A 15-year-old boy from Houston, who was picked up by immigration authorities in Texas and sent to the Homestead children’s detention center even though he has lived in the U.S. since he was an infant and his parents live in the U.S., walked out of the facility on Sunday, two days after a story about his plight appeared in the Miami Herald.
The teen, who had been detained during a traffic stop while he was a passenger in his uncle’s car near Houston, was separated from his parents for more than two weeks.
Hours after the story ran on the Herald’s website Friday, the boy’s story was brought up in front of a House Oversight Committee. Illinois Congresswoman Robin Kelly entered it into the record and demanded that the Inspector General’s Office open an investigation into the practice of detaining children who have not been stopped at the border and whose parents live in the U.S. Officials have told the Herald at least 20 kids in a similar situation have ended up at the Homestead center for unaccompanied minors over the past year.
Read more at our news partner the Miami Herald.
