Lawmakers Call for Immediate Action at Chicago Shelter Housing Afghan Children – By Melissa Sanchez (ProPublica) / Nov 3 2021
After ProPublica’s report that Afghan children at a Chicago shelter were hurting themselves, Sen. Dick Durbin asked federal officials to investigate. In the meantime, Heartland Alliance, the facility’s operator, now has interpreters in its shelters.
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Lawmakers have called for immediate action and a federal investigation into the “mental health crisis” among young Afghan evacuees at a Chicago shelter for unaccompanied immigrant children, where workers say that language and cultural barriers have made it difficult to provide adequate care.
Sen. Dick Durbin, a Democrat and Illinois’ senior senator, asked the Department of Health and Human Services’ inspector general to investigate the situation at a shelter run by the nonprofit Heartland Alliance. Sen. Tammy Duckworth, also an Illinois Democrat, called on HHS Secretary Xavier Becerra to have the department’s Office of Refugee Resettlement improve mental health services at the shelter.
Rep. Bobby Rush, whose district is home to the shelter in the Bronzeville neighborhood, has said he was “horrified” by the conditions at the facility, which were detailed in a ProPublica story. “These children from Afghanistan have experienced unimaginable trauma,” he said in a statement, “and the language barrier hindering communication between them and the staff at Heartland is only compounding that trauma and confusion.”
