FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE 

Wednesday, November 9, 2022 

Media Contact: Anabel Mendoza | amendoza@theyoungcenter.org 

Washington D.C.— Today, the U.S. Supreme Court held oral arguments in Brackeen v. Haaland, a case challenging the constitutionality of the Indian Child Welfare Act (ICWA) and threatening the sovereign status of tribal nations.  

Established in 1978, ICWA codified federal protections for American Indian and Alaska Native children involved in state child custody proceedings by prioritizing efforts to keep them connected to their families and tribes whenever possible. The law was enacted in response to the systematic removal of Native American children from their families and tribes and placement with non-Native families with the intent of depriving them of their Native family or culture. As the National Indian Child Welfare Association has reported, Native American children are two to three times more likely than white children to be removed from their homes and placed in settings away from loved ones, even when placements with relatives or other Native families that can better preserve their cultural, linguistic, and tribal ties are available.   

Abena Hutchful, Policy and Litigation Attorney at the Young Center for Immigrant Children’s Rights, said: 

"All children have a fundamental right to be with their family and be connected to their culture and communities. The Young Center has fought to protect this right by reuniting unaccompanied and separated immigrant children with their families, while also fighting to preserve ties to their cultures and languages when they are held in government custody. However, the right to family, culture, and community is under serious threat for Native American children.  

For decades, the Indian Child Welfare Act (ICWA) helped protect Native American children involved in state custody proceedings from being forcibly removed from their homes and placed in settings away from their Native families, tribes, and culture. We cannot ignore the inhumanity of ripping children from their families and especially the deeply rooted colonial history of doing so to Native American children. That’s why, today, I stood outside the Supreme Court, alongside hundreds of others to fight for ICWA and demand families are kept together.   

It should be obvious to all of us that all children belong and thrive with their families and communities. Severing familial, cultural, and linguistic ties causes irreparable trauma for children and their families. At the Young Center, we’ve worked with hundreds of children ripped from their parents' arms during the Trump-era "Zero-tolerance" policy, including children who suffered panic attacks, reverted developmentally, and forgotten their mother tongue.  

Repealing ICWA would have sweeping consequences on child protection standards and could set in motion even more dangerous efforts to remove children of all different backgrounds, immigration status, identities, cultures, and languages who are involved in child welfare cases from their families and their communities. The U.S. Supreme Court must uphold the critical protections set forth under ICWA, ensure tribal sovereignty is honored, and keep families together.” 

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The Young Center for Immigrant Children’s Rights is a non-profit organization that protects and advances the rights and best interests of immigrant children and advocates for an immigration system that treats children as children first. For press inquiries, please contact Anabel Mendoza at amendoza@theyoungcenter.org