Prioritizing Unaccompanied Children’s Safety at the Border
The Biden administration inherited a disaster. For years, the Trump administration villainized immigrant children, kept them in government custody, and incarcerated their parents and sponsors. The election of a new administration has resulted in important gains. Thousands of children unlawfully turned away at our border by the Trump administration—without any inquiry about their safety—are returning to again seek protection. Others continue to flee extraordinary violence in their countries. Today, unaccompanied children are moving more quickly through Customs and Border Protection (CBP) and Health and Human Services (HHS) has increased the speed of release of some children to family by removing unnecessary barriers. These are important steps, but more needs to be done. Every federal agency with responsibility for immigrant children must recognize and treat them first as children. They must consider children’s best interests in every decision and ensure their safety.
The Young Center for Immigrant Children’s Rights plays a unique role among the many government and non-governmental actors who make decisions about unaccompanied and separated immigrant children in the United States. Since 2004, the Young Center has been appointed as the independent Child Advocate for thousands of children from around the world. Our interdisciplinary staff of lawyers and social workers, supported by hundreds of bilingual volunteers, apply the “best interests of the child principle” enshrined in United States child protection law and the Convention on the Rights of the Child to advocate for each child’s best interests. The Young Center also engages in policy advocacy to promote the protection of the best interests of children while they are subject to decision-making by government officials. Below are our recommendations for protecting unaccompanied children:
Children who arrive at the border with trusted adult family members should have the chance to be released into their custody while receiving the legal designation of “unaccompanied,” which will provide more child-appropriate opportunities to be heard in their immigration cases.
Children who arrive with adult family members (Category 2 sponsors) should be evaluated by HHS staff with expertise in child protection while the child and adult are still together to determine: 1) the validity of the caregiving relationship; 2) whether the sponsor can safely care for the child upon release; 3) and to rule out trafficking concerns. If the relationship is valid and safe, the adult and child can be released together at the border, while their cases begin in immigration court. This will prevent unnecessary separation and trauma for children and families, reduce the number of children entering ORR custody now and in the future, while ensuring unaccompanied children receive the legal protections to which they are entitled.
Children who arrive at the border alone must be promptly released to family and sponsors. HHS has already implemented new policies to expedite children’s release to family. But the agency can do much more in the coming months and years to re-envision how it provides services to children who’ve experienced trauma and seek reunification with family, and develop a model that provides services to children in the community, while they live with family, rather than keeping them in custody to receive those services.
HHS must end the use of massive “emergency intake sites” and increase licensed, community-based settings for children awaiting release to family. Convention centers and military bases are not appropriate spaces for children. They are an improvement over CBP custody because they are not staffed with law enforcement officials; however, the conditions observed in these emergency sites over the last few months are not significantly better for children’s safety, health, and well-being, particularly when children languish in them for weeks, rather than hours. HHS must prioritize expanding licensed programs away from the border, collaborating with state child welfare authorities and non-governmental organizations to develop programs that allow children to stay in small facilities until they can be released to family.
The government must accurately track information about children in its care and, upon release, convey this information to Child Advocates, legal services providers, and post-release services providers. HHS must immediately implement systems to ensure it knows the whereabouts of every child in its care and can consistently maintain contact with the child and the child’s family from the moment a child enters custody. Moreover, it must ensure every child released from its care is connected to services in the community who can assist the children in their immigration cases.