Support Migrant Children and Dreamers
Take Action to Help Immigrant Children
Every child deserves the care, support, and services they need to thrive. Yet, migrant children entering the U.S. are often confined in detention centers, separated from their families, prevented from quick reunification with family or sponsors, denied access to legal representation, and deprived of accurate information in a language they can understand. Others, who were brought to the U.S. as children by their parents and now call the U.S. home, remain in a state of limbo without a pathway to citizenship.
Here’s what you can do about it.
Get to know some basic terms
Migrant, Immigrant, Foreign-born
There is not a universal legal definition for any of these terms and they are often used interchangeably. However, we usually refer to migrants as people who move from one place to another, especially to find work or better living conditions. Migrants don’t always cross international borders and the move is often temporary. Immigrants move to a foreign country with the intention of living there permanently. Foreign-born includes anyone living outside of their country of birth, even if they become a citizen of their new home country.
Refugee
A person forced to flee their country in order to escape war, persecution, or natural disaster who is seeking safety in another country. To apply for refugee status in the U.S., you must be located outside the U.S.
Asylum seeker
This is also a person who is seeking safety in another country but has not been legally recognized as a refugee. Asylum seekers apply for legal status once they reach the destination country. That is, they must show up at a port of entry or cross the border to be able to apply for asylum.
Undocumented
A foreign-born person who does not have a legal right to be in the country. You may sometimes hear the term “illegal immigrant” or “illegal alien” to refer to a person who is undocumented. However, advocates and immigrant rights groups criticize these terms as dehumanizing and masking the systemic issues that prevent people from migrating legally. We recommend using “undocumented” instead.
Unaccompanied minor
A person under the age of 18 who enters the U.S. without legal status and without a responsible adult (aka unaccompanied child or separated child).
Dreamer
A person brought to the U.S. by their parents when they were under the age of 15 and who has been in the U.S. for at least five years.
Improve conditions in home countries
Many people decide to leave their home countries to escape economic and political instability, crime, violence, natural disasters, and environmental crises. Migrants, including unaccompanied minors, often risk danger and deprivation along their route only to experience detention and discrimination when they arrive in the U.S.
Most of us recognize that the U.S. bears some responsibility for such displacement, as our trade, foreign, and interventionist policies over the past several decades have caused or contributed to the interrelated factors that push people to migrate. The U.S. must invest in durable solutions to support the recovery and stabilization of origin countries to allow people to thrive at home.
HOW YOU CAN HELP:
Combat misinformation about — and support — U.S. foreign aid
Foreign aid includes money, technical assistance, and commodities to support lower-income countries’ economic, political, and social development. U.S. foreign aid has helped to improve the lives of individuals and communities across the globe. For example, it has reduced extreme poverty and maternal, infant, and child mortality around the world. It has defeated smallpox, polio, and the HIV/AIDS epidemic. It has promoted women’s rights and helped prevent domestic violence, child abuse, and human trafficking. Less than 1% of the federal budget goes to foreign aid. Yet, Republican lawmakers use U.S. foreign aid as a dog whistle to inflame their base by making the amount seem much higher and asking why the U.S. helps out abroad instead of investing at home. It’s important to actively deconstruct this narrative.
Need some talking points: Watch this video by the Council on Foreign Relations about why U.S. spending on foreign aid is so important, or read this article by the Brookings Institute.
Donate to locally-led organizations working on the ground in countries of origin
It can be hard to figure out who the most effective local organizations are. When in doubt, we recommend donating to trusted international grantmaking organizations that redistribute funds to local groups in the form of grants. We like AJWS, Global Fund for Women, Global Fund for Children, Grassroots International, MADRE, Mama Cash, Thousand Currents, and Urgent Action Funds, among others. Check with them to see if they have grantee-partners in the country where you want to donate or make a donation directly to a grantee-partner.
You can also doante to international aid organizations like CARE, Heartland Alliance, IRC, Oxfam, Plan International, and Save the Children, among others.
Hold Democrats accountable to bold immigration reform
Our government needs to know that we support bold approaches to ending the humanitarian crisis at our borders, creating more opportunities for legal migration, and securing a pathway to citizenship for currently undocumented people in the U.S. While the Biden administration has made some positive progress, immigration advocates are pushing for bolder reforms and investments in immigration infrastructure, including laws, policies, systems, and services that are inclusive and supportive of migrants and create a pathway to citizenship. We must do more than undo the cruelty of the Trump Administration; we must build a new immigration system that is fair and just.
Kids In Need Of Defense (KIND) has created a blueprint to help guide the Biden administration’s child immigration policy with five key recommendations:
Ensure unaccompanied children are not unwillfully expelled and are allowed a fair opportunity to ask for protection in the U.S.
Dedicate increased resources for legal representation of unaccompanied children.
Commit to re-establishing an in-country refugee and parole program.
Reset foreign policy toward Central America and Mexico and increase foreign assistance to the region.
Assemble a task force dedicated to reunifying families that have been separated.
Sign KIND’s petition to protect children on the move.
Visit RAICES Take Action page and commit to taking at least one action in support of immigrant rights.
Join the We Are Home campaign and the Welcome With Dignity campaign.
Join RAICES in its Keep the Promise Campaign to hold Democrats accountable to bold immigration reform that uplifts and protects our immigrant community. Take the Pledge of Accountability to help create a compassionate society where all people have the right to migrate and human rights are guaranteed. You’ll learn to:
Help organize a lobby day or action in your city
Attend actions in your city
Phone back or text people to attend events
Engage in civil disobedience, if needed
Dive deeper by learning about the American Immigration Lawyers Association’s (AILA) Vision for America as a Welcoming Nation and use their Tracking Table to keep track of the status of proposed changes to the immigration system.
Pass comprehensive and inclusive immigration reform, and advance laws and policies that protect children
It’s time to end racist and inhumane immigration policies that leave migrants, including children, with few legal options (and thus vulnerable to smugglers and human traffickers). We must decriminalize migration and build pressure to create a pathway to legalization for all immigrants, including the more than 11 million currently undocumented people who contribute daily to American life.
CONTACT YOUR MEMBERS OF CONGRESS TO:
Pass the Dream and Promise Act
In 2012, the Obama Administration created the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program. DACA, which allows 2.5 million Dreamers to live and work lawfully in the U.S. for two-year intervals, has been continually challenged and is under threat by Republican-controlled states and courts. On Friday, July 16, 2021, DACA suffered its worst blow yet. A federal judge ruled against the program causing a halt to approvals of new DACA applications (existing DACA recipients are still covered).
We need a federal law to provide a pathway to citizenship for Dreamers.
The House passed the Dream and Promise Act on March 18, 2021. It offers a pathway to citizenship for Dreamers and other immigrants with temporary humanitarian protection (a status that allows people from certain countries suffering from armed conflict or natural disaster to live and work in the U.S. for a limited time).
Sign this petition by NILC telling your senators to pass the Dream and Promise Act. Or contact your Members of Congress directly using this script from the Young Center.
Request changes to the Farmworkers Modernization Act
The House also passed the Farmworkers Modernization Act on March 18, 2021. However, some immigration advocates and farmworkers are calling on the Senate to make changes to the bill. As currently written, the bill creates a narrow and complicated path to legal status for farmworkers and requires the use of the controversial E-verify system. While farmworkers desperately need stronger protection, including the right to organize and access to legal status, this bill is not the answer. Let your Senators know you need to see significant changes before they pass the bill. For more read statements by the Food Chain Workers Alliance, ATEST, and National Farm Workers Ministry
Support the New Way Forward Act
According to Immigrant Justice Network (IJN), the Act would roll back harmful immigration laws that, for decades, have led to racial profiling and disproportionately resulted in the incarceration, deportation, and destruction of families of color and immigrant communities. Learn more and stay up-to-date on ways to help at IJN.
Not sure who your reps are our how to contact them? Read our posts Who Are My Reps and How to Contact My Reps.
E-verify is a database system that checks the identities of newly hired workers against government records to confirm workers’ legal status and keep undocumented immigrants from employment. Critics, including immigrant and workers’ rights advocates, highlight that the database is riddled with errors, causing legal workers to get held up in the system. It also makes undocumented workers more vulnerable to abuse and exploitation and can violate worker privacy, putting some workers at risk.
Eliminate detention centers and demilitarize the border
Instead of investing in the criminalization of immigrants, the militarization of the border, or the construction of border walls, we need robust investment in nonprofits and community organizations to humanely and compassionately support migrants upon arrival. Migrant children should be cared for, not criminalized. Detention is harmful to children’s health and wellbeing. A child’s immigration status should never be a barrier to accessing basic services. We must demand practical alternatives to detention, including:
Policies that prevent the separation of children from their parents and other family members, and that protect children vulnerable to trafficking, violence, and other forms of abuse while in transit.
Welcoming centers that support children and families by providing access to services including healthcare, legal support, and accurate information in a language they can understand.
Faster systems to reunite children with families and sponsors in the U.S.
Foster care, supervised independent living, and other family- or community-based living arrangements for children without family or sponsors in the U.S.
Join the Detention Watch Network (DWN), a national coalition building power through collective advocacy, grassroots organizing, and strategic communications to abolish immigration detention in the U.S. DWN is demanding that the Biden administration shut down detention centers and end detention contracts.
Sign this petition by the Detention Watch Network.
If you live within 100 miles of the border, you are in a border town. Advocate to pass a local resolution modeled after the Southern Border Community Coalition’s New Border Vision. They call for:
Expanding public safety by treating migrants with dignity and respect instead of as criminals and second-class citizens and holding border authorities accountable for their actions.
Protecting human rights and supporting humanitarian assistance to save people’s lives instead of tearing families apart.
Creating welcoming systems that receive migrants in an effective, efficient, and humane way.
Learn how to become a Sanctuary City advocate using this toolkit by United We Dream. It includes practical tips on becoming an ally to undocumented people, building support for sanctuaries, and organizing for sanctuaries at the city or county level.
Volunteer your time and talent
Migrant children are more likely to miss out on education, lack access to proper medical care, be denied legal counsel, and be at increased risk of violence and exploitation, which can have long-lasting physical and psychological effects.
Find local opportunities to support immigrant children in your community, or check out the opportunities below. Volunteers fluent in languages spoken by migrant children (think: Spanish, local indigenous languages, French, and Creole, among many others) are particularly valuable allies.
Become a Child Advocate
No child should face the courts alone, yet immigration courts are not required to appoint a lawyer to represent unaccompanied minors or ensure an adult advocate is present. Many children, including toddlers, have gone to court by themselves. It is not only immoral, but it increases the likelihood of deportation. Volunteer to spend time with an unaccompanied child while they are subject to deportation proceedings. Learn how you can become a child advocate at the Young Center.
Provide a temporary home
Support migrant children in need of a supportive environment and loving community until they can be reunited with their family or a U.S. sponsor. Learn more at LIRS or USCCB - the two national resettlement agencies designated by the government to receive unaccompanied minors.
Put your professional skills to work
Lawyers can offer pro bono services through the American Bar Association’s Children’s Immigration Law Academy or reach out to KIND.
If you are fluent in another language, volunteer to interpret or translate. Find a local organization in your community, connect with Translators Without Borders, or reach out to KIND to help in certain cities.
Licensed social workers who live near where migrants are being kept can volunteer to provide mental health assessments and other support services. Learn more at NASW.
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Originally published July 27, 2021.
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