Nonpartisan recommendations for the next administration prioritize protection and promote government efficiency
Washington, D.C. – Kids in Need of Defense (KIND) released a comprehensive resource that examines U.S. policies affecting unaccompanied children and provides practical recommendations for how the next presidential administration can improve the protection, safety, and well-being of these children, while also contributing to safe, orderly, and humane migration processes and government efficiency. The resource, KIND Blueprint 2024: Practical Solutions that Protect Unaccompanied Children Seeking Safety, outlines a vision for unaccompanied children in the United States and beyond U.S. borders.
The Blueprint is grounded in KIND’s work with thousands of unaccompanied children for more than 15 years and provides an administrative roadmap for upholding and advancing protections for unaccompanied children at all points of their journey toward safety. It leverages experience and best practices from the child welfare, immigration, and international sectors. The Blueprint is both reflective and proactive — evaluating the effectiveness of current policies in protecting children and proposing tailored, pragmatic measures the executive branch can implement to prepare to meet children’s needs today and in the future. While focusing on opportunities available through administrative powers and actions, the Blueprint highlights the critical necessity of legislative action and fiscal commitments by Congress to usher holistic and permanent change.
“Unaccompanied children face unique vulnerabilities throughout their migration journey,” said KIND President Wendy Young. “KIND’s Blueprint offers commonsense solutions that, if implemented, would realize essential reforms that can improve child protection and well-being while reducing processing backlogs and advancing government efficiency and U.S. leadership globally. The strategic partnerships and development assistance recommended in the Blueprint would enhance safety and opportunity in children’s countries of origin and reduce the likelihood that they will be forced to seek protection elsewhere.”
Key recommendations for the U.S. government include:
- Ensure legal representation for unaccompanied children in immigration proceedings.
- Expand government-wide efforts to combat child labor trafficking and exploitation.
- Fully implement children’s dockets in the immigration courts to improve the fairness and efficiency of proceedings
- Uphold family unity and take steps to prevent unnecessary separations of children from parents and other family caregivers when developing and implementing border and immigration policies.
- Expand efforts to address root causes and drivers of child migration to help children find protection and reduce the need for them to undertake dangerous journeys.
The full report can be found here and the executive summary here.
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Wendy Young, President of KIND, and Jennifer Podkul, Chief of Global Policy and Advocacy, are available to discuss how the government can prioritize the safety and well-being of unaccompanied children.
Media Contact:
Megan McKenna, mmckenna@supportkind.org, 202-631-9990
Hannah Gavin at kind@westendstrategy.com (202) 765-4290