteran and Reagan administration Assistant Secretary of Defense, Richard Armitage. At the end of the Vietnam war, Armitage took a central role in the evacuation of tens of thousands of refugees by sea to the Philippines. Caliburn's Chief Strategy Officer and Executive Vice President for Corporate Development is retired Vice Admiral Frank Craig Pandolfe.Leadership Team - Caliburn International , Caliburn International. Retrieved October 7, 2017.sector seeks to profit by detaining migrant kids, Associated Press, Garance Burke and Martha Mendoza, October 3, 2019. Retrieved October 4, 2019.

Operations

The Homestead Temporary Shelter was originally opened during the Obama administration, holding 8,500 juveniles while it operated between June 2016 and April 2017. It was the first in South Florida to be able to house minor immigrants to the United States. In 2017, the shelter was shut down when there was no longer a need to house unaccompanied minors, but in early 2018, the shelter was reopened "without public notice." In February 2018, CHSi won a $30 million government contract to run the shelter. The cost was a million dollars per day.How We Shut Down the Nation's Largest Child Detention Center, Yes! Magazine, Kristin Kumpf, September 9, 2019. It was believed that the contract had been crafted in an effort to circumvent the Flores Settlement Agreement (FSA) which had been arrived at in 1997 after over 11 years of litigation regarding the care of minor immigrants in detention.

The detention facility is surrounded by tall fencing with security checkpoints in a former Job Corps building on the Homestead Air Reserve Base. Minors in the shelter were provided with meals, snacks, medical care, recreation time and classes. The facility was operated by Comprehensive Health Services, Inc. (CHSi), used to house minors between the ages of 13 and 17. Starting in mid-April 2018, CHSi began to advertise to recruit employees to fill about 40 new positions in Homestead.

In 2019, the center became a focal point in the controversy regarding the separating of minor children of asylum seekers at the U.S. Border. On July first and second, a delegation of congressional Democrats visited the facility and raised objections to the conditions in which these minors were kept. The late Maryland Representative Elijah Cummings, who chaired the House Committee on Oversight and Reform, said, "The Trump Administration's actions at the southern border are grotesque and dehumanizing," "There seems to be open contempt for the rule of law and for basic human decency. The Committee needs to hear directly from the heads of these agencies as soon as possible in light of the almost daily reports of abuse and defiance." He invited both acting Secretary Kevin McAleenan from the Department of Homeland Security and Acting Commissioner Mark Morgan of the U.S. Customs and Border Protection at a July 12, 2019 hearing and indicated he would be prepared to subpoena top officials of President Donald Trump's administration if they refused his request to testify before the committee. "I encourage Acting Secretary McAleenan and Acting Commissioner Morgan to appear voluntarily in order to answer these critical questions," Cummings indicated that he would subpoena senior Trump officials if they declined his invitation to testify.Lawmakers demand change after scrutinizing conditions at immigrant detention centers, ABC News, John Parkinson, July 2, 2019. Retrieved July 3, 2019. Mississippi Representative Bennie Thompson, who chairs the House Committee on Homeland Security, joined a delegation of Democrats at the detention compound, including Democratic 2020 presidential candidates who visited it while they were in Miami for the Democratic presidential debates that were held on June 26 and 27, 2019.

On July 15, 2019, the center was visited by a congressional delegation which found the government had just rapidly reduced the number of teenagers detained there, a 42% drop in 12 days. Those legislators already intended to analyze how the facility operated and to ask for an accounting for its expenditures. A month earlier, it held 2,460 migrant children, from 13 to 17 years old, an 80% rise since it initially opened in the first quarter of 2018. On July 3, it had held 2,252 children, but by that morning, only 1,309 remained. The chairwoman of the United States House Appropriations Subcommittee on Labor, Health and Human Services, Education, and Related Agencies, Connecticut's Rosa DeLauro, wanted to know if those who had so quickly left had been paired with family members or sponsors, or just transferred to alternate shelters. Congresswoman Debbie Wasserman Schultz, who had previously been refused entry asked, "What the heck. From July 3 until July 14th, suddenly they’re able to drop 1,000 kids here when they couldn’t do that as quickly before? Where did they go?" Caliburn International did not inform them regarding possible closure but did tell them that on July 3, the shelter went on “admittance stop, so no new children have come in since then," and that DHHS began, "...releasing kids as quickly as possible." In the previous week, "448 children were released from the shelter, mostly identified as "reunifications to a sponsor," in addition to transfers to alternate facilities. There were 376 who had been reunified with family and another 70 had been transferred. Two others left because they were over 18 years old. A policy change meant that prior caregivers were no longer required to be fingerprinted. Deputy Assistant Secretary for public affairs at the DHHS, Mark Weber, described Homestead as "an emergency influx shelter for use when the standard shelter system is near capacity," and space had become available at standard shelters. Miami Congresswoman Debbie Mucarsel-Powell, who had inquired about hurricane planning, said that the lack of such an emergency policy was an "extremely dangerous form of neglect." A Caliburn representative said the facility wasn't accepting new placements and was “not sure for how long” the no-admissions policy would remain.Where are the 943 migrant children who were moved so quickly from Homestead shelter?, South Florida Sun Sentinel, Anthony Man, July 16, 2019. Retrieved July 20, 2019. While most of the minors in the Homestead shelter crossed the border unaccompanied, in June 2018, 94 of the roughly 1,000 children in the center at that time had been separated from their parents at the border under the Trump administration family separation policy. Protesters, which included members of the American Friends Service Committee (AFSC) gathered 128,000 signatures from opponents of the facility. On June 22, 2018, government officials were allowed to tour the facilities which had 782 boys and 387 girls on the premises. On average, minors remain in the shelter for around 25 days before they are placed in homes of family or friends who live in the U.S. This is despite current immigration laws that limit detention to only 20 days. Despite being contractually obligated to close on April 20, 2019, the facility remained open holding children until August, 2019. The facility had been opened and closed during the Obama administration and reopened in 2018, and was emptied by August 3, 2019. Its contract was canceled as of November 30, 2019, after being vacant for almost four months.Homestead detention center will shut down, but will cost millions to run empty till the end, Miami Herald, Alex Daughterty and Monique O. Madan, October 28, 2019. Retrieved December 15, 2019.

Criticism