Unaccompanied children are children first

Policies and practices designed for adults are largely inappropriate for unaccompanied children. The best interests of the child should be at the center of all decisions regarding reception at the border, care and custody determinations, and final outcomes of cases such as granting asylum or determining that a child must return to their home country.

Children are children first, regardless of their immigration status or national origin.

Immigration laws and policies affecting children should be developed with children in mind and consider children’s unique needs and developmental characteristics. Currently, there is a gap between how the immigration system treats children and how other areas of law treat children. The Keeping Kids Safe campaign builds on long-standing notions of society’s responsibility to safeguard all children and aims to bring immigration law in line with widely accepted child protection practices.