Young Center Defends Protections for Immigrant Children

This week, the Young Center joined more than 100 national organizations and more than 66,000 individuals in protesting the government’s latest effort to roll back 20-year-old protections for immigrant children known as the “Flores agreement.” In September, the Department of Homeland Security announced new regulations that would permit the agency to indefinitely detain immigrant children and their parents. The proposed regulations would also make it much harder for unaccompanied children (children who arrive on their own) to be released from custody and live with family during their immigration cases. In October, the Young Center’s policy team participated in a national effort to help individuals and agencies understand the wide-ranging threats to children under the proposed regulations. On November 6th, the Young Center submitted a detailed comment objecting to a range of policies included in the new regulation. We are grateful to all of the Young Center supporters who submitted their own comments. We will continue to defend the Flores agreement and the other laws enacted to ensure immigrant children are treated first as children.