Pages tagged "Children of Immigrants"
House Immigration Hearing Must be the Start, not the End, for Kids
Washington -- The U.S. House of Representatives Judiciary Committee held a hearing today to inform the development of legislation providing a pathway to citizenship for unauthorized immigrants who entered the United States as children. The bipartisan First Focus Campaign for Children submitted testimony for the hearing. The organization released the following statement by Campaign for Children President Bruce Lesley:
“Children have a lot at stake in the immigration debate, so it’s encouraging that the House is putting children on the agenda. But children need much more from reform than an approach that provides a pathway to citizenship only for undocumented immigrants who entered as children. Kids – immigrant and citizen alike – need safeguards that protect their families from being shattered by immigration enforcement actions against their parents. Kids need the same standing as adults in hardship-based admissibility proceedings. And they need reforms that give children the best chance to reunite with parents who have been detained or deported. Getting immigration reform done means getting it right for kids, so the legislation informed by today’s hearing needs to be the beginning, not the end, of the reform effort for kids.”
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House Immigrants Brought to the U.S. as Children Hearing Statement
The Foster Children Opportunity Act: Guaranteeing a Bright Future for Foster Youth
The Foster Children Opportunity Act (H.R. 2036) seeks to ensure that abused and neglected immigrant children have an opportunity to obtain the legal immigrant status to which they are entitled prior to aging out of the foster care system. Introduced by Congressman Beto O’Rourke, the bill amends Title IV of the Social Security Act in order to require states to screen all undocumented immigrant children currently in the child welfare system for eligibility for Special Immigrant Juvenile Status (SIJS). SIJS allows undocumented children who are under 21 years old and unmarried to remain in the United States legally, as well as work and be eligible for financial aid and in-state tuition for college. After five years, they may also apply for U.S. citizenship.
Reject the SAFE Act
Roybal-Allard Bill Would Help Families Stay Together
Washington — Rep. Lucille Roybal-Allard (D-CA) introduced today the Help Separated Families Act, legislation to improve the likelihood that children taken into state custody following immigration enforcement actions against their parents can ultimately reunify with their parents. Similar language has been included in Senate immigration reform legislation (S. 744), so today’s introduction of House legislation sets the stage for a House debate over the impact of immigration enforcement policies on children and their parents.
“Families belong together, and every parent should have a say in what happens to their kids,” said First Focus Campaign for Children President Bruce Lesley. “For years, Rep. Roybal-Allard has championed legislation reflecting those basic family values.”
“We have met many parents who cannot find their children, cannot participate in child welfare proceedings, or cannot reunify with their children simply because they are involved in the immigration system,” said Michelle Brané, Director of Migrant Rights and Justice at the Women’s Refugee Commission. “Enforcement of our immigration laws should not, and does not have to, come at the expense of family unity and child well-being.”
“I reintroduced the Help Separated Families Act today to prevent the tragic placement of children with strangers in foster care following the detention or deportation of a parent. Separating these American kids from their families does not reflect our American values.” said Rep. Roybal-Allard. “As a nation, we claim to value children and families, but at least 5,000 American kids are in foster care today because of our deeply unjust immigration laws. My bill would take sensible steps to prevent U.S. children from being separated from their loved ones. This legislation is critically important and I call on Speaker Boehner to finally get serious about passing comprehensive immigration reform, including the provisions of my bill, so that we can end the deportations which have tragically altered so many lives. Let’s put families first in immigration reform.”
Reunification efforts are often frustrated by disconnects between the immigration system and state child welfare system. It is considered a child welfare best practice to place children separated from their parents with grandparents, aunts, uncles, or other family members. Yet many federally funded child welfare agencies reject otherwise qualified relative caregivers if they are undocumented immigrants. Child welfare best practice also involves parents in discussions about the care of their children, but parents detained or deported by immigration authorities often are unable to participate in court hearings or meet child welfare administrative deadlines. In such cases, parental rights may even be terminated when detention or deportation denies parents the opportunity to meet child welfare requirements.
The Help Separated Families Act eliminates several barriers to reunification. It prohibits federally funded child welfare agencies from relying solely on immigration status in child placement determinations. It also clarifies that certain forms of foreign identification are sufficient for purposes of a prospective caregiver's background check and ensures that questions about caregivers' immigration status are limited to eligibility determinations for relevant services or programs. Finally, unless certain conditions are met, the bill prevents child welfare agencies from filing for termination of parental rights in cases where immigration enforcement is the main reason for a child's removal from the parent's custody. Comparable provisions were included in the Senate immigration bill (S. 744).
“These issues affect a significant number of children,” said Brané. “According to the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, more than 200,000 removal orders were issued for parents of U.S. citizen children during a recent period of just over two years.”
The Applied Research Center estimated in 2011 that more than 5,000 children remained in state child welfare systems because of enforcement actions against a parent. Up to 5.5 million children – the vast majority of whom are U.S. citizens – live with at least one undocumented parent.
“Millions of kids go to school every morning not knowing if the government will come that day to take their parents away,” said Lesley. “The Help Separated Families Act gives families shattered by immigration enforcement a chance to stay together.”
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Senate Immigration Bill an Important Step Forward for Children and Families
Washington — The bipartisan children’s advocacy organization First Focus today released an analysis of immigration reform legislation passed today by the United States Senate. The analysis finds that the bill offers significant gains for children and families, but a few priority issues remained unaddressed by the Senate.
“Children of immigrants account for one-fourth of children in America, so getting reform done means getting it right for kids,” said First Focus Campaign for Children President Bruce Lesley.
The First Focus analysis finds that the Senate bill offers important improvements in several specific areas, including:
- DREAM Act – DREAM Act provision would make a five-year citizenship path available without an upper age cap to qualifying immigrants who entered the United States as children, and would make student financial aid available to qualifying DREAMers,
- Family Reunification Waivers – Gives immigration officials the discretion to waive ineligibilty grounds for persons who were previously deported and meet specified requirements, creating opportunities for deported DREAM Act-eligible youth or parents of U.S. citizen or lawful permanent resident children to reunify with family and apply for citizenship;
- Protections for Children and Families Affected by Immigration Enforcement – Includes an array of common-sense reforms to improve the likelihood that children and parents separated by immigration enforcement activities can reunite, ranging from ensuring that parents detained by immigration authorities can make phone calls to make arrangements for the care of their children to protections against premature termination of parental rights based solely on a parent’s detention or deportation;
- Children’s Interests in Immigration Proceedings – Grants immigration judges discretion to consider the consequences of a deportation or exclusion on children on the same terms as adults – under current law, judges must apply a more stringent test to hardship claims based on harm to children than to those involving harm to adults; and
- Unaccompanied Children – Ensures that immigrant children who enter the United States without their parents are represented by counsel, improves detention standards, and strengthens screening mechanisms and training for Customs and Border Patrol agents.
“From the strongest DREAM Act provision Congress has ever considered to common-sense reforms that give kids equal standing in immigration hearings, the Senate bill offers important gains for children,” said Lesley.
The analysis also concludes that important priorities for children were not addressed by the Senate, including:
- Bipartisan Little DREAMers Amendment – The bill requires young children to wait up to 13 years to qualify for citizenship, because the Senate did not consider an amendment sponsored by Sen. Richard Blumenthal (D-CT) and Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R-AK) that would give younger children access to the five-year DREAM Act citizenship path; and
- Access to the Safety Net – The bill maintains immigrant children’s eligibility for federal anti-poverty tax credits; however, it does not give children who are in registered provisional status access to the anti-hunger Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP, formerly Food Stamps) and the Temporary Assistance for Needy Families and Supplemental Security Income anti-poverty initiatives.
“As the debate continues, Congress must ensure that kids get the health care, food, and basic resources they need to learn and thrive,” said Lesley.
The analysis also notes that the Senate bill significantly expands border enforcement, at a cost to taxpayers of more than $40 billion. The bill directs a massive military-styled deployment of personnel, aerial drones and other technology, and a 700-mile fence throughout the southern United States, affecting the communities that are home to millions of children.
“The $46 billion in border militarization expenses required by this bill would fund Head Start for more than five million children. Congress should be investing scarce federal dollars to help kids, not cutting early education and militarizing border communities,” said Lesley.
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The First Focus Campaign for Children is a 501(c)(4) nonprofit organization affiliated with First Focus, a bipartisan children’s advocacy organization. The Campaign for Children advocates directly for legislative change in Congress to ensure children and families are the priority in federal policy and budget decisions. For more information, visit www.ffcampaignforchildren.org.
Little DREAMers Amendment
Senate immigration reform legislation (S. 744) provides a five-year path to citizenship for youth who entered the U.S. prior to age 16, graduated from high school or earned a GED, and earned a college diploma, attended two years of college, or spent four years in the military. The bill’s educational requirements effectively deny children access to the DREAM path to citizenship, if they are too young to graduate from high school. Instead, those children must follow the path to citizenship established by the bill for adults, which could mean a delay of up to thirteen years.
The bipartisan Little DREAMers amendment, sponsored by Richard Blumenthal (D-CT) and U.S. Senator Lisa Murkowski (R-AK), would make the five-year DREAM Act citizenship path available to younger children. The amendment enjoys widespread support. The First Focus Campaign for Children coordinated endorsements of the Little DREAMers Amendment by more than 180 child advocacy, faith-based, education, labor, and immigrant rights groups.
Keeping a Focus on Children as Immigration Reform Hits the Senate Floor
With the Senate currently debating possible reforms to our nation’s immigration system, we at First Focus Campaign for Children, along with a host of other organizations, want to ensure that the interests and needs of children and families are met in the immigration reform bill (S.744).
In a letter addressed to Members in the Senate today, our coalition of organizations stress the importance of an immigration bill that supports children and families. A number of Senators have offered positive amendments that will improve children’s access to a pathway to citizenship, as well as health, nutrition, and other supports. Standing in the way of this agenda, however, are a number of amendments that pose a threat to the well-being of immigrant children and families of immigrant children.
Therefore, we would like to remind the Senate that children and families should be a priority when they consider the amendments to, and the ultimate vote on, the immigration reform bill. It is paramount that the legislation echoes these sentiments as a failure to do so could have negative, lasting impacts on millions of immigrant children and their families.
You can find additional information related to the letter distributed to each Member’s office in the Senate here, and a list of S.744 amendments that affect children and their families (this list will be updated regularly as amendments are filed) here.
Little DREAMers Amendment
More than 180 national, state, and local organizations joined the First Focus Campaign for Children in urging senators to support the bipartisan Little DREAMers amendment sponsored by Senator Richard Blumenthal (D-CT) and Senator Lisa Murkowski (R-AK). The amendment would give some younger children access to the five-year citizenship path available to qualifying older children and adults under the base bill.
Senate Immigration Floor Debate Advocates
More than 100 advocates joined the First Focus Campaign for Children in urging members of the U.S. Senate to protect critical elements of immigration reform legislation for children. The letter also urges senators to adopt amendments that would improve the bill's outcomes for kids and reject harmful amendments.