Expanding Title 42 Will Put Children in Danger and Continue the Horrifying Practice of Separating Families
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Thursday, September 15, 2022
Media Contact: Anabel Mendoza | amendoza@theyoungcenter.org
Washington D.C.— This week, more news surfaced confirming that Title 42 is an abject failure and ongoing violation of human rights. Since 2020, Title 42 has denied hundreds of thousands of people their legal right to seek asylum in the United States. It has also resulted in children’s separation from parents summarily expelled under this policy. Rather than ending the program, the Biden Administration is allegedly asking Mexico to accept even more people turned away at our border. That request underscores the false premise of the policy—it never was, and still is not, a policy about public health; it is simply an immigration policy designed to prevent access to asylum.
No policy should deter people from seeking safety when their life is in danger. Increasing expulsions will not address the root causes of migration. We have an obligation to welcome all people seeking protection humanely and safely.
Gladis Molina Alt, Executive Director of the Young Center for Immigrant Children’s Rights, said:
“Any effort to expand Title 42 is a deep betrayal of the Biden administration’s promise to protect children, keep immigrant families together, and fully restore the right to asylum. While the Biden administration took a step forward in terminating Title 42 for unaccompanied children, children who arrive to the U.S. with their parents or other adult loved ones remain at risk of being sent back to the very danger they fled or are forced to separate from their family to seek asylum alone. We have all witnessed the catastrophe of family separations under the prior administration and the devastating trauma it inflicted on the lives of thousands of children. In no capacity, should children be separated from their families. The Biden administration must restore the right to asylum for all 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 media@theyoungcenter.org