The U.S. Committee for Refugees and Immigrants (USCRI) and The Children’s Village present chapter three 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 (HSA) of 2002 until today. It assesses 20 years of legislation, policies, litigation, and, most importantly, the U.S. federal government’s care of unaccompanied migrating children, with a view toward the next steps and improvements for the years ahead.

The third chapter looks at the William Wilberforce Trafficking Victims Protection Reauthorization Act of 2008 (TVPRA). In this chapter, we will analyze critical provisions that govern the rights of unaccompanied immigrant children who enter the United States. It covers three main areas: background on how the TVPRA came to be, the key provisions included for unaccompanied children, and legal protections provided for in the TVPRA of 2008.

Click here to read chapter three.

Read the previous chapters:

Chapter 1: The Transfer, a 20-Year Retrospective of the Unaccompanied Children’s Program in the U.S.

Chapter 2: The Flores Saga, a 20-Year Retrospective of the Unaccompanied Children’s Program in the U.S.