House Judiciary Committee Approves Bill to Protect Children Crossing the Border Alone
March 4, 2015
Washington, D.C. – The House Judiciary Committee today approved by a vote of 17-13 the Protection of Children Act (H.R. 1149), a bill to ensure that unaccompanied alien minors (UAMs) who make the dangerous journey to the United States are safely returned home. For those who stay with a sponsor in the United States while awaiting their immigration hearing, the bill provides for greater transparency and safety of these minors to ensure they are not inadvertently delivered into the hands of criminals or abusers.
Before the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program was implemented in 2012, the number of UAMs apprehended at the border was 6,560 in Fiscal Year 2011. As news traveled around the world about the Obama Administration’s immigration policies, the number of unaccompanied minors dramatically increased. In Fiscal Year 2014, the number of UAMs caught at the border surged to 68,541, which is a 945% increase since Fiscal Year 2011.
House Judiciary Committee Chairman Bob Goodlatte (R-Va.) and Congressman John Carter (R-Texas), chief sponsor of the Protection of Children Act and Chairman of the Homeland Security Appropriations Subcommittee, praised today’s Committee vote to ensure minors crossing the border are protected and safely returned home.
Chairman Goodlatte: “The Obama Administration’s immigration policies have given confidence to parents who are in the U.S. illegally that they can stay and have encouraged them to bring their children, who are still in Central America and beyond, to the United States unlawfully. These children, often assisted by smugglers, face many dangerous situations as they travel through Mexico and then walk miles across a hostile border environment. We need to take action to stop these children from risking their lives to come to the United States unaccompanied and unlawfully.
“The Protection of Children Act makes common sense changes to our laws to ensure minors who travel to the U.S. alone are returned home safely and quickly. I thank Congressman Carter for introducing this legislation and urge the House of Representatives to act on it soon.”
Congressman Carter: “For far too long drug smugglers have continually used loopholes in our nation’s immigration law to make billions, all while preying upon the weakest in our society. The Protection of Children Act of 2015 stops this abuse and removes a loophole human traffickers have used for years. Last year, we saw the effect these loopholes have on our country and southern border when tens of thousands of juveniles marched across the border and into our cities, all at the taxpayer’s expense. The great state of Texas has felt this burden, probably more than any other state. This Administration needs to stop ignoring the obvious problem, burdening the American public and putting innocent lives at risk.”
Key Components of the Protection of Children Act:
· Repatriation of Unaccompanied Alien Minors: In 2014, an unprecedented number of UAMs were apprehended along our borders – in excess of 68,000, which is a 945% increase since 2011. The Trafficking Victims Protection Reauthorization Act of 2008 created two sets of rules regarding UAMs apprehended from contiguous and non-contiguous countries. Under current law, minors from contiguous countries (such as Mexico) can be immediately returned (if they consent, have not been trafficked and don’t have a credible fear of persecution). However, minors from other countries must be placed in very lengthy removal proceedings in immigration court (during which they are usually released into the United States, often to the very parents who attempted to smuggle them into the U.S.). The bill eliminates the conflicting rules and subjects all minors to expeditious return if they have not been trafficked and don’t have a credible fear of persecution.
· Agreements: The bill provides authority for the Secretary of State to negotiate agreements with foreign countries regarding UAMs, including protections for the safety of minors returned to their countries of nationality.
· Hearings: The bill ensures that minors who are victims of severe forms of trafficking are afforded a hearing before an Immigration Judge within 14 days.
· Information on Sponsors: The bill provides for greater transparency and safety of minors by requiring HHS to provide DHS with biographical information regarding the sponsors or family members to whom the minors are released. Currently, there is no requirement to share sponsor or family information with DHS. Without this information, there is a danger these minors will be lost in the system, or worse, be inadvertently delivered into the hands of criminals or abusers. The bill also mandates that DHS follow up with the sponsors with whom the minors are placed to verify the sponsors’ immigration status and issue notices for the sponsors to appear in immigration court where appropriate.
· Special Immigrant Juvenile Status: Due to a mistake in current law, juveniles are able to obtain legal status if they can simply show they have been abandoned by a single parent. The bill reaffirms the original intent of the law to only provide protected status to juveniles who have lost or been abandoned by both parents.
· Asylum Applications: The bill closes a commonly exploited loophole that allows minors to get two bites of the apple with regard to review of their asylum applications.
Learn more about the House Judiciary Committee’s work on immigration here.
Before the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program was implemented in 2012, the number of UAMs apprehended at the border was 6,560 in Fiscal Year 2011. As news traveled around the world about the Obama Administration’s immigration policies, the number of unaccompanied minors dramatically increased. In Fiscal Year 2014, the number of UAMs caught at the border surged to 68,541, which is a 945% increase since Fiscal Year 2011.
House Judiciary Committee Chairman Bob Goodlatte (R-Va.) and Congressman John Carter (R-Texas), chief sponsor of the Protection of Children Act and Chairman of the Homeland Security Appropriations Subcommittee, praised today’s Committee vote to ensure minors crossing the border are protected and safely returned home.
Chairman Goodlatte: “The Obama Administration’s immigration policies have given confidence to parents who are in the U.S. illegally that they can stay and have encouraged them to bring their children, who are still in Central America and beyond, to the United States unlawfully. These children, often assisted by smugglers, face many dangerous situations as they travel through Mexico and then walk miles across a hostile border environment. We need to take action to stop these children from risking their lives to come to the United States unaccompanied and unlawfully.
“The Protection of Children Act makes common sense changes to our laws to ensure minors who travel to the U.S. alone are returned home safely and quickly. I thank Congressman Carter for introducing this legislation and urge the House of Representatives to act on it soon.”
Congressman Carter: “For far too long drug smugglers have continually used loopholes in our nation’s immigration law to make billions, all while preying upon the weakest in our society. The Protection of Children Act of 2015 stops this abuse and removes a loophole human traffickers have used for years. Last year, we saw the effect these loopholes have on our country and southern border when tens of thousands of juveniles marched across the border and into our cities, all at the taxpayer’s expense. The great state of Texas has felt this burden, probably more than any other state. This Administration needs to stop ignoring the obvious problem, burdening the American public and putting innocent lives at risk.”
Key Components of the Protection of Children Act:
· Repatriation of Unaccompanied Alien Minors: In 2014, an unprecedented number of UAMs were apprehended along our borders – in excess of 68,000, which is a 945% increase since 2011. The Trafficking Victims Protection Reauthorization Act of 2008 created two sets of rules regarding UAMs apprehended from contiguous and non-contiguous countries. Under current law, minors from contiguous countries (such as Mexico) can be immediately returned (if they consent, have not been trafficked and don’t have a credible fear of persecution). However, minors from other countries must be placed in very lengthy removal proceedings in immigration court (during which they are usually released into the United States, often to the very parents who attempted to smuggle them into the U.S.). The bill eliminates the conflicting rules and subjects all minors to expeditious return if they have not been trafficked and don’t have a credible fear of persecution.
· Agreements: The bill provides authority for the Secretary of State to negotiate agreements with foreign countries regarding UAMs, including protections for the safety of minors returned to their countries of nationality.
· Hearings: The bill ensures that minors who are victims of severe forms of trafficking are afforded a hearing before an Immigration Judge within 14 days.
· Information on Sponsors: The bill provides for greater transparency and safety of minors by requiring HHS to provide DHS with biographical information regarding the sponsors or family members to whom the minors are released. Currently, there is no requirement to share sponsor or family information with DHS. Without this information, there is a danger these minors will be lost in the system, or worse, be inadvertently delivered into the hands of criminals or abusers. The bill also mandates that DHS follow up with the sponsors with whom the minors are placed to verify the sponsors’ immigration status and issue notices for the sponsors to appear in immigration court where appropriate.
· Special Immigrant Juvenile Status: Due to a mistake in current law, juveniles are able to obtain legal status if they can simply show they have been abandoned by a single parent. The bill reaffirms the original intent of the law to only provide protected status to juveniles who have lost or been abandoned by both parents.
· Asylum Applications: The bill closes a commonly exploited loophole that allows minors to get two bites of the apple with regard to review of their asylum applications.
Learn more about the House Judiciary Committee’s work on immigration here.