Detention center had come under criticism because of its conditions and ties to a former White House official

This article is more than 10 months old

This article is more than 10 months old

The Trump administration has announced it is shutting down one of the largest US facilities for child migrants, which had come under intense criticism because of its regimented conditions and the contractor’s ties to a freshly departed White House official.

The US Department of Health and Human Services said in a statement that it has reduced bed capacity from 1,200 to zero and the contract with Comprehensive Health Services is set to end on 30 November. About 2,000 workers will be let go in the coming days.

The facility in Homestead, Florida emptied out in August but had remained operational in case there was no room at shelters for teen migrants who cross the US-Mexico border and end up in government custody.

Inside America's biggest facility for migrant teens Read more

Health and Human Services said the decision to eliminate beds was to “ensure fiscal prudence”. Last month, Jonathan Hayes, the director of the department’s Office of Refugee Resettlement, said the facility was costing $720,000 a day to run even when no children were staying there.

In a letter to Congress, the administration informed lawmakers that the facility was transitioning to “warm status” with no beds but will retain access to the site in case the number of child migrants rises.

A court filing earlier this year alleged the government was holding migrant children in “prison-like conditions” for months, allowing limited phone calls and ordering them to follow strict rules or face prolonged detention.

The facility underwent a massive expansion from 1,350 to 2,350 beds as the year began. In April, federal officials announced the capacity was growing to hold 3,200 children because of a surge of migrants crossing the southern border.

Democratic presidential hopefuls turned the Miami-area facility into a campaign stop to protest their detention this summer, when about 2,500 teens were held there. They attacked the administration for holding children in a cramped detention center run by a private company tied to the former White House chief of staff John Kelly.

As the homeland security secretary, Kelly first revealed the US government was considering separating families who were migrating to deter others considering traveling north.

Officials say the Florida facility housed as many as 140 children who were separated from their parents last year.

Three months after leaving the Trump administration in January, Kelly was spotted by protesters touring the facility east of the Everglades in a golf cart.

Facebook Twitter Pinterest Bernie Sanders stands looks into a detention center for migrant children in Homestead, Florida, on 26 June 2019. The Trump administration announced Monday it would close the facility. Photograph: Rhona Wise/AFP/Getty Images

Authorities confirmed he had visited the site on 4 April, on behalf of Caliburn International Corporation, which owns the contractor Comprehensive Health Services. Five days later, that company was awarded a no-bid contract for $341m citing an immediate need to increase bed capacity.

The company later publicly announced Kelly had joined the board. The year before Kelly joined the Trump administration, he sat on the board of the Washington private equity firm DC Capital Partners, which bought Comprehensive Health Services and founded Caliburn by consolidating CHS and three other companies.

Caliburn has in its executive suite a high-ranking military officer who advised Donald Trump in his first months in office and a former Department of Defense principal deputy inspector general.

US representative Debbie Mucarsel-Powell, the Democratic lawmaker representing the district encompassing the site, invited the 2020 Democratic candidates to visit the facility.

Along with other lawmakers, Mucarsel-Powell has pressed a government watchdog agency to investigate Kelly’s role in the contracting negotiations.

“Given Caliburn’s poor record of child abuse and neglect, as well as the sheer number of former administration officials now serving on Caliburn’s board, this is a good first step towards ending one of many corrupt practices this administration has executed,” she said.