HOMESTEAD, Fla. (AP) — The Latest on a protest outside a Homestead, Florida, facility where about 100 immigrant children separated from their parents are being held (all times local):
4:45 p.m.
Hundreds are protesting outside a Florida facility where immigrant children separated from their families are being held.
About 100 children separated from their parents at the Mexican border are being held at the Homestead detention center.
Maria Bilbao said Saturday she joined the protest because she came from Argentina and entered the U.S. without permission 16 years ago with her then 9-year-old son, so she understands the fear of being separated from a child.
She called the government's former policy of separating children "disgusting." She said she was a cleaning woman until she became a legal resident last year. She now works for one of the groups that organized the protest.
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4 p.m.
Florida Sen. Bill Nelson and four of the state's Democratic House members toured a detention center where about 100 immigrant children taken from their parents are being held.
Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz told reporters Saturday in Homestead that she and Nelson should have been allowed access Tuesday when they first went to the facility but were refused. She said being told to return four days later prevented them as members of Congress from performing their duty to oversee government operations. She said at most they should have been kept out for a few hours.
Rep. Darren Soto said the decision by the facility's administrators to deny Nelson and Wasserman Schultz access earlier made him wonder what they were hiding. Those three were joined by Reps. Frederica Wilson and Ted Deutch.
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