{"id":104025,"date":"2019-07-05T15:13:06","date_gmt":"2019-07-05T19:13:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/madisoncountycourier.com\/?p=104025"},"modified":"2019-07-05T12:17:12","modified_gmt":"2019-07-05T16:17:12","slug":"senators-call-on-agency-to-immediately-implement-policies-to-protect-children","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/madisoncountycourier.com\/?p=104025","title":{"rendered":"Senators call on agency to immediately implement policies to protect children"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<ul class=\"wp-block-gallery columns-3 is-cropped wp-block-gallery-1 is-layout-flex wp-block-gallery-is-layout-flex\"><li class=\"blocks-gallery-item\"><figure><img data-recalc-dims=\"1\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"220\" height=\"275\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/madisoncountycourier.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/07\/220px-Amy_Klobuchar_official_portrait_113th_Congress.jpg?resize=220%2C275&#038;ssl=1\" alt=\"\" data-id=\"104026\" data-link=\"https:\/\/madisoncountycourier.com\/?attachment_id=104026\" class=\"wp-image-104026\" srcset=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/madisoncountycourier.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/07\/220px-Amy_Klobuchar_official_portrait_113th_Congress.jpg?w=220&amp;ssl=1 220w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/madisoncountycourier.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/07\/220px-Amy_Klobuchar_official_portrait_113th_Congress.jpg?resize=120%2C150&amp;ssl=1 120w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 220px) 100vw, 220px\" \/><figcaption>Amy Klobuchar<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/li><li class=\"blocks-gallery-item\"><figure><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1200\" height=\"1650\" src=\"https:\/\/i2.wp.com\/madisoncountycourier.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/07\/1200px-Senator_Harris_official_senate_portrait.jpg?fit=640%2C879&amp;ssl=1\" alt=\"\" data-id=\"104027\" data-link=\"https:\/\/madisoncountycourier.com\/?attachment_id=104027\" class=\"wp-image-104027\" srcset=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/madisoncountycourier.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/07\/1200px-Senator_Harris_official_senate_portrait.jpg?w=1200&amp;ssl=1 1200w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/madisoncountycourier.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/07\/1200px-Senator_Harris_official_senate_portrait.jpg?resize=109%2C150&amp;ssl=1 109w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/madisoncountycourier.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/07\/1200px-Senator_Harris_official_senate_portrait.jpg?resize=218%2C300&amp;ssl=1 218w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/madisoncountycourier.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/07\/1200px-Senator_Harris_official_senate_portrait.jpg?resize=655%2C900&amp;ssl=1 655w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/madisoncountycourier.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/07\/1200px-Senator_Harris_official_senate_portrait.jpg?resize=400%2C550&amp;ssl=1 400w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 640px) 100vw, 640px\" \/><figcaption>Kamala Harris<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/li><li class=\"blocks-gallery-item\"><figure><img data-recalc-dims=\"1\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"220\" height=\"279\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/madisoncountycourier.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/07\/220px-Kirsten_Gillibrand_official_portrait_112th_Congress.jpg?resize=220%2C279&#038;ssl=1\" alt=\"\" data-id=\"104028\" data-link=\"https:\/\/madisoncountycourier.com\/?attachment_id=104028\" class=\"wp-image-104028\" srcset=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/madisoncountycourier.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/07\/220px-Kirsten_Gillibrand_official_portrait_112th_Congress.jpg?w=220&amp;ssl=1 220w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/madisoncountycourier.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/07\/220px-Kirsten_Gillibrand_official_portrait_112th_Congress.jpg?resize=118%2C150&amp;ssl=1 118w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 220px) 100vw, 220px\" \/><figcaption>Kirsten Gillibrand<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n\n<h4 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Move follows troubling reports of migrant children being held for extended periods of time in unlicensed facilities with dire conditions<\/h4>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Following disturbing reports from federal oversight agencies\nand the media of children being held for extended periods of time in unlicensed\nfacilities, U.S. Senators Kirsten Gillibrand (D-NY), Kamala Harris (D-CA), and\nAmy Klobuchar (D-MN) called on the Office of Refugee Resettlement to\nimmediately reevaluate and reform its policies concerning migrant children in\nits care.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The Senators called out ORR for being in direct violation of\nthe 1997<em>&nbsp;Flores Settlement Agreement (Flores),<\/em>&nbsp;which\nestablished that children must be released to sponsors or transferred to\nlicensed facilities as quickly as possible.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Despite receiving the nearly $3 billion in full funding it\nrecently requested, ORR is still in violation of&nbsp;<em>Flores<\/em>, failing to\naddress the humanitarian needs of children and keeping them detained in\nunlicensed facilities that do not have properly vetted staff and are not\nadequately equipped to provide care.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><em>&nbsp;\u201cWe cannot\ncompromise on the safety and wellbeing of children facing extended lengths of\nstay in government custody, and already we\u2019ve seen far too many examples of\nabuse. ORR needs to immediately implement policies that ensure facilities\ncomply with state vetting and training requirements for staff, no matter how\nquickly the facility needs to be operationalized,\u201d<\/em>&nbsp;the Senators wrote<em>. \u201c\u2026ORR should be\nprioritizing reunification of every child as soon as possible, but instead it\nhas been responsible for policies that are forcing longer stays in government\ncustody for children. You now have the funding you said you needed, and your\noffice must ensure that the custody and processing of UACs is meeting the\nminimum standards required by domestic and international law.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Last month, Gillibrand called on Senate Appropriators to\nrestrict funding for facilities that do not meet minimum standards of care to\nprotect migrant children. Gillibrand also called for appropriators to restrict\nany funding that may be used to implement the Memorandum of Agreement between\nImmigration and Customs Enforcement, Customs and Border Patrol and ORR, in\nwhich information obtained from children, such as citizenship status of\npotential sponsors, is shared between these agencies. This would help reduce\nthe manufactured over-capacity problem that the Trump Administration cites as\nthe need for unlicensed facilities.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">A copy of the letter\nmay be found&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.gillibrand.senate.gov\/imo\/media\/doc\/7.3.19_Letter_to_ORR_re_UAC_Sponsor_and_Placement_Policy_Improvements_final_signed_pdf_7.3.19.pdf\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">here<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Move follows troubling reports of migrant children being held for extended periods of time in unlicensed facilities with dire conditions Following disturbing reports from federal oversight agencies and the media of children being held for extended periods of time in unlicensed facilities, U.S. Senators Kirsten Gillibrand (D-NY), Kamala Harris (D-CA), and Amy Klobuchar (D-MN) called [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":104028,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[23810,8],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-104025","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-wellbeing","category-top-story"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[],"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p43meu-r3P","jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/madisoncountycourier.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/07\/220px-Kirsten_Gillibrand_official_portrait_112th_Congress.jpg?fit=220%2C279&ssl=1","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/madisoncountycourier.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/104025","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/madisoncountycourier.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/madisoncountycourier.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/madisoncountycourier.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/madisoncountycourier.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=104025"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/madisoncountycourier.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/104025\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/madisoncountycourier.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/104028"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/madisoncountycourier.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=104025"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/madisoncountycourier.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=104025"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/madisoncountycourier.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=104025"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}