'They don't want us to know what is going on in there': Nelson on migrant children in FL facility

HOMESTEAD, Fla. — Florida Gov. Rick Scott has joined other leaders to urge the federal government to stop separating children from their parents when they enter the U.S. illegally.

Scott sent a letter to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services on Tuesday.

U.S. Sen. Bill Nelson accused the Trump administration of a cover-up after officials denied him entry Tuesday to a detention center for migrant children in South Florida where he had hoped to survey living conditions.

Nelson said on the Senate floor Wednesday that he wanted to check to see if the facility was clean and wanted to see where the children were sleeping.

Nelson said the deputy HHS secretary told him it was the department's policy that he would have to fill out a form and wait two weeks before a visit. Nelson told the Senate floor he filled out the form.

"Why do they not want the senator from Florida to get into this detention facility where there are children that have been separated from their parents?" Nelson asked. "It must be that not only is this department policy, this is being directed from the president in the White House, and they don't want me to see it because they don't want us to know what is going on in there."

Wasserman Schultz said the facility was being used for an estimated 1,000 children, ages 13 to 17 -- most of whom arrived as unaccompanied minors and about 10 percent of whom are children separated from their families at the border. She said two other South Florida facilities were being used for younger children.

At some point, the facility had been closed, but it reopened in February, officials said.

Martin Levine was one of several protesters who demonstrated outside the Homestead Detention Facility Wednesday.

"The kids were totally innocent. Why not put them together with their parents, which is what the policy used to be?" he said. "It's never too late to do the right thing. So I would praise him to do the right thing."

"I didn't like the sight or the feeling of families being separated," Trump said. "I consider this to be a very important executive order. It's about keeping families together."

The order doesn't outline a plan for reuniting the 2,300 children who have already been separated from their parents. It's unknown when they'll be released.

Immigration attorney Nayef Mubarak told Channel 9 the order is not a simple fix.

"What this does end is perhaps separating a mother and a child, each being in separate cells. But now these children will be in cells indefinitely until their court case has been concluded," he said. "It's clear here that these children are not getting out of these facilities, and there's no clear end as to when they're going to be getting out."

The order doesn't change the Trump administration's zero tolerance policy of prosecuting anyone who tries to cross the border illegally.

Attorneys expect the order to be challenged in court.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

Watch below: Sen. Nelson speaks to Senate floor about denied entry to Homestead facility

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