In March of this year, 15,918 children from Guatemala, Honduras and El Salvador crossed into the U.S. at our southern border—the highest number of children since we began collecting data in 2010. Although this number has dropped in recent months, the children who have made this long and dangerous crossing without their parents are of […]
Category: Policy and Advocacy
Case Management for Unaccompanied Children in ORR Care
The Office of Refugee Resettlement (ORR) operates the Unaccompanied Children’s Program to serve children from non-contiguous countries who arrive without a parent and do not have legal immigration status. Since 2002, the UC Program has served more than 400,000 children. ORR serves children via a national network of shelters who provide care for children in […]
U.S. Committee for Refugees and Immigrants Backgrounder: Somalia
The U.S. Committee for Refugees and Immigrants (USCRI) presents the following backgrounder on the humanitarian crisis in Somalia as of October 15, 2020. Information and maps are from various sources and not the original work of USCRI. Read full report: https://refugees.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/04/Somalia-Backgrounder.pdf
Unaccompanied Children’s Arrivals are a Humanitarian Challenge – But a Solvable One
For much of 2020, U.S. authorities turned away all asylum seekers at the U.S. southern border, including both families arriving together and unaccompanied children. The prior Administration attempted to justify the restrictions by a novel invocation of Title 42 of the United States Code, which grants a weak form of quarantine power to the Centers […]
Far Too Socially Distant: Trafficking in Persons Policy Responses for Governments in the COVID-19 Pandemic and Beyond
There are few places on earth nor facets of human life that the COVID-19 pandemic has not touched. From the empty, ghost town-like streets of Toronto’s financial district to the shuttered kibbeling stands in the Grote Markt of Amsterdam to the world’s largest airport, Beijing Daxing International, now quiet with its few masked passengers moving […]
The UN Mission in South Sudan is Failing Sexual Assault Victims – USCRI
South Sudan has been marred by widespread sexual violence since its civil war broke out in 2013. Despite the peace agreement that was signed on September 12, 2018, the violence continues. The United Nations Mission in South Sudan, referred to as UNMISS, recounted these incidents in its September 2020 situational report. But even while detailing […]
Honoring the Legacy of Barbara Harrell-Bond
My interview with Angelina of Hope Restoration South Sudan was inspired by the work of Barbara Harrell-Bond, a pioneer in refugee rights and an original critic of the work of the United Nations. Barbara’s work with refugees began with the arrival of Hungarian refugees in the United States in the 1950s, and continued with her […]
U.S. Committee for Refugees and Immigrants Backgrounder: Mauritania
The U.S. Committee for Refugees and Immigrants (USCRI) presents the following backgrounder on the humanitarian crises in Mauritania as of March 10, 2021. Information and maps are from various sources and not the original work of USCRI. Mauritania was the last country in the world to abolish slavery, and only criminalized the practice in 2007. […]
The U.S. Citizenship Act of 2021: USCRI Analysis
The U.S. Committee for Refugees and Immigrants (USCRI) presents the following bill analysis of the U.S. Citizenship Act (USCA) of 2021. The Administration sent the USCA to Congress on January 20, 2021. On February 18, 2021, Representative Linda T. Sánchez (D-CA-38) and Senator Bob Menendez (D-NJ) introduced the USCA. Representatives Zoe Lofgren (D-CA-19), Lucille Roybal-Allard […]
Policy & Legislative Recommendations to Increase Protections for Refugees and Other Forcibly Displaced Persons
The United States has traditionally been the global leader in refugee protection across both Republican and Democratic administrations. Yet, as global need reached an all-time high of 80 million people displaced in 2020, the United States set its all-time low refugee admissions goal of 15,000. U.S. refugee resettlement operates in a public-private partnership known as […]
