First Focus on Children sent the following letter to attorney General Merrick Garland and Secretary of Homeland Security Alejandro Mayorkas — co-signed by the Center for Law and Social Policy, CHILDREN AT RISK, Children’s Defense Fund, Children’s Healthwatch, and The Children’s Partnership — to urge them to pursue joint rulemaking to implement procedural changes to streamline cancellation of removal and fully consider the best interests of the child in these cases.
Excerpt from the letter:
The undersigned organizations write to urge your respective agencies to utilize existing authorities to provide much-needed relief and stability to children in mixed-status immigrant families. Today children of immigrants represent a quarter of all U.S. children, and 5.2 million children–the vast majority of whom are U.S. citizens–live in mixed-status families with at least one undocumented parent.1 As organizations dedicated to the health and well-being of infants, children, and youth, we believe it is critical to protect these children from the threat of being separated from their parents due to deportation. Specifically, we urge you to pursue joint rulemaking to implement procedural changes to streamline cancellation of removal and fully consider the best interests of the child in these cases.