Letter to the editor: Tell City Hall no on migrant child detention center in KC

Child detention

I’m part of a coalition of community organizers partnering with local physicians Elizabeth Friedman, Rupal Gupta and Brad Schow to oppose the opening of a detention center for unaccompanied migrant children in Kansas City by the private, for-profit firm VisionQuest. We are calling on City Council members and Mayor Quinton Lucas not to allow this facility in our community.

Ethical arguments weigh the heaviest. However, there are plenty of evidence-based reasons to oppose the center. VisionQuest has multiple pending complaints for physical, mental and sexual abuse of staff and children, and for denying due process.

We know that separation from family, let alone long-distance migration to escape violence and war, is often accompanied by stress, anxiety, depression and PTSD. These events can also result in permanent genetic and cellular changes in the brain. In other words, these changes are not just psychological but also physical. Children do not have to be placed in facilities that serve only to worsen their physical and psychological outcomes. One viable alternative is expedited placement with sponsors with frequent welfare checks to help give children a more normal life.

How would VisionQuest manage the facility in the setting of this coronavirus pandemic? What about the annual influenza season? The world has discussed releasing people from incarceration to prevent catastrophic health outcomes amid COVID-19, so why are we discussing incarcerating more people — children, no less?

We invite our community to join us in letting the City Council and mayor know we disapprove of a child detention center in Kansas City.