Dems: Migrant children in custody need support
State lawmakers want accounting to provide additional services
A federal judge in California last year said the U.S. government kept better track of equipment than the children separated from their parents at the southern border.
In response to those types of concerns, New York’s Democratic state lawmakers are proposing legislation to find out how many unaccompanied migrant children are here and to provide them with additional services.
When a leaked video last summer broke the news that immigrant children as young as 9 months old were being held at the Cayuga Center in Harlem, Sen. Brian A. Benjamin, a Democrat who represents the district, took immediate interest in the issue.
“Let me be clear: we cannot trust Trump’s federal government to look after the migrant children they are tearing from their parents at the border,” Benjamin said. “It is a moral imperative that New York state provide leadership and accountability. These children are here, we need to stand up and take responsibility.”
After meeting with social service providers and faith leaders, Benjamin proposed a bill that would require the state Office of Children and Family Services to track and report semi-annually the number of children in the custody of the Office of Refugee Resettlement under the U.S. Department of Health and Human Service in New York. The bill passed the Democratic-majority state Senate last week.
There were 12,500 unaccompanied children nationwide in ORR custody in April. The agency doesn’t provide numbers by state, but said more than 3,000 were released to sponsors in New York. It’s been reported hundreds of those were in 11 residential centers in the state last summer, including a Kingston facility that is the closest center to the Capital Region.
ORR aims to create a safe and healthy environment in shelters with access to nutritious food, clean clothes, education and medical services. They seek to place children with a sponsor while immigration cases are pending, the agency said.
The bill is also intended to hold the agency accountable amid reports of missing kids. Last April, ORR said it lost track of more than 1,500 children released to sponsors, usually guardians or relatives.
That was before the government’s “zero-tolerance” policy last summer and the number of families crossing the southern border skyrocketed. While separation is also done in cases where trafficking is suspected, the main purpose of zero-tolerance was to deter illegal border crossings.
Adults who crossed the border were prosecuted criminally for illegal entry. Children were separated from them, docu
mented as unaccompanied minors and placed in ORR custody. U.S. District Judge Dana Sabraw of San Diego has slammed the government for documenting trucks better than kids and ordered the agency to reunite families, but it may take as long as two years.
It’s not clear whether the state Office of Children and Family Services already tracks children or if the bill’s requirements would require it to take on those duties. Craig Smith, a spokesman, said the agency doesn’t comment on pending legislation.
For Democratic lawyers, keeping track of children snared in the immigration vortex is a first step before the end of this year’s session.
Assemblywoman Patricia Fahy, an Albany Democrat and one of the bill’s co-sponsors, said the chamber’s Children and Families committee chair wants to focus on passing another bill to provide more support services to unaccompanied, undocumented children.
That support would include legal representation, health care, traumainformed counseling, bilingual support groups, public school enrollment, employment assistance and connecting them with foster care services.
The bill is still in committee in both legislative chambers. It’s unclear how much the services would cost the state. If it has a fiscal impact, it might have trouble passing or be subject to a veto, Fahy said.
“The more we can bring in to the open, the more we can keep it in the public eye ... the better we can track and draw attention to transparency,” Fahy said. “Most people don’t know that while it’s better, it’s still ongoing.”