For Immediate Release

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Press contacts:

National Center for Youth Law: youthlaw@pacificastrategies.com

Young Center for Immigrant Children’s Rights: media@theyoungcenter.org

Comprehensive legislation would establish child welfare standards for children in federal immigration custody and ensure children are treated with dignity and care

WASHINGTON — Federal lawmakers today reintroduced the Children’s Safe Welcome Act, comprehensive legislation that would establish lasting legal protections for youth and families in the U.S. immigration system. The National Center for Youth Law (NCYL) and the Young Center for Immigrant Children’s Rights, both of which provided expert guidance throughout the bill’s development, urge every member of Congress to support this legislation at this critical moment, as increased immigration enforcement and prolonged detention in federal immigration facilities continue to place children’s health, safety, and well-being at risk.

“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,” said Melissa Adamson, Senior Attorney with the National Center for Youth Law. “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.”

The bill creates the first comprehensive statutory framework centered on children’s safety and well-being throughout every stage of federal immigration custody. Drawing on decades of child welfare research and informed by years of litigation, oversight, and advocacy, the legislation would ensure children spend the least amount of time possible in government custody and receive care consistent with child welfare best practices. Such legislation has gained even more urgency in light of the administration’s continued efforts to weaken longstanding legal protections in the courts.

“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 Children’s Safe Welcome Act 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.”

Many children arrive in the U.S. seeking refuge from violence, persecution, abuse, trafficking, and other dangers, yet the federal immigration system continues to expose many of them to additional trauma after arrival. Federal investigations, court filings, congressional oversight, and reports from medical experts and child advocates have repeatedly documented unsafe and unsanitary conditions in federal immigration facilities, unnecessary family separations, and barriers that keep children in government custody for months.

Among its key provisions, the Children’s Safe Welcome Act would:

• Establish minimum health and safety standards for children and families in Customs and Border Protection custody and strictly limit the amount of time children may be held in CBP facilities.
• Prohibit family detention facilities.
• Prohibit family separations except in narrowly tailored circumstances necessary to protect a child’s safety.
• Keep children together with grandparents, adult siblings, aunts, uncles, and other close relatives when they arrive together at the border, unless doing so would be unsafe.
• Protect unaccompanied children by limiting unnecessary information sharing and ensuring sponsor vetting focuses on child safety rather than immigration enforcement.
• Significantly limit the placement of children in restrictive facilities.
• Guarantee legal representation for unaccompanied children throughout removal proceedings.
• Establish an independent Ombudsperson Office to monitor compliance and investigate concerns.

The legislation, initially introduced in 2022 and reintroduced in 2024, also strengthens and complements existing protections, including the Flores Settlement Agreement and the Trafficking Victims Protection Reauthorization Act, while ensuring these critical safeguards remain in place regardless of future litigation or administrative action.

“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.” said Melissa Adamson.

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The National Center for Youth Law centers youth through research, community collaboration, impact litigation, and policy advocacy that fundamentally transforms our nation’s approach to education, health, immigration, foster care, and youth justice. Attorneys and advocates with the National Center for Youth Law have direct access to children and families in immigration custody, due to the organization’s role as Flores counsel. This has allowed NCYL attorneys to witness, up-close, the harm the current immigration system continues to inflict on children and their families. For more information, visit www.youthlaw.org.

The Young Center for Immigrant Children’s Rights protects and advances the rights and best interests of immigrant children according to the Convention on the Rights of the Child and state and federal law. The organization serves as a trusted ally for children who arrive in the U.S. on their own or are separated from their families at the border. For more information, visit www.theyoungcenter.org.