Roll Call: What You Don’t Know About Migrant Children May Kill Them
Jen Smyers, associate director for immigration and refugee policy with Church World Service

“…Our country has an obligation — moral and legal — to provide protection to … [migrant and trafficked] children, and to not deport them back to gangs and unspeakable violence. The 2008 trafficking law exists for this very purpose. But right now, Congress is trying to roll back important protections in this law to ‘deport these children more quickly.’ … This is not the answer. And this cannot be the American response. It is unconscionable that Congress would roll back a law because more children are in need of its protection. Instead, we need to provide these children the protection, care, counseling, and legal assistance they need to apply for asylum and protection…” (7/30).