Congressmen tour East Bay facility holding migrant kids separated from parents

UNITED STATES - DECEMBER 10: Rep. Mark DeSaulnier, D-Calif., walks up the House steps to the Capitol for a series of votes on Thursday, Dec. 10, 2015. (Photo By Bill Clark/CQ Roll Call) UNITED STATES - DECEMBER 10: Rep. Mark DeSaulnier, D-Calif., walks up the House steps to the Capitol for a series of votes on Thursday, Dec. 10, 2015. (Photo By Bill Clark/CQ Roll Call) Photo: Bill Clark / CQ-Roll Call, Inc. Photo: Bill Clark / CQ-Roll Call, Inc. Image 1 of / 1 Caption Close Congressmen tour East Bay facility holding migrant kids separated from parents 1 / 1 Back to Gallery

An East Bay congressman toured a Pleasant Hill group home Monday that is holding undocumented children separated from their parents at the southern border and said he found no issues with the facility.

Rep. Mark DeSaulnier, D-Concord, requested a visit through the federal Office of Refugee Resettlement to a home operated by Southwest Key after finding out that two separated girls had been placed there. Southwest Key is a nonprofit organization that runs shelters for unaccompanied minors across the country.

“It’s state licensed and appears to be a well-managed group home,” he said. “California has very strict standards for these facilities.”

After being initially approved, then denied, for the tour, DeSaulnier wrote a letter to the Office of Refugee Resettlement requesting access, which he was granted Monday morning.

“I don’t know why it took so long to be able to see it,” he said. “It certainly is my impression that the administration wanted to discourage me from going. … It doesn’t appear there’s a problem in the facility, but there’s a problem in the White House. (President Trump has) created this political crisis at the extreme expense of really vulnerable kids because he thinks it works for him politically.”

DeSaulnier said he was allowed to meet 25 children, including the two girls separated from their parents amid the Trump administration’s “zero-tolerance” policy for those who illegally cross the border. A federal judge recently ordered the government to reunite the families.

DeSaulnier said he was able to tour the facility for about an hour. He said it had a commercial kitchen, a dining area, a large common area and rooms with double beds for the children, with separate wings for boys and girls. There were two classrooms in the facility as well. Congressmen Scott Peters, D-San Diego, and Mike Thompson, D-Napa, also visited the home.

Last month, a Southwest Key official said in an email to Martin Nelis, a spokesman for the city of Pleasant Hill, that its facility had two “adolescent girls” who were separated from their immigrant parents and was working “diligently” to reunite them. The facility is licensed by the state and had been inspected by state officials recently, according to the email.

Hamed Aleaziz is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: haleaziz@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @haleaziz