On May 27, 2020, the Young Center, alongside 262 legal, faith-based, humanitarian, human rights, and community organizations, sent a joint letter to the Department of Homeland Security and the Centers for Disease Control to strenuously object to the administration's exploitation of the COVID-19 pandemic as a pretext to implement indefinite, illegal, and life-threatening restrictions on humanitarian protections at our southern border.

Under the guise of COVID-19, the administration has used a CDC order to prevent everyone, including vulnerable accompanied children, from seeking protection. In just six weeks, DHS has blocked and turned away at least 21,000 people-including likely thousands of asylum-seekers and over 1,000 unaccompanied children-expelling them to places where they face risks of kidnapping, rape, and murder, without the legally-required opportunity to seek protection in the United States. According to federal law, the government is required to allow unaccompanied immigrant children into the country and transfer them into the custody of the Office of Refugee Resettlement where they can pursue reunification with family members in the U.S. Likewise, the U.S. is required under international treaties to allow a chance to seek protection to adults fleeing persecution and abuse. In turning people away expeditiously, DHS is blatantly violating U.S. law and treaty obligations to protect those seeking humanitarian protection, only to fulfill the administration’s long-sought plan of closing the border to those seeking safety.

Click here to read the letter in full.