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New York mayor blasts Trump administration after touring facility for immigrant children

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A 9-month old child is the youngest of 239 kids who come daily to a facility in Harlem as a result of the Trump administration’s family separation policy, New York Mayor Bill de Blasio said Wednesday afternoon.
“Stop this right now,” de Blasio said. “Stop this broken, inhumane policy right now.”
Some of the children who come to the center each day for classes and social services have bed bugs, lice, chicken pox and other contagious diseases, he said.
Some children are too young to communicate and need significant mental health services, he added.
“The professionals we met with made clear that this has been a traumatic process for a lot of these kids. The mental health issues alone, they made clear to us, are very real, very painful,” he said.
A group of girls who were separated from their families after crossing the border was brought to the facility early Tuesday morning, according to a federal source briefed on the matter. CNN affiliate NY1 shot video of the transfer at Cayuga Centers, which it says took place at 12:45 a.m. ET.
A woman escorting the girls told NY1 they had not been separated from their parents, the station said. Cayuga Centers has not responded to CNN’s request for comment.
Cayuga Centers was asked in recent weeks by federal authorities to prepare for more arrivals, as the administration’s zero tolerance immigration policy began to take effect, according to the source.
On its website the organization says it receives funding through the Office of Refugee Resettlement.
“These children are placed in Spanish-speaking foster homes as they await reunification with a family member or sponsor, or return to the country of origin,” Cayuga Centers says. The facility also provides long-term care for “unaccompanied youth that do not have sponsors” but are kept in the United States because their home countries are too dangerous, it says.
Cayuga has two other facilities in New York and others in Delaware and Florida.
People should not direct their frustration at the children or facilities, de Blasio noted, saying the police department will be deployed to be sure they are protected.
The children were treated well there, he said, but they should be with their parents.
De Blasio asked the federal government to “come clean” with information on how many children are in his city, where they have been placed, and where their parents are.
The children who come to Cayuga live in foster homes, he said.
On Wednesday the President signed an executive order to prevent undocumented immigrant families from being separated at the US-Mexico border.

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