María Luisa Rossel
This story was produced by El Tiempo Latino. La puedes leer en español aquí.
A college dormitory in Brookland has been transformed into the first shelter for unaccompanied minors between the ages of 13 and 17 in Washington, D.C. Its objective is to help adolescents who crossed the border alone, and arrived in the District, to reunite with their families.
Their stay will be brief. The shelter is part of the federal Unaccompanied Children Program, operated by the Office of Refugee Resettlement. According to a fact sheet ORR published in February, children spend an average of 30 days in such a facility while attempts are made to contact their parents and to seek a suitable immigration sponsor. At that time, there were more than 9,000 unaccompanied children in ORR facilities across 22 states.
“We are waiting to receive authorization to operate our shelter,” says the center’s director, Tatiana Laborde of SAMU First Response, a D.C.-based nonprofit that currently manages 57 centers for unaccompanied minors in various countries.
After a long approval process for various permits and insurance, the shelter is one step away from receiving a license from the D.C. government. The results of a hearing this month with the Office of the Deputy Mayor for Planning and Economic Development will determine if the shelter may begin operating, according to Laborde.
In order to obtain the community’s support, she says SAMU also met with civic associations and the Advisory Neighborhood Commission for the area.
“We know we have an impact on the community and that’s why we talk not only about our mission to help migrant youth, but also about our intention not to disrupt the lives of our neighbors,” Laborde explains.
The shelter
The program has the capacity to accommodate up to 22 teenagers. The three-story space includes beds, bathrooms, kitchens, a terrace, a private room specifically for reuniting with family, a dining room, a game room and even a classroom. In addition to meeting young residents’ basic needs, the center is expected to facilitate adaptation to a life different from that of their countries of origin, in a short period of time.
The shelter will have 25 employees, including health professionals. Three social workers will facilitate the legal and familial review processes for reunification with parents, grandparents, aunts and uncles, or other relatives in the U.S. Laborde’s medium-term objective is to hire more social workers.
For safety reasons, youth will not be allowed to leave the shelter grounds alone. According to Laborde, this is to avoid exposing them to high-risk situations. The teenagers can receive daily classes and be evaluated to determine their academic needs and provide individualized support. For this purpose, the shelter will be staffed by two educators.
From Spain
SAMU began operating refugee and child protection programs in Spain 15 years ago, assisting those arriving at the country’s southern border.
The request to operate a shelter in D.C. coincides with the increase in the arrival of buses to our region with migrants coming from Texas. Texas Gov. Greg Abbott has bused hundreds of Migrants to D.C. in recent months in rejection of President Joe Biden’s immigration policies. However, pro-immigrant organizations in the area have stepped in to help the travelers, who are in the process of applying for asylum. While SAMU waits to open their shelter, the organization has helped greet new arrivals and provide supplies and information.
Iniciamos otro proyecto en EEUU @samu_usa: la acogida de migrantes en tránsito en la zona metropolitana de #WashingtonDC. Lo hacemos con apoyo del Gobierno Federal y varias entidades. Nuestro trabajo consiste en cuidar de las personas, especialmente de las más vulnerables. pic.twitter.com/yoF23Eutbn
— SAMU (@grupo_samu) June 7, 2022
