Children
America’s Past Treatment of Central Americans Serves as Cautionary Tale
The Obama administration has put forth a plan on how to respond to the thousands of Central American families and unaccompanied children who are arriving at the U.S.-Mexico border. It’s becoming increasingly clear that the administration plans to take a hard-line approach that is focused on… Read More
New Report Helps Explain Why Central American Children Are Leaving Their Home Countries
Ever since President Barack Obama described the record number of minors traveling alone and crossing the U.S.-Mexico border as an “urgent humanitarian situation requiring a unified and coordinated Federal response,” the debate about how to address the unaccompanied migrant children has become increasingly heated, especially about the reasons… Read More
Effort to Quickly Deport Child Migrants Fails to Address the Problem
The White House informed Congress Monday that it would seek additional funding for an aggressive border enforcement strategy designed to thwart the dramatic increase in unaccompanied minors and families crossing the southwestern border, to expend more resources on fighting traffickers and drug smugglers, and to work closely… Read More
Obama Announces He Will Act Without Congress On Immigration Reform
President Obama said Monday that he plans to take administrative action to “fix as much of our immigration system as I can on my own, without Congress.” As the president explained in his White House speech, his first step is to direct Homeland Security Secretary Jeh Johnson… Read More
The Legacy of S. 744, the Senate Immigration Reform Bill
On June 27, 2013, the Senate passed S. 744, an ambitious, bipartisan comprehensive reform of our immigration system. Although far from perfect, it represented a genuine effort to wrestle with the complex, confusing, and highly emotional train wreck that has become our immigration system. In the months… Read More
Congress Needs Reminding of Unaccompanied Migrant Children’s Plight
The House Judiciary Committee’s June 25 hearing was supposed to be about the recent surge in the numbers of unaccompanied child migrants from Central America who are arriving at the U.S.-Mexico border. Had this really been the subject of the hearing, the topic of escalating gang violence… Read More
Thousands of U.S.-Citizen Children Separated From Parents, ICE Records Show
72,410 individuals deported in 2013 said they had one or more U.S.-born children according to U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) records. Of those, 39,410 were deported in the first half of calendar year 2013 and the remaining 33,000 in the second half. In other words, in one… Read More
Not All Members of Congress Recognize the Nation’s Role in Protecting Unaccompanied Minors
The House Committee on Homeland Security held a hearing today entitled, “Dangerous Passage: The Growing Problem of Unaccompanied Children Crossing the Border.” Committee members questioned the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Secretary Jeh Johnson on the growing humanitarian crisis at our southern border. Thousands of children from Central America… Read More
Child Refugees from Central America Need Protection, Not Deportation
The reasons why so many unaccompanied children from Central American nations are trying to make their way to the United States are not simple. There are the abysmally high murder rates, escalating gang violence, and grinding poverty which prevail in some Central American countries. There are the… Read More
The Power of DACA Continues to Grow
June 15 marked the two-year anniversary of President Obama’s announcement of the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) Program. DACA temporarily defers the deportation of eligible undocumented youth and young adults, and grants them access to renewable two-year work permits and Social Security Numbers. As of March 2014,… Read More
All gifts are matched dollar for dollar
No one should face the immigration system alone
