Reports state that Heartland Alliance Human Care, Illinois’ largest caretaker of immigrant minors detained after crossing into the United States, has faced increased scrutiny in recent weeks after it began housing children who were forcibly separated from their parents under the Trump administration’s zero tolerance crackdown.
Since fiscal year 2015, Heartland has received more federal money than all but three organizations that contract with the federal government to house immigrant children detained by the government. The shelters are overseen by the U.S. Health and Human Services department’s Office of Refugee Resettlement (ORR).
Heartland officials claim that ORR officials provide regular oversight, from conducting weekly meetings with staff to visiting the shelters on a routine basis, but ORR has not responded to a ProPublica Illinois public records request.
The newly obtained documents shed more light on some of the trouble inside the Heartland shelters in recent years. They also mirror the findings of a separate ProPublica investigation last week that revealed hundreds of allegations of sexual offenses, fights and missing children at the more than 100 shelters for immigrant children across the country.
Source: ProPublica https://www.propublica.org/article/heartland-chicago-immigration-shelters-lax-supervision-sexual-activity?utm_source=pardot&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=dailynewsletter
Source to: Separate link to ProPublica Investigation, article published by Michael Grabell & Topher Sanders
