The State of America’s Children® 2021
Since the Children’s Defense Fund last published our annual State of America’s Children report in February 2020, our children have experienced a year of unprecedented upheaval due to the COVID-19 pandemic and a racial reckoning years in the making. Every aspect of children’s lives has been impacted by these shifts more quickly than data can track; even the most recent available data sets do not fully encompass how this past year has shaped our lives. This, of course, includes our 2021 State of America’s Children report. Because, as one element of the report makes clear, “Our Children are Not Immune.”
CDF Urges Congress to Take Immediate Action to Address the Pandemic and Provide Support to All Families, Including Immigrants
Many of us have already urged the Senate to adopt specific policies, including reversal of the Trump administration’s public charge policy and inclusive provisions of the HEROES Act legislation passed by the U.S. House of Representatives in May. Since then, while the Senate has failed to act, the COVID-19 death count has doubled, and millions of working families have lost the enhanced unemployment and other financial lifelines then in place. Congress must take immediate action to address the pandemic and to provide support to all individuals and families, including immigrant families.
CDF Calls for an Investigation into the DHS’s Misconduct and Mistreatment of Children During Removal Processes
We, the undersigned 56 organizations, write to request an investigation into serious and flagrant problems in the Department of Homeland Security’s (DHS) expulsion of unaccompanied children (UCs). We are especially concerned by DHS’s use of extended involuntary stays for UCs in hotels under the custody of the contractor MVM Inc. DHS and its contractors have violated the rights of unaccompanied children. It is imperative that OIG and CRCL give as full an account as possible as to these practices and how they have been committed.
Nearly 800 Organizations Call On Congress to Include Immigrant Families in COVID-19 Relief Packages
CDF joined nearly 800 organizations in urging Congress to address the exclusion of immigrant families, workers, taxpayers, and their U.S. children and spouses, from the CARES Act and other COVID-19 recovery packages passed by Congress in the next pandemic relief legislation. Immigrants have been left out of every relief package so far, even though they are disproportionately impacted by COVID-19 and are risking their health and safety as essential workers during the pandemic. We cannot let immigrants be excluded from relief again. If our nation wants to recover from this economic and public health crisis, we must ensure that everyone is included
Appeal from Experts in Child Welfare, Child Health, and Child Development: Free the Families and Promote Family Unity
94 child welfare, health, and safety experts write to ICE after witnessing this administration’s continued systematic implementation of practices to separate immigrant families. Amidst the backdrop of a public health crisis, we must renew our shared concern that your agency will harm children by taking them from their parents in order to deter or punish families who come to this country seeking protection .
500+ Organizations Urge Congress to Protect Immigrant Families amid COVID-19
The federal response to the COVID-19 crisis, including the Families First and the CARES Acts, left many low- and moderate-income immigrants out of the public health and stimulus policies. This exclusion threatens the well being of immigrants, their families - which include millions of U.S. citizen children - and our communities as a whole. This omission will greatly undermine the nation’s ability to overcome this unprecedented crisis.
CDF Joins 550+ Organizations Calling for the Protection of Immigrant Families amid COVID-19
The federal response to the COVID-19 crisis, including the Families First and the CARES Acts, left many low- and moderate-income immigrants out of the public health and stimulus policies. This exclusion threatens the well being of immigrants, their families - which include millions of U.S. citizen children - and our communities as a whole. This omission will greatly undermine the nation’s ability to overcome this unprecedented crisis.
Children Advocates Call for the Inclusion of Immigrant Families in COVID-19 Response
While the CARES Act was a strong start, we are deeply concerned that children in mixed-immigration status families (those with both citizen and noncitizen members) have been excluded from critical relief. These children comprise one in four of all children in the United States, and the vast majority are U.S. citizens. It is simply unacceptable to leave them out of the COVID-19 response. Doing so will not only put more children at risk of falling into poverty but also greatly undermine our nation’s ability to overcome this crisis.
CDF Letter to Congress on COVID-19 Relief Legislation
As you work quickly with your Congressional colleagues to pass new legislation to address the devastating public health and economic impacts of the COVID-19 crisis, the Children’s Defense Fund urges you to include in the next package a number of critical provisions to protect our nation’s children and families.
600+ Organizations Call for Immigrant Families to be Included in COVID-19 Relief Package
CDF was one of over 600 organizations calling for the House to address two major provisions of the proposed COVID-19 relief bill that would exclude millions of immigrant families, including U.S. citizen children. We cannot protect the nation from the Coronavirus and its economic impact if we deny health care and financial relief to a large segment of our communities.