On Monday, September 12, groups including First Focus, the Children’s Advocacy Institute, the National Association of Counsel for Children, and the American Bar Association Center on Children and the Law conducted a briefing on the need for greater and required legal protection for children across a number of legal systems. The focus of the briefing
By Dusty Murphy On Wednesday, March 23 a number of groups including the American Federation of Teachers (AFT), First Focus, National Immigration Law Center (NILC) and Kids in Need of Defense (KIND) held a briefing on the impact of ongoing raids by U.S. immigration, the Immigration and Customs and Enforcement (ICE), as well as the
A majority-minority report by the Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations of the Homeland Security Committee was released on Thursday, January 28 detailing abuse and lack of safeguards for children who came into the U.S. unaccompanied. According to the report and the hearing that accompanied its release unaccompanied minors have been subject to various forms of
On Tuesday, the House, absent much debate, passed an appropriations bill that will fund the Department of Homeland Security through the rest of the fiscal year. The action to adopt a “clean” bill—without any restrictions on the President’s executive order regarding immigration—was adopted 257 to 167 with Democrats providing the bulk of the vote (182
After a back in forth in strategy that saw the House reject a “clean Homeland Security funding bill” that would have provided funding through the end of the fiscal year without conditions regarding immigration, the Congress instead extended funding through this week. It is unclear what will happen next but there is a potential deal
On February 20, the Administration for Children and Families issues new guidance on the intersection between child welfare requirements and immigration enforcement. The guidance (ACYF-CB-IM-15-02) comes via an Information Memorandum and offers resources and advice on case planning and service delivery for families and children with parents or legal guardians who are either detained or
Congress returns this week through the end of next month. Front and center will be the expiration of funding for the Department of Homeland Security. Funding will expire at the end of this month if the Congress can’t come up with a deal to extend it. The House bill would tie any funding to provisions
The Center on Immigration and Child Welfare (CICW), formerly the Migration and Child Welfare National Network (MCWNN), is in the process of issuing a series of seven policy papers on a number of critical child welfare and immigration issues. The CICW is focused on programs and policies related to immigrant children and families involved in
The new 114th Congress will begin this week on Tuesday. Most of the week will be about conducting the formal start up actions. That start up includes the selection of the various leaders, all returning from the last Congress with the Senate leaders swapping their majority/minority roles. We will also see the formal selection of
Congress will likely make this week their last week before they leave for the August break and that will happen regardless of the unaccompanied minor issue. Going into this week there are three general proposals: the President’s, the Senate’s and the House’s. It seems certain that none of them can garner enough votes to get