Advocacy Update: Protecting services and safeguards for unaccompanied children
- Thursday, May 26, 2011 |
- Written by Megan Mckenna
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Appropriations season is underway on Capitol Hill. KIND has been working to ensure that adequate funding for unaccompanied children's services is appropriated to the Department of Health and Human Services. We are urging Members of Congress on the Appropriations Committee to support the President's budget request of $177 million for these services. A small portion of this funding is used to facilitate these children's access to pro bono counsel, among other vital services. The funding is needed to find pro bono lawyers for the growing number of unaccompanied children coming forward to ask for counsel so that they are not forced to face the immigration system alone. The appropriations process will continue throughout the summer and fall. We will keep you posted on its progress.
In addition, KIND is working to support the reauthorization of a key piece of legislation for unaccompanied children, the William Wilberforce Trafficking Victims Protection Reauthorization Act of 2008. The law includes significant protections for unaccompanied children, including trafficking victims and other vulnerable populations. KIND is working to ensure that the protections that have helped so many unaccompanied children are included in the new reauthorization bill, and that they are in fact being implemented on the ground. The new bill has not yet been introduced in the Senate or House, but is expected within the next few months.
