Catholic Charities Letter to 'The Honorable Kirstjen M. Nielsen at Homeland Security; List of Charity Navigator's Recommended Immigration Organizations
June 14, 2018
The Honorable Kirstjen M. Nielsen US Department of Homeland Security
3801 Nebraska Avenue,
NW Washington, DC 20016
Dear Secretary Nielsen:
I write to you today on behalf of Catholic Charities USA expressing my strong concern over ongoing systemic efforts to separate immigrant children from their parents.
Right, Sister Donna Markham
Catholic Charities USA is a national organization representing 166 diocesan Catholic Charities agencies that see first-hand the devastating, life-long impact separation can have on children. Agency staff see the trauma in the foster care children we serve, they see it in the children missing a father or mother, and now they see it in the migrant children placed into foster care and group facilities because they have been taken away from their parents.
As a clinical psychologist, I have also seen the consequences that not having a parent can have on a child, and it is deeply troubling that the administration has chosen to create a generation of traumatized children in the name of border security. Surely as a nation we can debate the best way to secure our border without resorting to creating life-long trauma for children, some of whom are mere toddlers.
While we are alarmed about the impact that separation of families will have on children, we are also deeply concerned that implementation of this policy will exacerbate a foster care and Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) unaccompanied alien children (UAC) system already stretched to capacity. Under the current policy, after parents are placed in adult immigration detention centers, the children are transferred to HHS, which is then responsible for caring for the children or finding suitable caregivers. HHS therefore must vet potential caregivers or send children to group facilities across the country. Children placed into HHS’s care risk becoming institutionalized and even becoming victims of trafficking and abuse if caregivers do not receive proper vetting and oversight. In 2016, this concern became a tragic reality when HHS placed unaccompanied alien children with traffickers.1 Forcing more children into an already overextended system will only heighten the potential for mistakes.
Securing our borders does not and should not come at the expense of our humanity. I therefore urge you to abandon the current policies and practices that systematically separate children from their families.
Sincerely, Sister Donna Markham OP, PhD President and CEO Catholic Charities USA
1 United States Senate, Permanent Subcommittee on Investigation, “Protecting Unaccompanied Alien Children from Trafficking and Other Abuses: The Role of the Office of Refugee Resettlement”, found at https://bit.ly/2IRhTR6
List of Charity Navigator's Recommended Immigration Organizations:
"The following organizations receive three or four stars from Charity Navigator and are working on a spectrum of immigration-related issues ranging from immigration policy reform to helping immigrants settle and achieve success in the United States. Keep reading to learn more about the ways these charities are serving this population. "
Editor's Note: Although we are not of the Catholic faith, this well-respected charity has weighed in on the current immigration situation at our borders with Sister Markham's letter to HHS Secretary Kirstjen M. Nielsen; Charity Navigator is a long referenced and well-rated source of charities and like resources.
