MEDIA ADVISORY

WHAT:
A briefing on the impact of immigration policy on children

WHEN:
Thursday, November 5, 2009
11:00am-12:00pm

WHERE:
121 Cannon House Office Building

WHO:
Speakers will include:

  • Representative Lynn C. Woolsey (D-CA)
  • Representative Lucille Roybal-Allard (D-CA)
  • Omar Riojas, Esq.: DLA Piper, pro bono counsel to Missouri mom
  • J. Manuel Casas, PhD: American Psychological Association
  • David Thronson, Esq.: William S. Boyd School of Law, University of Las Vegas
  • Wendy Young, Esq.: Kids in Need of Defense
  • Moderated by Michelle Brané of the Women’s Refugee Commission

WASHINGTON, DC – On Thursday, Congressional leaders and key experts will participate in a discussion of the unintended consequences of immigration enforcement on children and families. At issue will be conditions of custody and enforcement measures that compromise the welfare, rights, and well-being of children and families. Experts will also touch on comprehensive immigration reform and how it can include critical safeguards to protect children and ensure family unity.

Hundreds of thousands of children, including U.S. citizen children, are suffering from immigration enforcement and detention policies. Current practices prevent vulnerable migrant children from accessing protection and result in the needless (and sometimes permanent) separation of children from their parents.

Encarnación Bail Romero, a Missouri mom fighting to regain custody of her two year old son will be available for interviews with the media following the briefing. Romero’s rights to her child, a U.S. citizen, were terminated when she was detained in an immigration raid. The full story of story Encarnación’s struggle can be found here.

First Focus, a bipartisan children’s advocacy organization, as well as Legal Momentum, Lutheran Immigration and Refugee Service, and the Women’s Refugee Commission are convening the event in cooperation with the offices of Representative Lynn C. Woolsey and Representative Lucille Roybal-Allard.

Panelists will discuss the following legislation, which would address this problem:

  • Humane Enforcement and Legal Protections (HELP) for Separated Children Act, (H.R.3531) would provide critical, nationwide protocols to protect the rights of vulnerable populations during immigration enforcement procedures. Specifically, it would help keep children with their parents or caregivers and out of the foster care system while their parents’ or caregiver’s case is pending by ensuring that vulnerable populations apprehended during immigration enforcement activities are identified, treated with dignity and released or placed into alternatives to detention programs.
  • Immigration Oversight and Fairness Act (H.R. 1215) would create protections for vulnerable populations, including unaccompanied immigrant children and women, and create legally enforceable detention standards that will ensure dignity and safety of immigration detainees and protect their due process rights.