Rep. Frederica Wilson (D-FL) joins Sen. Marco Rubio (R-FL) in favor of reopening the Homestead Detention Center for migrant children in South Florida.
“The Homestead facility is empty! Bring the immigrant children. Send us the girls. Bring them now and hold me and my community responsible for their humane treatment. We will visit often and monitor their care! Miami-Dade is opening its arms!” Wilson wrote on Twitter.
“We have a Democratic president and we as Democrats have to help him,” Wilson said, referencing President Joe Biden’s apathy on the Southern Border crisis. “We can’t be having pity parties and commiserating over what’s happening at the border. We’ve got to come up with solutions to help him. It’s not only a defining moment in his administration but in immigration policy.”
Wilson continued, “You’re talking about two different administrations. There’s a big difference between Trump and Mr. [Stephen] Miller and Biden and Ms. Harris. They’re not going to have a provider there treating the children the way the Trump administration did.”
Wilson’s tweet instigated the Miami-Dade Democratic Party, which dislikes the idea of reactivating Homestead, to restate its position Sunday. “The Miami-Dade Dems remain steadfast in our opposition of the housing of immigrant minors in the Homestead Detention Center,” the party said.
Rubio, a potential 2024 presidential contender, disagrees with the Florida Democrat Party. “I think we have no choice now,” Rubio stated in an interview with CBS Miami on February 25. “In this particular case, they’re arguing they need to do it because of COVID and they don’t have time to process people.”
“But the bottom line is this,” Rubio said, “we have seen a surge in minors coming to the border over the last month. And the reason why there’s a surge is because the message has gotten out that there is this new president, there’s the new administration. And if you show up over at the border with children, they’re going to process you.”
The Florida politicking comes after White House press secretary Jen Psaki said the facility will remain open only as a shelter. “I would describe it as a place where we keep kids — who are under the age of 18 and taking a treacherous journey into this country — safe,” Psaki depicted.
It should be said the 2020 Democrat primary candidates, Pete Buttigieg, Julián Castro, Kirsten Gillibrand, Kamala Harris, and John Hickenlooper, visited the Homestead Detention Center on June 28, 2019, and labeled facilities like Homestead a “human rights abuse.”
Other South Florida Democrat Reps. Debbie Wasserman Schultz, Ted Deutch, and Alcee Hastings agree with Rubio, who wrote a letter to Department of Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas about the “expulsions and deportations that have taken place in recent weeks, seemingly regardless of whether these migrants meet priorities for removals.”
“Numerous public health experts have also called on the CDC to rescind the Title 42 order as it has ‘no scientific basis as a public health measure.’ And the experts at the CDC seem to agree,” they wrote.
For perspective, Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) with 18 fellow GOP senators traveled Friday to the southern border and called on the administration to stop the crisis, as Biden “is taking people who are testing positive for COVID-19 and locking them in cages, side by side.” Rubio was absent from Friday’s events.
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