Migrant children’s shelters defy DCF’s ’emergency’ rule preventing them from re-licensing

For the second time in less than two years, a Sarasota shelter for migrant children is fighting the state for a new license.

The orphanage known as the Dream Center has done nothing wrong.

In fact, in documents filed with the State Administrative Hearings Division last month, Florida Lutheran Services, which operates the Dream Center, detailed how Florida Department of Children and Families (DCF) officials described the religious nonprofit as having a long history of doing everything. Right.

RELATED: Shelter for unaccompanied migrant children challenges new DCF rule after license denied

“LSF has a proven track record of successfully providing a wide range of essential and effective services to vulnerable populations throughout Florida,” including “providing residential services for unaccompanied children,” the complaint says.

However, after applying for a license renewal last year, DCF denied it.

Why?

DCF referred to the new emergency rule adopted last year. The rule requires the federal government to enter into a cooperative agreement with the state regarding immigration policy.

DCF argues that without this agreement, the agency cannot re-license Florida shelters that care for unaccompanied migrant children under a longstanding federal program.

DCF declared a state of emergency months after Governor Ron DeSantis first ordered a state agency to stop licensing shelters that care for unaccompanied migrant children. His order was part of his larger fight against illegal immigration, which DeSantis called “Biden’s border crisis.”

“We want our resources to be focused on the kids of Florida,” DeSantis said in December 2021, when investigative reporter Cathy Lagrone asked why he’s bringing kids into the immigration debate.

In the Lutherans’ official objection to their recent license denial, the organization’s lawyers describe the DCF’s emergency rule as “arbitrary and capricious.” Lutheran attorneys also describe how denying a state license to an orphanage could lead to its “closure” and “people losing their jobs.”

At one point, the complaint cites reporter Cathy Lagrone’s exclusive coverage of a controversy that began back in October 2021. Lagrone recently discovered that DCF, despite its own “emergency” rule, has granted a new license to Miami’s Catholic charities as a home for unaccompanied children.

“We are truly heartbroken that the Governor and the State of Florida continue to take this stance,” said Miriam Abaya of First Focus on Children. The Washington, D.C.-based organization is a bipartisan children’s rights group and was among dozens of child and immigrant rights advocates who sent letters to the governor imploring him to stop bringing children into the immigration debate by harassing federally funded shelters for childcare. children of migrants.

In several written letters, federal prosecutors told the DeSantis administration that shelters for unaccompanied migrant children do not require a state license to care for them or continue to receive federal funds to do so.

Abaya says federal leaders should be more candid about their program for unaccompanied migrant children and states, including Florida, that are making it harder for service providers to care for them.

In Florida, several providers have already closed their programs for unaccompanied migrant children due to new state policy.

“I think there is absolutely room and space to be more vocal about what they want to do for children, how they want the unaccompanied child care system to look like the way the unaccompanied child care system is mandated by federal law, and how Florida violates this law,” Abaya said.

The federal government is exploring the possibility of creating its own federal shelter licensing program, the UAC, which could cut states out of the process entirely.

Lutheran Services’ complaint against DCF is the second lawsuit filed over the controversy in just a few months.

Back in September, His House in Miami, the state’s largest orphanage for unaccompanied children, filed its own complaint after it was also denied a license due to the DCF emergency.

In the end, the state settled the case. In the settlement documents, DCF recognized a US supremacy clause that prevents states from preventing companies from doing work for which they have a federal contract.

Although Lutheran Services of Florida does not speak on camera about its DCF issue, spokeswoman Terri Derdaller said:

“As a faith-based organization that has been serving some of the most vulnerable children and families, including refugees and immigrants, for 40 years, we remain focused on our mission. We believe that all of God’s children should be treated equally with compassion and dignity. “

In 2021, after DCF was sued by Lutheran Services of Florida for not issuing a new license by order of the governor, CEO Sam Cipes expressed concern that his group and the children they serve were at the center of a political row.

“We don’t make decisions about who is allowed to stay or leave. Our mission is to bring healing and hope to children and families in need, and in the name of Jesus Christ, this is what we do,” he told reporter Lagron at the time. .

And this is what they hope to continue to do with the blessing of the state.

DCF has not responded to multiple requests for comment at the time of this story’s publication.