APA Services joined over 85 organizations committed to advancing child and family well-being, in a letter (PDF, 114KB) opens in new window urging the U.S. Senate to reject provisions of the budget reconciliation bill passed by the U.S. House of Representatives that would dismantle the protection of unaccompanied immigrant children. The Senate released their bill on June 16 and did not include the provisions about information sharing.
The letter underscored the importance of maintaining human trafficking protections and the dangers of the exorbitant fee structure in the reconciliation bill that would prevent family unity and place children at greater risk of trafficking by increasing the financial burdens of sponsoring unaccompanied children. The letter noted that the new fee for sponsors of unaccompanied children would likely mean many of the potential sponsors best suited to care for children would not be able to afford to, leading unaccompanied children to remain in government shelters longer than necessary at the expense of their mental and psychological well-being.
The bill also creates a new method to summarily return all unaccompanied children who arrive to the U.S. border to their country of origin, circumventing the longstanding policy of transferring these children to the Office of Refugee Resettlement, which helps ensure that children are protected from human trafficking, receive basic services, and have their cases reviewed by an immigration judge.
APA services will continue working with coalition partners and members of Congress to protect children and advocate for humane immigration policies.
For more information, contact Serena Dávila.