Sen. Franken's Bipartisan Measures to Protect Children Added to Senate Immigration Reform Bill

Press Release

Today, U.S. Sen. Al Franken (D-Minn.) said the Senate Judiciary Committee has approved his two bipartisan amendments to protect children whose parents have been caught up in immigration actions or who lack a parent or guardian. The provisions are now part of the immigration reform bill that will likely soon come before the full Senate.

"One of the critical fixes we can make to our broken immigration system is to ensure that it helps protect innocent children," said Sen. Franken. "I'm pleased that today we incorporated my two bipartisan provisions to extend basic rights and protections to children into our immigration reform bill."

Sen. Franken's first amendment, the Humane Enforcement and Legal Protections (HELP) for Separated Children Act, was inspired by a 2006 raid in Worthington, Minnesota that left numerous children-most of them citizens and legal residents- without their parents and with no way to find them. One second-grader in Worthington came home from school to find his two year-old brother alone and his parents gone. For the next week, he cared for his brother while his grandmother drove to meet them.

The amendment would:

-Allow parents to make calls to arrange for the care of their children soon after they are detained;

-Require Immigration and Customs Enforcement to consider the best interests of children in detention, release, and transfer decisions affecting their parents;

-Ensure that children can call or visit their parents while they are detained;

-Allow parents to participate in family court proceedings affecting their children; and

-Ensure that parents can coordinate their departures with their children.

The HELP Separated Children Act amendment was cosponsored by Sens. Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa), Chris Coons (D-Del.), John Cornyn (R-Tex.), Mazie Hirono (D-Hawaii) and Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.). Sens. Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.), Ted Cruz (R-Tex.) and Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.) added themselves as co-sponsors to the amendment before the vote.

Sen. Franken's second bipartisan amendment passed today would transfer programs that provide lawyers and child advocates for unaccompanied children from the Department of Health and Human Services to the Department of Justice who is better equipped to handle these programs. As recently as 2012, half of the unaccompanied children who arrived in the country were forced to represent themselves in immigration court. The measure was cosponsored by Sen. John Cornyn (R-Tex.).

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