Advocacy Update: Keeping Children Close to Vital Services
- Wednesday, May 12, 2010 |
- Written by Megan Mckenna
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Imagine being an unaccompanied child detained hundreds of miles from a major metropolitan area far from pro bono legal and medical services, and having a hard time accessing this vital assistance as a result. Imagine if a new government policy was going to ensure that many more children were in this same situation?
The Office of Management and Budget (OMB) suggested just such a policy change late last year that was echoed in the Administration's FY2011 budget request for unaccompanied children's services. OMB directed the Department of Health and Human Services to ensure that 65 percent of beds for unaccompanied children were within 250 miles of the border by 2012, and that 75 percent of beds were within this limit by 2016 - to save the Department of Homeland Security money on transporting children to more centrally located facilities. Advocates have been urging for years that detention centers that house unaccompanied children be built close to major metropolitan areas to ensure that the children have access to pro bono legal and other services, known as "constellations of care", and away from the border.
KIND has been working with its partners to highlight the significant drawbacks of this suggested policy; this effort is starting to pay off. The FY2011 Senate Appropriations Subcommittee for Labor, Health and Human Services, and Education has specifically excluded funding to HHS to concentrate more shelter space within 250 miles of the border. In its report, the subcommittee stated that it needs "a comprehensive evaluation of the support services available to children in these areas compared to those in other shelter locations across the country, and an evaluation of the costs of such an initiative compared to savings from reducing transportation costs." The House subcommittee language has not yet been made public.
While a big step in the right direction, this language still needs to be accepted by the full Senate Appropriations Committee, as well as by the Conference Committee that will reconcile the Senate and House appropriations bills. The final bill will likely be passed after the November elections.
