The Biden-Harris Administration Must Prioritize Protecting Immigrant Children
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Washington, D.C., January 20, 2021—Today, we begin a new era with a new administration. After four years of relentless attacks on the rights and safety of immigrant children and their families, the Biden-Harris administration has an opportunity to be a champion for all children.
“From family separation to the public charge rule to deportations during a global pandemic, the past four years have been a nightmare for immigrant children,” said Young Center Executive Director Maria Woltjen. “We hope that the new administration will not just right the wrongs of the past four years but begin to build an immigration system that treats children as children, recognizing their unique status.”
The Young Center for Immigrant Children’s Rights fights for the best interests of immigrant children facing deportation. As the only nonprofit serving in the capacity of independent Child Advocate/guardian ad litem for immigrant children in federal detention, the Young Center has served thousands of unaccompanied and separated immigrant children since its inception in 2004. In the past four years, the organization has reunited families unlawfully separated at the border, defended the best interests of unaccompanied children who arrive at the border alone, and challenged policies that undermine children’s safety. This experience has crystalized our vision for preventing further harm to children and reimagining the immigration system into one that cannot be abused to rip families apart or deprive asylum-seekers of protection.
The Young Center calls on the Biden-Harris administration to prioritize the following issues to protect immigrant children from further harm.
Require all government actors to consider the best interests of the child—including their expressed wishes, safety, family integrity, liberty, development, and identity—in every decision impacting the child and support legislation to create such a mandate in federal law.
Stop unlawfully turning away immigrant children and asylum-seekers at the border under the pretext of public health and the dangerous Remain in Mexico program. More than 13,000 children have been unlawfully turned away at the U.S.-Mexico border under Title 42 and tens of thousands have been forced to stay in unsafe conditions in Mexico while they wait for a court date in the United States.
Reunify and provide legal protection to every family subjected to family separation at the border.
“In the absence of a best interests mandate for all immigrant children, we saw the Trump administration tear families apart and endanger children’s lives by returning them to their abusers, traffickers, and persecutors, which was most certainly not in their best interests,” Woltjen added. “In addition to reunifying separated families and safely opening our doors to children and asylum-seekers, the new administration must prioritize creating a best interests standard to lay the foundation for an immigration system that sees and treats children as children.”
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The Young Center for Immigrant Children’s Rights is a non-profit organization that protects and advances the rights and best interests of immigrant children and advocates for an immigration system that treats children as children first. For press inquiries, please contact Noorjahan Akbar at media@theyoungcenter.org or 202-725-7184.