Lawmakers lead bicameral bill to protect migrant children in United States' care

Washington, D.C. - Today, Oregon's U.S. Senator Jeff Merkley and U.S. Congresswoman Sydney Kamlager-Dove (CA-37) led a bicameral effort to establish strong federal safeguards for unaccompanied and accompanied children throughout every stage of our immigration system.

The Children's Safe Welcome Act responds to the Trump Administration's escalating attacks on vulnerable migrant children, including ramping up cruel family separations and deportations of unaccompanied minors. The bill strengthens comprehensive child welfare protections and establishes guidelines and best practices for better care for these vulnerable children.

"Trump's total disregard for the legal process directly threatens the safety of vulnerable migrant children, which is just plain wrong under any moral code," said Merkley. "Like during his first administration, Trump's inhumane detention policies are traumatizing kids and families fleeing persecution-inflicting lasting harm and trauma. We must shine a light on these dangerous, cruel policies, and Congress must pass our Children's Safe Welcome Act to keep these kids safe."

"The immigration system for children is a moral disgrace. From ICE raids at schools to children being ripped away from their families, the inhumanity of the Trump Administration's immigration policies is appalling. Clearly, the system is ill-equipped to protect children and the absence of safeguards for children is a significant policy failure," said Kamlager-Dove. "That's why I am proud to partner with Senator Merkley to introduce the Children's Safe Welcome Act, comprehensive legislation designed to ensure that every step of the immigration process prioritizes the welfare of children. Immigrant children should not bear the consequences of our broken immigration system."

In addition to Merkley and Kamlager-Dove, the Children's Safe Welcome Act is cosponsored by U.S. Senators Dick Durbin (D-IL), Sheldon Whitehouse (D-RI), Kirsten Gillibrand (D-NY), Peter Welch (D-VT), Richard Blumenthal (D-CT), Ron Wyden (D-OR), Bernie Sanders (I-VT), Mazie Hirono (D-HI), Elizabeth Warren (D-MA), Brian Schatz (D-HI), Amy Klobuchar (D-MN), Tina Smith (D-MN), Jacky Rosen (D-NV), Edward J. Markey (D-MA), Tammy Duckworth (D-IL), Martin Heinrich (D-NM), and Michael Bennet (D-CO), and U.S. Representatives Mike Quigley (IL-05) and Henry C. "Hank" Johnson, Jr. (GA-04).

The Children's Safe Welcome Act would:

1. Codify minimum child welfare protections such as health and safety standards, state licensing requirements, and the best interests of the child standard.
2. Mandate child protection professionals at children's first point of contact with the federal immigration system.
3. Increase minimum health and safety standards for children and families in Customs and Border Protection facilities.
4. Prohibit family separations, with extremely narrow exceptions only in cases where it is critical to protect the safety of the child.
5. Prohibit the use of family detention facilities, without exception.
6. Ensure all children are placed in a non-adversarial setting for their asylum case processing.
7. Create a process for keeping families together by allowing unaccompanied children who arrive at the border in the care of grandparents, adult siblings, or aunts or uncles (non-parent/non-legal guardian family members) to stay together.
8. Phase out large congregate care facilities and prioritize family-based placements for unaccompanied children.
9. Require children to be placed in the least restrictive environment and limit the placement of children in harmful restrictive facilities.
10. Prioritize the swift release of unaccompanied children with disabilities and access to services in the community.
11. Limit the use of influx facilities and prohibit the placement of unaccompanied children in influx facilities for more than 20 days.
12. Guarantee legal representation for unaccompanied children at every stage of removal proceedings.
13. Prohibit information sharing about unaccompanied children, with narrow exceptions.
14. Replace the outdated and offensive word "alien" with "noncitizen" in federal statute.
15. Establish an Ombudsperson to monitor and oversee compliance with this Act.
16. Mandate access for members of Congress, accompanying staff, and credentialed press (without cameras) to visit federal immigration facilities.

The Children's Safe Welcome Act is supported by 100+ experts, advocates, and organizations representing migrant children in all stages of our immigration system, including the Young Center for Immigrant Children's Rights and National Center for Youth Law.

"Every child deserves safety, dignity, and care-not detention," said Mina Dixon Davis, Senior Policy Analyst at the Young Center for Immigrant Children's Rights. We hear children's stories-the fear, the loneliness, the lasting harm-and we know it doesn't have to be this way. The Children's Safe Welcome Act gives Congress the chance to end these cruel practices and put children's safety and dignity first. Lawmakers must act now to ensure that every child is treated as a child-with care, compassion, and hope for the future."

"We have interviewed children in federal immigration custody for decades, and their harrowing accounts make one thing clear: federal law was never designed with children in mind, and children pay the painful price for that gap every day. Basic questions about how a child should be housed, cared for, and released have been left to court orders and agency discretion for far too long. The Children's Safe Welcome Act finally answers those questions in statute," said Melissa Adamson, Senior Attorney at the National Center for Youth Law. "Today, as the Administration pursues an unprecedented campaign to decimate basic legal protections for children, leaving them indefinitely detained and without the protection of legal counsel, this legislation has never been more critical."

Full text of the Children's Safe Welcome Act can be found by clicking here.

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