Lakewood is soon to be home to 1,000 unaccompanied immigrant children who will be re-locating to the metro area from Central America in an effort to escape the violence and child trafficking in their home countries.
The children are set to be housed inside the secure federal complex in a warehouse that will be retro-fitted for their use.
Congressman Ed Perlmutter says they just learned that Colorado was being chosen for the immigrants Wednesday.
“I think it's a difficult situation, we don't want to be housing anybody, but we've got kids fleeing you know terrible situations in their home countries in Central America," said Perlmutter.
The children won’t be integrated into the Denver community and schools, instead, they’ll be fed, taught and cared for inside that facility 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.
Rep. Perlmutter says there are obvious concerns about safety for not only the immigrants, but the Denver community too. He says those are being handled as best as possible.
“There are all sorts of issues but all of it is to be contained within the site, health issues, health care issues, education, and administration issues within the office warehouse which is going to be retro-fitted for purposes to house these kids,” said Perlmutter.
The children will live at the facility for about a month until their family or sponsors are located. It's estimated that 90% of the children coming here already have family members in the United States. The rest of the children will be housed by the Department of Health and Human Services.
The children are set to begin moving to the site as soon as April.