![]() To prevent such harm, we call on you to rely on alternatives to detention that include family case management to ensure compliance with immigration check-ins while providing community-based support to families. Decades of developmental science definitively shows that family detention will impair children’s physical, cognitive, and emotional development. No child, under any circumstances, should be traumatized and jailed because their family is seeking safety. As social workers, we are bound to “advocate for living conditions conducive to the fulfillment of basic human needs.”1 The Executive Order calls for the indefinite detention of immigrant families throughout the course of criminal and immigration proceedings, which will result in the imprisonment of families for months and years as their cases slowly make their way through our backlogged immigration court system. Immigration detention has been proven to traumatize vulnerable populations, jeopardize the basic health and safety of those detained, and undermine meaningful access to legal counsel in remote facilities. WE CALL ON YOU TO END FAMILY DETENTION PRACTICES AND IMPLEMENT ALTERNATIVES. Families must be reunified and provided with support to mitigate the harm that has been done. The June 20th, 2018 Executive Order that ends the separation of children from their parents in detention does not address the reunification of families that have been torn apart or remediation of the great damage that has been wrought. Children face multiple consequences from the trauma of separation from their primary caregivers, including emotional issues, safety concerns, and diminished overall well-being. WE CALL ON YOU TO ACT IMMEDIATELY TO REUNIFY FAMILIES TORN APART BY IMPLEMENTATION OF THE ZERO TOLERANCE POLICY.Īs a profession, we “recognize the central importance of human relationships.”1 More than 2,300 migrant children have been separated from their parents since Attorney General Sessions introduced his “zero tolerance” directive in April. As social workers, we call for an immediate halt to these actions that hurt children and families. Our professional code of ethics demands that we stand up against both the separation of parents and children and the practice of family detention. We unequivocally oppose the Trump administration’s “zero tolerance” policy for immigrants who cross the U.S./Mexico border without documentation. We, the undersigned, are social work practitioners, educators, and scholars, and experts in child and family well-being, health, and mental health. Dear Executive and Legislative Branch Officials:
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