Iowa org seeks to partner refugees with housing, support

1000 Kids for Iowa began in July to help save and protect refugee children fleeing warlike conditions in Honduras, El Salvador and Guatemala. According to Jesuit USA, increased drug seizures at sea in recent years led drug cartels to gain control of and use the land route through Central America to the United States.

In Honduras, the murder capital of the world, murders have tripled between 2005 and 2012. In El Salvador, 'nearly as many people are dying each day as during their civil war.”

'Join or die tactics” targeted at children in gang controlled communities across the region have pushed more than 70,000 child refugees to the U.S. and tens of thousands to other surrounding countries like Panama and Belize.

When children arrive in the U.S. they are put in prisons, military facilities or warehouselike buildings. Placing kids running from warlike conditions into large facilities is not financially responsible, nor is it humane.

According to Politico, housing children on military facilities alone cost nearly $300,000 per child per year. Warehouse-type housing carried a price tag of more than $90,000 per child each year.

While the White House says adequate facilities are identified, according to a Sept. 14 article in the Washington Post, the federal plan calls for a new detention facility to be built 70 miles southwest of San Antonio. This facility will be run by Corrections Corporation of America, a for-profit, private company. This is just five years after claims of scathing human rights abuses ended the detention of immigrant families at the T. Don Hutton Residential Center, which was run by the same company.

According to a CNNMoney story, 'There's a crisis on the U.S.-Mexico border, and Wall Street is betting that it will result in a boom for private prisons.”

1000 Kids for Iowa does not believe child refugees should be housed in for-profit prisons.

Gov. Terry Branstad said refugee children aren't welcome in Iowa, but our state has a history of refugee resettlement.

The most prominent resettlement effort started in 1975 when President Ford sent a letter to governors across the country. The letter requested states take in refugees from east Asia. Former Republican Gov. Robert Ray led an effort to welcome thousands of refugees to Iowa. Ray said, 'I didn't think we could just sit here idly and say, ‘Let those people die'. We wouldn't want the rest of the world to say that about us if we were in the same situation. … Do unto others as you'd have them do unto you.”

1000 Kids for Iowa is following and honoring the Iowa tradition of welcoming refugees.

We are working to identify temporary and/or long term homes in Iowa for child refugees from Central America, identify resource networks to support children once they arrive, and build a network of volunteers to augment current support systems. We are doing everything we can to ensure the children, families, and communities are as prepared as possible.

1000 Kids for Iowa organized meetings in 14 communities, and 10 communities developed local organizing committees. We plan to reach 20 or more additional communities. We have identified more than 320 homes and 1,500 individual offers of support - including food and clothing, interpretation services, medical support and educational support - in just 10 weeks.

The children are arriving and in need of our support.

' Jessica Brackett is a project director with the Eychaner Foundation, which founded 1000KidsforIowa.org. Comments: jessica@eychanerfoundation.org.