Merkley, Kamlager-Dove: Congress Must Ensure Safety, Well-Being of Children Seeking Asylum

Lawmakers lead bicameral bill to protect migrant children in United States’ care

Washington, D.C. – Today, Oregon’s U.S. Senator Jeff Merkley and U.S. Congresswoman Sydney Kamlager-Dove (CA-37) led a bicameral effort to establish strong federal safeguards for unaccompanied and accompanied children throughout every stage of our immigration system.

El Ley de bienvenida segura para niños responds to the Trump Administration’s escalating attacks on vulnerable migrant children, including ramping up cruel family separations y deportations of unaccompanied minors. The bill strengthens comprehensive child welfare protections and establishes guidelines and best practices for better care for these vulnerable children.

“Trump’s total disregard for the legal process directly threatens the safety of vulnerable migrant children, which is just plain wrong under any moral code,” dijo Merkley. “Like during his first administration, Trump’s inhumane detention policies are traumatizing kids and families fleeing persecution—inflicting lasting harm and trauma. We must shine a light on these dangerous, cruel policies, and Congress must pass our Ley de bienvenida segura para niños to keep these kids safe.”

“The immigration system for children is a moral disgrace. From ICE raids at schools to children being ripped away from their families, the inhumanity of the Trump Administration’s immigration policies is appalling. Clearly, the system is ill-equipped to protect children and the absence of safeguards for children is a significant policy failure,” said Kamlager-Dove. “That’s why I am proud to partner with Senator Merkley to introduce the Ley de bienvenida segura para niños, comprehensive legislation designed to ensure that every step of the immigration process prioritizes the welfare of children. Immigrant children should not bear the consequences of our broken immigration system.”

In addition to Merkley and Kamlager-Dove, the Ley de bienvenida segura para niños is cosponsored by U.S. Senators Dick Durbin (D-IL), Sheldon Whitehouse (D-RI), Kirsten Gillibrand (D-NY), Peter Welch (D-VT), Richard Blumenthal (D-CT), Ron Wyden (D-OR), Bernie Sanders (I-VT), Mazie Hirono (D-HI), Elizabeth Warren (D-MA), Brian Schatz (D-HI), Amy Klobuchar (D-MN), Tina Smith (D-MN), Jacky Rosen (D-NV), Edward J. Markey (D-MA), Tammy Duckworth (D-IL), Martin Heinrich (D-NM), and Michael Bennet (D-CO), and U.S. Representatives Mike Quigley (IL-05) and Henry C. “Hank” Johnson, Jr. (GA-04).

El Ley de bienvenida segura para niños haría: 

1. Codificar las protecciones mínimas de bienestar infantil como los estándares de salud y seguridad, los requisitos de licencia estatal y el estándar del interés superior del niño.
2. Obligar a los profesionales de protección infantil at children’s first point of contact with the federal immigration system.
3. Aumentar los estándares mínimos de salud y seguridad. para niños y familias en las instalaciones de Aduanas y Protección Fronteriza.
4. Prohibir las separaciones familiares, con excepciones extremadamente limitadas solo en casos en los que es fundamental proteger la seguridad del niño.
5. Prohibir el uso de los centros de detención familiar, sin excepción. 
6. Asegúrese de que todos los niños se colocan en un entorno no adversario para el procesamiento de su caso de asilo. 
7. Crear un proceso para mantener unidas a las familias al permitir que los niños no acompañados que llegan a la frontera al cuidado de abuelos, hermanos adultos o tías o tíos (miembros de la familia que no son padres/tutores legales) permanezcan juntos. 
8. Phase out large congregate care facilities and prioritize family-based placements para niños no acompañados.
9. Requerir que los niños sean colocados en el ambiente menos restrictivo and limit the placement of children in harmful restrictive facilities.
10. Priorizar la liberación rápida de los niños con discapacidad no acompañados y el acceso a los servicios en la comunidad. 
11. Limite el uso de las instalaciones de afluencia and prohibit the placement of unaccompanied children in influx facilities for more than 20 days.
12. Garantía de representación legal para los niños no acompañados en todas las etapas de los procedimientos de expulsión. 
13. Prohibir compartir información sobre niños no acompañados, con escasas excepciones. 
14. Reemplazar lo obsoleto y ofensivo. word “alien” with “noncitizen” in federal statute.
15. Establecer un defensor del pueblo Vigilar y vigilar el cumplimiento de esta Ley. 
16. Acceso a mandatos para miembros del Congreso, personal acompañante y prensa acreditada (sin cámaras) para visitar las instalaciones federales de inmigración. 

El Ley de bienvenida segura para niños is supported by 100+ experts, advocates, and organizations representing migrant children in all stages of our immigration system, including the Young Center for Immigrant Children’s Rights and National Center for Youth Law.

“Every child deserves safety, dignity, and care—not detention,” said Mina Dixon Davis, Senior Policy Analyst at the Young Center for Immigrant Children’s Rights. We hear children’s stories—the fear, the loneliness, the lasting harm—and we know it doesn’t have to be this way. The Ley de bienvenida segura para niños gives Congress the chance to end these cruel practices and put children’s safety and dignity first. Lawmakers must act now to ensure that every child is treated as a child—with care, compassion, and hope for the future.”

“We have interviewed children in federal immigration custody for decades, and their harrowing accounts make one thing clear: federal law was never designed with children in mind, and children pay the painful price for that gap every day. Basic questions about how a child should be housed, cared for, and released have been left to court orders and agency discretion for far too long. The Children’s Safe Welcome Act finally answers those questions in statute,” said Melissa Adamson, Senior Attorney at the National Center for Youth Law. “Today, as the Administration pursues an unprecedented campaign to decimate basic legal protections for children, leaving them indefinitely detained and without the protection of legal counsel, this legislation has never been more critical.”

Texto completo de la Ley de bienvenida segura para niños Se puede encontrar haciendo clic aquí.

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