Mary Gay Scanlon: “I have seen up close how important representation is to anyone trying to navigate our immigration system, but especially…”

“I have seen up close how important representation is to anyone trying to navigate our immigration system, but especially kids. When our colleagues say they want to send unaccompanied children home to safety, they are turning a blind eye to reality. The reality for most of these kids is there is no safe home. Their parents are dead or otherwise unavailable, and country conditions are so dangerous that the journey to our border is a safer alternative. This bill would expose children to the very harms and exploitation my Republican colleagues hollowly insist they want to prevent. In addition to limiting children's access to counsel, the bill allows them to be jailed. It guts the protections of the Flores settlement agreement, which has governed the conditions of children held in government custody for 26 years. In doing so, the bill upends a carefully crafted system to minimize the detention of children due to the grave impact that it has on their physical and mental health. The evidence is clear: No amount of detention is safe for kids. Even a short period can cause long-term harm like psychological trauma and mental health risks. Despite knowing this, my Republican colleagues wrote a bill that allows the long-term detention of minors who arrive in the U.S. and that jails kids and their families indefinitely. I want to describe for a moment a tragic situation this bill creates.…”