Wyden-Merkley bill aims to ‘reunify, protect’ immigrant families

Senators Jeff Merkley and Ron Wyden announced Wednesday the introduction of the Reunite Every Unaccompanied Newborn Infant, Toddler and Other Children Expeditiously (REUNITE) Act , a bill to immediately reunify all families and establish a permanent system of coordination between agencies and non-governmental organizations to protect detained immigrants with children.

Merkley, whose trip to the Texas border on June 3 helped shine a national light on this crisis, is one of the lead sponsors of the bill, along with Sens. Kamala Harris (D-CA) and Catherine Cortez-Masto (D-NV), the Oregon senator said in a news release, which continues below:

Government inaction has resulted in a failure of young migrant children being reunified with their parents, resulting in over 2,600 children still separated from their families who remain at risk of short and long-term health impacts as a result of the trauma they’ve experienced.

“Trump’s policy to deliberately inflict trauma on the children of families fleeing persecution is a dark and evil deed,” said Sen. Merkley. “We must close this chapter and do so immediately. This legislation, the REUNITE Act, creates a roadmap to move with urgency to reunite the more than 2,500 children Trump has separated from their families, and to treat these families with respect and decency as they await their hearing on their asylum claims.”

“After tearing thousands of children apart from their parents at our southern border and inflicting a lifetime of trauma on these victims of this inhumane policy, the Trump administration has failed to demonstrate a shred of urgency to reunite these families,” Wyden said. “The REUNITE Act will allow us to take swift action, that ensures all families separated at the border are reunited, and protects families from Trump’s threat of indefinite detention as they flee persecution in their home countries and seek asylum in the United States.”

“The Trump administration created this problem,” said Amanda Ballantyne, Main Street Alliance national director. “They need to resolve it immediately at no cost to the families. The REUNITE Act will help return nearly 3,000 migrant children to their parents after a period of prolonged, awful detention.”

“We know how difficult it is for families separated by our immigration detention system to find one another,” said Christina Fialho, co-founder/executive director of Freedom for Immigrants (formerly CIVIC). “We have been locating disappeared loved ones since 2010, but there is a solution to prevent family separation. The REUNITE Act will ensure parents and children are reunited and prevent future separations by establishing a community-based alternative to detention that is humane and does not include incarceration.”

The REUNITE Act:

· Requires the DHS and HHS Secretaries to publish guidance describing how they will reunify families. This guidance must include how to ensure sustained, no-cost contact between parents and children, access to children by legal counsel and other advocates, and unannounced inspections by child welfare organizations.

· Requires immediate reunification of children who remain separated from a parent and legal guardian.

· Creates presumption of release on recognizance, parole, or bond for parents of separated children.

· Restores the Family Case Management Program.

· Creates presumption that parents will not be deported until their child’s immigration proceeding is over or the child turns 18.

· Prohibits DHS from using information, including DNA information, obtained pursuant to this Act for immigration enforcement purposes.

· Creates privacy protections around the use of DNA testing to establish familial relationships.

· Requires the Attorney General, the DHS Secretary, and the HHS Secretary to establish the Office for Locating and Reuniting Children with Parents, an interagency office, to expedite and facilitate the reunification of children and parents separated after enter the U.S.

· Redirects $50 million in appropriations from ICE Enforcement and Removal Operations (ERO) for the enforcement of this Act.

The REUNITE Act has received support from the following organizations: National Immigrant Justice Center, KIND (Kids in Need of Defense), National Immigrant Justice Center, Human Rights First, UnidosUS, Immigration Hub, Church World Service, Mainstreet Alliance, MomsRising, National Council of Jewish Women, Inc., Southern Border Communities Coalition, National Immigration Law Center, FIRM, Center for Community Change, National Immigration Law Center, Freedom for Immigrants, Center for Victims of Torture, and First Focus Campaign for Children, Association for Child Psychoanalysis, National Association of Social Workers (NASW), Lutheran Immigration and Refugee Services (LIRS), Indivisible, Coalition for Humane Immigrant Rights of Los Angeles (CHIRLA), American Academy of Pediatrics, and Earthjustice.

In addition to Senators Merkley, Wyden, Harris, and Cortez Masto, the bill is cosponsored by Senators Elizabeth Warren (D-MA), Richard Blumenthal (D-CT), Ed Markey (D-MA), Tom Carper (D-DE), Bernie Sanders (I-VT), Kirsten Gillibrand (D-NY), Tim Kaine (D-VA), Cory Booker (D-NJ), Bob Menendez (D-NJ), and Tammy Duckworth (D-IL).

Full text of the bill is available here.