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  1. #1
    Senior Member Virginiamama's Avatar
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    Boystown Children's Village provides new housing for undocum

    http://www.miami.com/mld/miamiherald/15567068.htm

    Posted on Wed, Sep. 20, 2006



    Boystown Children's Village provides new housing for undocumented children...

    BY AMY DRISCOLL
    adriscoll@MiamiHerald.com

    Boystown Children's Village provides new housing for undocumented children

    A dozen children paraded into a sun-filled cafeteria Wednesday, bearing the flags of their various countries, a virtual United Nations of girls and boys who have no legal status in the United States.

    Forming a ragged horseshoe, they sang ''We are the World,'' starting out tentatively but picking up steam as they went. Then one girl, 14-year-old Delilah, headed to the podium.

    ''I'm speaking for Boystown,'' she said, getting right to the point. ``There were many reasons we were motivated to leave our homelands.''

    She named a few: Exploitation. Abuse. The dream of an education. Or simply, ``a fair chance.''

    In the just-opened building, crisp with new paint, she thanked Catholic Charities of Miami and the U.S Department of Health and Human Services' Office of Refugee Resettlement for sheltering the undocumented children of Boystown, one of 15 such programs nationwide and the only one in Florida.

    Most of the children housed at Boystown are teenagers, though the youngest is 6 and from Haiti. The others come from Mexico, El Salvador, China, Cuba, Brazil and the Cayman Islands. Some were smuggled into the U.S., others walked across the border -- and all are in legal limbo.

    They are detainees until the U.S. government can decide where they belong. Some will be released to family members in the U.S. while others will be deported. The average stay at Boystown last year was 55 days, according to official figures.

    Wednesday marked the inauguration of Boystown's new campus, officially blessed by Miami Archbishop John C. Favalora. It replaces the old site in West Kendall, which was sold to Miami-Dade County. The old property, a wooded 22-acre tract, is best known for its role as refuge and temporary home to more than 14,000 Cuban children in Operation Pedro Pan, the secret exodus that brought thousands of unaccompanied children to the United States at the start of Fidel Castro's regime in the early 1960s.

    The county bought the 22-acre tract in 2003 for $2.4 million, using grants and funds from Pedro Pan alumni, with plans to turn it into a memorial park.

    The Boystown children -- there are 36 in the program now -- will move to the new campus, at 9615 Sterling Drive in Cutler Bay, after final construction inspections are completed in a few weeks.

    The property has two dorms -- the blue building for 24 boys, the red building for 24 girls. A large American flag flies on a pole at the center of the courtyard between the two. An area beneath the flag is paved with bricks inscribed with names of donors.

    While the government tries to determine the children's fate, they'll go to school here, attend ''acculturation'' classes, socialize and be permitted to worship in whatever religion they choose. Lawyers from the Florida Immigrant Advocacy Center in Miami represent the children in the legal process, and staff members at Boystown speak a variety of languages, to help prevent isolation.

    Still, the process can be bewildering and scary for children alone in a strange country.

    ''These are God's children from all over the world,'' said Arthur Corrieri, field program specialist with the health and human services department. ``I try to treat them like my own.''
    Equal rights for all, special privileges for none. Thomas Jefferson

  2. #2
    Senior Member swatchick's Avatar
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    The parents are teaching these kids what to say to get sympathy. Parents need to understand the consequences of their actions even though they often don't want to. Illegals are illeglas and should not have the rights legals do. I am sick and tired of them using their children as pawns!
    Join our efforts to Secure America's Borders and End Illegal Immigration by Joining ALIPAC's E-Mail Alerts network (CLICK HERE)

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