The past five years have seen numerous communications challenges for unaccompanied children’s providers and advocates, along with substantial threats to the well-being of unaccompanied children (UC) themselves. In 2018, under the previous Administration, shelters were targeted as sites of protest during the height of the Family Separation policy. More recently, 2021 and into 2022 have […]
Category: Policy and Advocacy
Chapter 1: The Transfer, a 20-Year Retrospective of the Unaccompanied Children’s Program in the U.S.
The U.S. Committee for Refugees and Immigrants and The Children’s Village present the first installment of Where We Stand: A 20-Year Retrospective of the Unaccompanied Children’s Program in the United States. The retrospective will review the Unaccompanied Children’s Program from the passage of the Homeland Security Act of 2002 until today, assessing 20 years of […]
USCRI Welcomes Announcement That the U.S. Will Accept 100,000 Ukrainian Refugees
USCRI welcomes the U.S. government announcement that the country will be accepting up to 100,000 Ukrainian refugees. The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) estimates that 3.6 million Ukrainian refugees have already fled the country following the Russian invasion. Over 2.1 million refugees are in Poland. UNICEF, the United Nations children’s agency, has reported […]
Assessing & Alleviating Implementation Gaps in U.S. Trafficking Policy for Foreign National Child and Youth Trafficking Survivors
This policy paper identifies four areas where policy does not reach child trafficking survivors, and provides recommendations on how the U.S. government can amend policies and practices to ensure it does not fall short on protecting foreign national child survivors of human trafficking. Click here to read the full piece.
Facebook Live: A 20-Year Retrospective of the Unaccompanied Children’s Program
In partnership with the Children’s Village, the U.S. Committee for Refugees and Immigrants (USCRI) has begun a one-year project looking back at the Unaccompanied Children’s Program from the passage of the Homeland Security Act of 2002 until today. This project will look at how the care of unaccompanied children has changed since the Homeland Security […]
USCRI Brief: How the “Zero Tolerance” Family Separation Policy Harmed Children and Families?
Perhaps ironically – because it is the national holiday of family togetherness – Thanksgiving 2021 marked the fourth anniversary of public knowledge that the U.S. government’s “zero tolerance” policy that separated children from their families. On November 25, 2017, the Houston Chronicle reported that the prior administration had been separating parents who crossed the border […]
U.S. Committee for Refugees & Immigrants (USCRI) Snapshot: Migrant Protection Protocols
The Migrant Protection Protocols (MPP) policy, also referred to as Remain in Mexico, is a program that was implemented by the Trump administration in response to an increase in asylum seekers at the southern border. The program requires asylum seekers, both from Mexico and from other countries, to stay in Mexico while their asylum cases […]
USCRI’s Statement on the Resumption of the Remain in Mexico Program
The U.S. Committee for Refugees and Immigrants (USCRI) expresses disappointment at the Biden administration’s announcement that it will be resuming the Migrant Protection Protocols (MPP), also known as the Remain in Mexico program, by mid-November. USCRI urges the administration to draft a new memorandum terminating the program before mid-November, following the guidelines and requirements set [...]
USCRI Backgrounder: Case Management for Unaccompanied Children
This USCRI Backgrounder outlines the roles, responsibilities, and challenges of case management within the shelter network for unaccompanied children (UCs) coordinated by the federal Office of Refugee Resettlement (ORR). Reunification with a family is the primary goal. The primary tasks of case managers are (1) to establish contact with the child’s parent(s) and to identify […]
USCRI Snapshot on Historical Precedent of Discriminatory U.S. Immigration Policy Toward Haitians
Earlier this year, the Biden administration redesignated Haiti for Temporary Protected Status (TPS), which grants deportation immunity to immigrants already in the United States who are unable to return to their home country due to natural disaster or extreme political upheaval. In a Federal Register notice published on August 3rd, 2021, the Department of Homeland […]
