Caring for children seeking refuge
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**B Stands for Boys & Girls**

Good afternoon,

As the United States continues to grapple with a historic influx of
migrants at the southern border and the arrival of Afghan refugees,
government agencies continue to balance the challenges of caring for
unaccompanied minors and children separated from their families.

Last month, U.S. Customs and Border Protection had 18,847 encounters

with unaccompanied children, only a 1% decrease from its July
encounters. Additionally, the Biden administration is still working to
reunify families who were separated at the border under the previous
administration's Zero Tolerance Policy
.
The federal Family Reunification Task Force recently announced the
expansion of its efforts

to locate the parents of an estimated 4,000 separated children. The task
force launched a registration page for families to contact the
government for assistance and will work with the International
Organization for Migration to help parents legally travel back to the
U.S. to be with their children. Since the start of the task force in
February, about 50 families have been reunited.

It was also announced recently that the Central American Minors

(CAM) initiative is now accepting new applications. The CAM program
-
which began in 2014 under President Obama - provides at-risk children
in El Salvador, Guatemala, and Honduras an opportunity for resettlement
in the U.S. Instead of having children make the dangerous journey to the
southern border, qualifying parents or guardians can apply to have their
children under the age of 21 join them under refugee or parole status.
Before it was terminated by the Trump administration in 2017, the
program

admitted over 3,000 children into the U.S.

Although most Afghan evacuees arriving in the U.S. are adults or
families, over 100 Afghan children have arrived without their parents,
according
 to
the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS). Many of these
children have been reunited with their relatives, but others are now in
the care of HHS' Office of Refugee Resettlement. With the arrival of
these unaccompanied Afghan children, shelters used to house children
mostly from Central America will face new challenges as they figure out
how to best overcome language and cultural differences to serve Afghan
youth.

These developments underscore the importance of establishing a
functional immigration system that includes viable pathways for
vulnerable populations seeking refuge and protection. This belief has
support across party lines. In a new poll

of 1,200 adults, 65% of Americans - including 61% of Republicans, 63%
of Independents and 75% of Democrats - agreed "that the United States
should have a legal, secure process in place to take in people from
oppressed or war-torn countries, such as Afghanistan."

Forum CEO Ali Noorani aptly states: "As a nation, we must not lose sight
of migrants' human dignity or our own humanity. Americans recognize
this. Our policies must reflect it."

Stay healthy and hopeful,

Adam

**Adam Estle**
Vice President of Field and Constituencies
National Immigration Forum 

[link removed]

**NEWS CLIPS TO NOTE:**

**THE xxxxxx:**Securing the Border Without Hardening Our Hearts

**WASHINGTON POST:**Amid furor over border images, Biden faces
Democratic backlash on immigration

**BORDER REPORT:**Advocates, migrants to press Democrats for immigration
reform despite Senate setback

**AL JAZEERA:**US House approves $6.3bn for Afghan refugee resettlement

**CHRISTIANITY TODAY:**The Afghan Immigration Crisis Is Bigger, Faster,
More Traumatic. Are Ministries Ready?

 

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