Government sends migrant girls to new Florida facility

MIAMI – A non-profit organization has begun sheltering migrant teenage girls at a new Florida facility with a federal government grant.

The U.S. Committee for Refugees and Immigrants says the teens arriving in Lake Worth, Florida receive classroom education, and mental health and legal services until they are reunited with relatives in the U.S.

The Virginia non-profit’s spokeswoman Annette Sheckler said Wednesday that up to 141 girls can be housed in a building in two- or four-bed units. The girls come mostly from Central America and began arriving in the past few weeks. Fewer than 50 are housed there now.

The facility opens amid scathing criticism from lawmakers and migrant advocates about poor conditions at migrant shelters in Texas and the treatment of young migrants at a facility in Homestead, Florida.