Congressman Dan Goldman Leads Fight Against Child Labor to Protect Unaccompanied Migrant Children
Congressman Goldman Calls for Improved Services for Unaccompanied Children to Help End Child Labor
Urges Congress to Direct Department of Justice Create Children’s Docket to Address Unique Vulnerability of Unaccompanied Minors
Thousands of Children Subjected to Child Labor Exploitation in the United States, Often Facing Brutal Jobs in Dangerous Working Conditions
Washington D.C. – Last week,Congressman Dan Goldman (NY-10) and Congresswoman Hillary Scholten (MI-03) led their colleagues in requesting expansive efforts be undertaken to protect unaccompanied children migrating into the United States. Representatives Goldman and Scholten led members of Congress in requesting the Department of Justice create a specialized children’s dockets for unaccompanied children and requesting the Office of Refugee Resettlement improve and expand post-release services for unaccompanied children to protect them from exploitation and keep them out of dangerous working conditions.
Unaccompanied children face unique challenges in their attempts to navigate an immigration system designed for adults, causing many children to fall through the cracks. In 2022, the Department of Labor found nearly 4,000 children employed in violation of child labor laws. The number of children illegally employed has increased by 70 percent over the past five years.
Children’s dockets would ensure that specially trained judges, child-friendly courtrooms, and connections to legal services organization are available for unaccompanied children.
These improvements would ensure children have due process as they navigate the immigration system, their new situations, and protect their wellbeing.
“Our nation’s broken immigration system has allowed the exploitation of vulnerable children for far too long,” Congressman Dan Goldman said. “As a result of this failure and the expectation that children should be left to navigate a system designed for adults, kids who should be in school have been left in the shadows of our supply chains, violating our nation’s fair labor laws. We cannot turn a blind eye to this injustice any longer. The Office of Refugee Resettlement must enhance its post-release services for children passing through its system and with the use of children’s dockets, we can create a fairer and more humane immigration system.”
Kids in Need of Defense President, Wendy Young said, “KIND commends Representative Goldman and his fellow Members of Congress for championing a specialized children’s docket within our nation’s immigration court system. Their call to create a child-appropriate environment where these kids are more likely to receive due process recognizes the unique needs of children appearing before an immigration judge, and this vital proposal would also relieve strain on the immigration court system nationwide.”
Senior Policy Advisor at the Women's Refugee Commission Mario Bruzzone, said, “Unaccompanied children are among the most vulnerable in the United States, and it's common that an unaccompanied child has suffered trafficking, violence, or abuse. Children who survive such traumas need special protections -- specialized processes that can engender safety and rebuild broken trust. Dedicated children's dockets with child-appropriate procedures in immigration court are a crucial first step towards a fairer system. The Women’s Refugee Commission is grateful to Representative Goldman and Representative Scholten for their leadership on such a critical issue and applauds their efforts to build a fairer court system for children."
Approximately 122,000 unaccompanied children crossed into the United States in 2022 only to face a massive immigration system that is insufficiently designed to address their unique needs. Unaccompanied children, often lacking a strong support system to help them navigate their new situation, are also not guaranteed a right to counsel as they attempt to participate in court proceedings that may not make any accommodation for their developmental level.
With a specialized children’s docket, unaccompanied children would be more likely to receive adequate due process in a system that is overseen by a specially trained corps of judges, takes place in a child-friendly courtroom, and includes developmentally appropriate procedures that enhance a child’s ability to fully participate in the adjudication.
This structure would enhance due process and could simultaneously create efficiencies for the overburdened courts. Separating out unaccompanied children’s cases could help courts streamline the handling of cases with applications awaiting adjudication by U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services, thereby avoiding duplication of efforts by multiple government agencies.
Under federal law, the Office of Refugee Resettlement (ORR) is responsible for processing and placing unaccompanied migrant children. Many of these children coming every day are under pressure to support their families back home or have to support the financial instability of their lives in the United States.
Congressman Goldman and other members of the House of Representatives are urging the Committee to include funding for improved post-release services to enhance and extend case management services to children that are released from ORR care, with particular awareness for children whose primary language is neither English nor Spanish, pregnant or parenting teens, as well as children who faced separation from a parent or legal guardian at the border.
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