One Answer To #WhereAreTheGirls Is A Migrant House In Lemon Grove GUEST: Jean Guerrero, fronteras reporter, KPBS News Transcript for audioclip 40670

As the U.S. government rushes to meet a court order to reunite migrant children with parents, a question that spread across social media with a viral hashtag — #WhereAreTheGirls? — has remained largely unanswered.

But one answer lies in a house in Lemon Grove. KPBS confirmed that the government keeps at least six migrant girls there, using public documents and anonymous tips from employees of the nonprofit.

Despite public outcry, the Department of Health and Human Services has declined to let media see any of the detention facilities for migrant girls, conducting tours of only the places where the boys are kept. Both the government and Southwest Key, the nonprofit that operates the facility, declined to comment on "Casa Lemon Grove."

The two-story beige house is a far cry from the cages and tent cities used to detain migrant children in Texas, or the cold rooms known as "hieleras," or freezers, that Customs and Border Protection uses to detain migrants in San Diego and elsewhere.

The house sits on a hill behind a large palm shrub on a quiet residential street. Casa Lemon Grove looks normal except for nine signs in the driveway with messages like “No Trespassing,” and “Warning: Security Cameras.”

A Zillow listing says the five-bedroom, three-bathroom property is worth close to $900,000. Documents obtained by Iowa Senator Charles Grassley from the Department of Health and Human Services in 2014 indicate that Southwest Key proposed to charge the government a “blended daily rate” of $329 for the site at the time.

Grassley wrote a letter to the agency, saying it was “disturbing that HHS is funding such expensive facilities despite claiming to be unable to meet basic needs for (unaccompanied minor children).” He referenced another girls’ facility nearby, in El Cajon, with a “small petting farm with ducks, chickens, and miniature ponies” as well as an “Acuaponics (sic) system where we are cultivating over 1,000 Tilapia.”

Southwest Key, whose chief executive has come under fire for his $1.5-million annual compensation in 2016, declined to comment on either of its girls’ facilities in San Diego or to let KPBS inside, referring questions to the Department of Health and Human Services. The agency also declined to comment.

The lack of information regarding where the girls are being kept has led some prominent activists on social media to question the quality of care the girls are receiving, and has spawned conspiracy theories of human trafficking.

The government has said its secrecy about these facilities is about a need to “safeguard the privacy” of the children. But the girls’ backyard is clearly visible from the backyards of several neighbors. Both male and female residents reported seeing the girls exercising and stretching in their sprawling, three-level backyard, which contains a set of swings, a slide, a basketball court and lounge furniture.

Hollis Barber, an 82-year-old resident who lives a few houses away, said he doesn’t know much about the girls. He pointed at a white minivan in the driveway.

“They have like five or six of those vans and they take the girls somewhere, somewhere in the mornings,” he said. “And they come back in the evenings.”

KPBS saw the girls returning from an Independence Day field trip on Wednesday. They wore red shirts and appeared to range in age from about 7 to 14.

Barber placed a “Tow-Away” sign in front of his house, saying Border Patrol vehicles and other vans visiting the girls will sometimes fill up the street and block his driveway. Several other neighbors have “No Parking” signs on their driveways.

A public outcry about family separations led the government to give controlled media tours of some of the facilities last month. KPBS visited a boys’ shelter in El Cajon called Casa San Diego operated by Southwest Key. Journalists were prohibited from taking photos, making audio or video recordings and speaking with the children. They were asked to hold their questions until the end of the tour.

About 10 percent of the boys at Casa San Diego had been separated from their parents.

It’s unclear how many of the girls at Casa Lemon Grove have been separated from their parents. Several of the neighbors spoke on condition of anonymity, saying they feared getting in trouble with Southwest Key or the government. One man said he hears the girls crying in the mornings. He said he assumed it’s because the girls want to stay asleep.

Most of the neighbors said the girls at Casa Lemon Grove seem well taken care of.

“They’re always laughing, there’s never a problem … it seems very nice. They seem happy,” said one woman.

If any of the girls at the facility have been separated from their parents, the government has until July 26 to reunite them with their parents — either released on parole or in family detention centers.

“We anticipate there will be large temporary detention facilities,” said Elizabeth Camarena, associate director of Casa Cornelia, a legal services provider for migrant girls and boys in San Diego County. “We are already strategizing to figure out how we might facilitate legal services in that type of environment.”

Despite public pressure, the U.S. government has declined to let media see any of the detention facilities for migrant girls. But KPBS found a house in Lemon Grove where some girls are kept.

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