January 26 Update: Thanks to the powerful support of UUSC, its members, and our partners and allies, more than 30,000 people and institutions submitted a public comment on the United States’ family separation policy. Most of the comments supported the dismantling of the harmful and disastrous program that separates immigrant families in migration! Great work!
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The Biden administration has posted an official request for comments regarding “ways to minimize the separation of migrant parents and legal guardians and children entering the United States[.]” Any member of the public is invited to weigh in.
Well…they asked for it!
Several of the administration’s current policies needlessly separate immigrant families. Biden may have verbally repudiated the Trump administration’s “zero tolerance” policy of taking migrant children from their parents, but his team has kept in place other Trump-era practices that cruelly deprive people of their loved ones.
This public comment period offers an opportunity to tell the administration we will hold them accountable to their promises. They must go beyond rhetorically denouncing the former president’s policies and make real changes that allow families to seek asylum together and safely on U.S. soil.
Specifically, they must:
- End the Title 42 anti-asylum policy that often forces families to separate at the border and deprives migrant children of their non-parent relatives. [opt_sided]
- Stop detaining people in dangerous conditions in the midst of a pandemic, isolating people from their loved ones and communities.
- End the long-standing practice of separating children in U.S. custody from non-parent adult relatives—including older siblings, grandparents, and aunts and uncles—resulting in long-term or permanent separations of children from adult caregivers.
- Provide justice, reunification, and redress to migrant families impacted by the former administration’s “zero tolerance” policy, as Biden and Harris promised they would do.
The more unique and personalized comments we submit to amplify these demands, the more impact we will have on the administration’s decisions. Help us send a strong message by submitting your comments here by the end of the day on Tuesday, January 25.
UUSC’s public comment can be found here for inspiration, but please use your own words!
Photo Credit: iStock—Ruslanshug
