FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:
1.29.2020
Washington, DC – A year after the Trump Administration implemented a new policy that requires certain asylum seekers to wait in Mexico for the duration of the immigration proceedings in their case, Kids in Need of Defense (KIND) warns that the policy has placed nearly 57,000 asylum seekers – including more than 16,000 children – at risk and sidesteps the United States’ legal obligation to protect vulnerable children and other asylum seekers at our borders.
More than 300 children who were returned to dangerous border areas in Mexico with their families were reportedly later forced to flee to the United States again – this time alone – because their parents have disappeared or deemed the situation too perilous.
In a statement issued today, Young notes:
“This administration’s Migrant Protection Protocols (MPP) are proven to be anything but protective. It is placing migrants, including children, in danger, and in some cases resulting in kidnappings, rape, human trafficking, and murder. KIND’s work with children who have returned to the United States alone after being directly impacted by this misguided policy has found that some returned to the U.S. border after their parents disappeared or when criminal groups targeted their families for assault, kidnapping, or worse. The administration’s policies are causing yet another form of tragic family separation. These policies are ineffective, inhuman, and incomprehensible. The administration should uphold our nation’s obligations under the law and protect kids at our borders, not send them back to face near certain harm and suffering while they await a distant court date.”
To learn more about MPP, see KIND’s new resource “Remain in Mexico: Unlawful and Unsafe for Children.”
To speak with Young or learn more about KIND’s work, contact Megan McKenna at mmckenna@supportkind.org or 202-631-9990.
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