As thousands of undocumented children are sent to shelters across the country, detention centers for immigrants are coming under increased scrutiny.
One of those centers is the Yolo County Juvenile Hall in Woodland, which for the past decade has been housing undocumented minors.
According to government contracts, the County has received millions of dollars from the Department of Health and Human Services for the "Unaccompanied Alien Children's Program." On April 30, less than a month after the Trump administration announced their "zero-tolerance" policy, the County received an additional $750,000 from the government.
But Yolo County says no migrant youth who were separated from their parents as a result of the zero-tolerance policy were placed at their facility.
"The County does not, and has no interest in, operating a de facto federal prison for forcibly separated youth," a statement from the County said.
The statement also said the facility remains a detention center for immigrant minors, mostly between the ages of 15 and 17, who either "pose a credible physical threat to self or others or have been charged with having committed a serious criminal offense." It said additional money recently received from the federal government was to ensure they can provide all the services needed.
But some, like Reverend Beth Banks from the Unitarian Universalist Church of Davis, still have concerns. Banks says her congregation is pushing for the County to end its contract with HHS.
"Our understanding [is] this is really incarceration," she told ABC10.
Banks pointed to an incident, last year, where 20 undocumented teenagers had to be released from the Yolo County facility after the federal government failed to provide evidence they were affiliated with gangs.
"We still feel someone needs to make a moral statement that basically detention centers are destructive," she explained. "We know that youth and children are damaged psychologically by being in detention centers and so this is definitely not assisting them long term."
In court documents filed as recently as last year, undocumented minors who spent time at the facility described forms of mistreatment, including the use of pepper spray and rooms with poor air conditioning. One minor said it felt like "prison", where detainees were treated "badly, like delinquents."
Banks said her congregation wants these youth to be placed in other types of homes, such as foster homes or mental health care facilities, depending on what each child needs.
County officials would not speak directly with ABC10 about these accusations, however the statement they provided say the facility provides all the services the youth need, including physical and mental health treatment, educational services and other social services.
"We want to do right by these children," the statement said. "And we are sincerely concerned for their well-being."