Defending Children's Right to Asylum
On Tuesday, July 14, 2020, the Young Center submitted a detailed comment opposing the Departments of Justice and Homeland Security’s proposed changes to the U.S. asylum system. The proposed rule would jeopardize the safety and well-being of children by increasing barriers to their right to seek and win asylum. Children are different from adults. They face threats to their safety that are particular to their status as children. Trauma impacts their ability to recall and recount their experiences in a manner specific to their age and developmental stage. Federal law recognizes these differences and affords special protections to children seeking asylum. But the proposed rule abandons these protections. It would eliminate consideration of children’s asylum cases with a child-sensitive lens, particularly when examining the elements of persecution and the ground of “particular social group.” The rule would deny protection to children seeking safety from gang recruitment or gang violence, gender-based violence, and violence targeted at LGBTQ youth. It would redefine “political opinion” in a manner that would exclude children’s legitimate claims. It would redefine persecution and firm resettlement without consideration of how children experience violence and migration. The rule mandates consideration of sweeping, adverse factors that deny the realities of childhood. It would strip children of access to adjudicators through pretermission and it would invite accusations of “frivolous” claims by children—many of whom remain unrepresented. In short, it would return children to danger rather than ensuring full and fair consideration of their experiences of or fear of persecution. Because the proposed rule undermines the best interests of immigrant children, it should be rescinded in its entirety.
Click here to read our comment. The deadline to submit a comment is Wednesday, July 15, 2020.