What Happens When Migrant Children Are Taken Into U.S. Custody?

Written by Joshua Breisblatt 

The glut of stories surfacing about family separation and the increasing number of migrant children being taken into U.S. custody is deeply concerning. In the past, children detained in shelters had arrived at the border without an adult. Now, however, the U.S. government is making children unaccompanied by intentionally separating them from their parents upon arrival.

Presumably the same policies, procedures, and security checks U.S. officials follow when taking custody of unaccompanied children will apply to the children they take away from parents, who are being criminally prosecuted and detained separately. However, these policies and procedures are about to be put to the test. 

The Trump administration’s new family separation policy has already resulted in 658 children being separated from their parents in just a 13-day span in May. This increase in family separations means more children in the government’s custody for whom they must find a new home. 

Currently when migrant children arrive at the U.S. border unaccompanied they are placed in the care and custody of the Office of Refugee Resettlement (ORR), a part of the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS). Currently, ORR has a network of approximately 100 shelters in 14 states around the United States. 

The government then works to identify parents, other family members, or guardians to sponsor and care for the child while their immigration proceeding continues—proceedings they often face alone with no right to government-appointed legal representation. 

When an appropriate sponsor cannot be located, the child may be placed in foster care. 

An additional wrinkle comes as Immigration and Customs Enforcement proposes stricter vetting around the immigration status of sponsors, making it perilous for undocumented parents or other family members to come forward to take custody of a child. 

There is already a rigorous screening process for sponsors, including a criminal background check and sex offender registry check. Additionally, if the sponsor is not a parent or legal guardian, additional background checks are required. 

In 2016, ORR began making phone calls 30 days after placing an unaccompanied child with a parent or other sponsor. Although not required by law or regulation, HHS chose to take this step to follow up on the success of the placement. When sponsors did not answer the calls, however, it was misreported that HHS “lost” almost 1,500 children in 2017. It is quite possible that these families were limiting their contact with the U.S. government, but complying with requirements to check in with ICE or the immigration court. 

In the coming weeks and months, it will be important for Congress and the public to monitor how children in ORR are treated as the number of families separated at the border continues to rise. This self-inflicted crisis by the administration cannot be an excuse for the United States to not meet its obligations to these children. 

 

Source: www.immigrationimpact.com 

http://inmigracionyvisas.com/a3813-migrant-children-taken-into-custody-in-US.html 

USCIS Changes to Asylum Interview Scheduling Allows Long-Pending Cases to Languish

 

Written by Royce Murray 

U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) made abrupt and sweeping changes to how the agency will schedule interviews for affirmative asylum applications. Rather than interviewing those who have been waiting months or years for their interview, asylum offices will now prioritize brand new filings ahead of all others waiting in the queue. 

While scheduling asylum interviews in a timely manner is important to applicants, as well as the government, this decision will create additional obstacles for many worthy applicants looking to successfully claim asylum. Over the years while applicants wait for an interview, detailed memories fade, supporting documents get lost, corroborating witnesses become harder to find, and evidence grows stale. Long delays also prevent family members from reuniting in safety together, as spouses or children may be left in tenuous situations outside of the United States. 

Announced in late January and effective immediately, USCIS will schedule interviews following three priorities: 

1. Applications previously scheduled but the interview had to be rescheduled at the request of the applicant or USCIS; 
2. Applications pending 21 days or less since filing; 
3. All other pending asylum applications, starting with newer filings and working back toward older filings. 

The trigger of this scheduling shift is the lack of adequate resources for the asylum program. 

USCIS currently reports a backlog of 311,000 pending asylum cases, which has steadily grown in the past five years as violent conditions in the Northern Triangle of Central America sent many asylum seekers to the U.S. southern border. Subjected to a fast-track deportation process called “expedited removal,” asylum seekers are given a preliminary screening by an asylum officer to protect against wrongfully deporting people back to grave harm. Many asylum officers were tasked with handling these screening interviews rather than previously filed, affirmative asylum cases, and there were not enough new officers brought on board to meet operational needs. 

The workload challenges the asylum program is facing right now are not new. In the mid-1990s, when the asylum program was unable to handle the volume of applications, the asylum system saw numerous reforms, including staffing up the program and delaying issuance of a work permit only to those whose applications were pending for six months. 

Those changes had an impact but as caseloads ebb and flow, USCIS must continue to adapt. When the need for asylum grows, so too must our commitment to protecting those at risk. Rather than pitting old cases against new cases, the agency must set the asylum program up for success by staffing the program with a sufficient number of asylum officers to meet demand.

 

Source: www.immigrationimpact.com 

http://inmigracionyvisas.com/a3768-Changes-to-Asylum-Interview-Scheduling.html