Federal Government Fails to Take Full Accountability for Separating Immigrant Families
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Monday, October 16, 2023
Media Contact: media@theyoungcenter.org
Washington D.C.— Today, a federal judge was asked to review a proposed settlement in the years-long Ms. L vs. ICE class action lawsuit. The ACLU filed the lawsuit on behalf of parents who were wrongfully separated from their children at the border by the Trump administration. The proposed settlement offers separated families the opportunity to reunite in the United States, though without any promise of permanent status in the United States or any meaningful compensation for the harm children and their parents experienced at the time of separation or in the intervening five years. The settlement also purports to limit just some, rather than all, family separation at the border in the future.
Jennifer Nagda, Chief Programs Officer at the Young Center for Immigrant Children’s Rights, said:
"Today’s settlement does not repair the harm our government inflicted on thousands of children and families before, during, or after the Trump Administration’s policy of separating families to prosecute asylum-seeking parents.
Over the years, Young Center staff advocated for hundreds of children unnecessarily torn from their parents. We located parents, ensured children were able to speak with jailed family members, and fought to stop deportations that put children’s lives in jeopardy. We bore witness to the trauma children experienced when they were first separated, as they were pushed into foster care or placed with distant relatives, and as they were forced to go to court without their parents at their side. We’ve accompanied children and their parents through fear, heartbreak, and prolonged uncertainty about the future.
We hoped that in this settlement, the government would offer separated families peace of mind that they will not be deported and the assurance that the government will never again systematically separate children from their parents to deter migration. We also hoped to see the government provide resources that would help families navigate reunification in the US as well as the complex processes they face to seek either temporary or permanent safety in the US. We are deeply disappointed that the government has failed to commit to these reasonable and necessary remedies.
We urge the Biden Administration and Congress to build on this proposed settlement by delivering a pathway to citizenship for all separated families, providing them with monetary relief that will address housing and reunification needs, committing in law and policy to preventing any future parent-child separations, and holding accountable the government officials who played a key role in designing and implementing this inhumane policy. In the meantime, our work to prevent future separations—some of which have happened in just the last few months—will continue.
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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 Anabel Mendoza at media@theyoungcenter.org