Sen. Bill Nelson and Congresswoman Debbie Wasserman Schultz were both denied access Tuesday to a Homestead, Florida facility where some 1,000 unaccompanied immigrant children are being held, The Miami Herald reported.
Nelson and Wasserman Schultz, both Democrats, tried to enter the Homestead Temporary Shelter for Unaccompanied Children a day after the congresswoman announced that she had discovered that Health and Human Services had transferred hundreds of children there.
Because an HHS spokesman has declined to clarify, it is unclear who the children are at the facility, whether they entered the country without parents or if authorities took them from their parents after the families illegally crossed into the United States, or a mixture of both.
At a press conference following their attempted visit, Nelson blamed HHS officials for not allowing them to enter, according to Splinter.
"The company running [Homestead], which is a contractor, was happy to receive us," Nelson said. "So I thought, back in Washington, in the secretary’s office, that they had thought better of what he had told me earlier. And what he told me earlier was that you had to have two weeks’ notice, you had to fill out the forms. I said 'Mr Secretary, that is just bull-hockey. You know that is not true. I have a responsibility as oversight of your agency. We appropriate the monies that run your agency. In that capacity, we want to know that you’re doing your job right. And, at the same time, we have concern for the welfare and the caring of these children. And we want to see it."
This is the second time this month that a child detention center has not allowed elected lawmakers to see how undocumented children were being treated inside, as less than two weeks ago Oregon Senator Jeff Merkley was prevented from entering the Casa Padre detention center in Brownsville, Texas.