Does KC really want a troubled company running a for-profit shelter for migrant children?

VisionQuest, an out-of-state company with a troubling track record, wants to develop a for-profit center for unaccompanied migrant children at the site of the now-closed Kindred Hospital in south Kansas City.

Amid reports of physical and mental abuse and mistreatment at VisionQuest facilities, multiple other cities and states have blocked the company’s efforts to open new shelters.

Kansas City should follow their lead.

The proposal to house young immigrants is on the City Plan Commission’s March 17 docket. And the Board of Zoning Adjustment is scheduled to hear the request in April. The zoning board, which has the final say on special-use permits, takes into consideration input from citizens and compatibility with the surrounding area.

Mayor Quinton Lucas, who calls the federal government’s child separation policy an “abomination,” has expressed opposition to opening a migrant youth facility in Kansas City.

“I do not support any facility that would profit off of the pain and hurt we are causing young people through no fault of their own,” he said.

Both City Council members who represent the area — Ryana Parks-Shaw and Lee Barnes — so far have avoided questions about the controversial project at 87th Street and Troost Avenue. They did not respond to multiple messages left by The Star Editorial Board seeking comment.

Sending young migrants to for-profit detention centers has proved to be a cruel policy, with such facilities drawing comparisons to prison camps and attorneys describing traumatized children. Migrant children are not at-risk youth, nor are they juvenile offenders, and they don’t belong in our country’s prison-industrial complex.

Is there a need for a shelter for unaccompanied minors in Kansas City? The Office of Refugee Resettlement is responsible for the care of migrant children once they reach U.S. soil. The agency would not comment on the number of undocumented children in the metro area.

Messages left for VisionQuest President Mark Contento were not returned, either.

Applicant Daniel Brandt of BID Group, which is the developer for the project, downplayed the controversy, saying he simply wanted to purchase property to lease to a tenant.

But VisionQuest’s abysmal reputation precedes it, and other cities have just said no to the for-profit firm. The City Council in Waco, Texas, recently denied a similar request brought forth by Brandt on the company’s behalf.

“It’s no secret they have a really bad record,” said Trinidad Raj Molina, an organizer with Advocates for Immigrant Rights and Reconciliation. The Kansas City-area organization started an online petition in conjunction with advocacy group More2 calling on the city to reject this proposal. “They are not the group to trust.”

Nationwide, VisionQuest’s facilities have not been safe spaces for youth. Credible reports of physical and mental abuse have dogged the company for years, prompting a U.S. Department of Justice investigation in 1994.

More recently, attempts to open shelters for unaccompanied minors in Philadelphia, San Antonio and Albuquerque have been quashed. In 2017, the company’s juvenile justice center in Philadelphia was shut down following claims of abuse, the Associated Press reported last year.

What part of this scandal-plagued history would make VisionQuest a good fit for Kansas City?

City leaders and other advocates should voice opposition to this ill-considered proposal and ensure that a detention center for migrant children is summarily rejected.

This story was originally published March 3, 2020 at 5:00 AM.