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Melissa Adamson

@melissaadamson.bsky.social
85 followers 79 following 8 posts

Attorney at the National Center for Youth Law (@youthlaw.bsky.social). Views are my own.

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Reposted by Melissa Adamson
National Center for Youth Law (NCYL) @youthlaw.bsky.social · 22/07/2026
The Children's Safe Welcome Act has been reintroduced in Congress today! The bill creates an approach to immigration centered on children's best interests. Read more: youthlaw.org/press/2026/0...
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Reposted by Melissa Adamson
National Center for Youth Law (NCYL) @youthlaw.bsky.social · 23/07/2026
Children's safety and welfare should always come first. The Children's Safe Welcome Act has been reintroduced in Congress. We're proud to stand with @merkley.senate.gov, @kamlager-dove.house.gov, and @theyoungcenter.bsky.social. Read more: youthlaw.org/press/2026/0...
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Melissa Adamson @melissaadamson.bsky.social · 20/05/2026
More money for ICE = more families and children detained in ICE detention centers like Dilley, where children have faced dangerous and inhumane conditions. Tell your reps in Congress to vote NO on $71 billion in NEW funding for immigration enforcement and detention: tinyurl.com/no2budget
tinyurl.com
Protect Children and Families: Urge Congress to Vote NO on the Budget Bill
The May budget reconciliation bill will put immigrant children in danger, leading to more families and children arrested and detained in ICE detention centers. If passed, this bill would gravely endan...
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Reposted by Melissa Adamson
National Center for Youth Law (NCYL) @youthlaw.bsky.social · 19/05/2026
Congress is set to vote on a budget bill that would pour billions of taxpayer dollars into ICE detention - including family detention. Children belong with their communities, not in detention centers. Tell your reps to vote NO: tinyurl.com/no2budget
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Reposted by Melissa Adamson
National Center for Youth Law (NCYL) @youthlaw.bsky.social · 18/05/2026
Did you know that at the end of this week, Congress will vote on whether to send $71 billion in NEW funding to ICE for more enforcement and detention? More money for ICE = more families and children in detention. Tell your reps to fund care, not cages: tinyurl.com/no2budget
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Reposted by Melissa Adamson
National Center for Youth Law (NCYL) @youthlaw.bsky.social · 05/05/2026
“Detaining children is a choice this government is making.” NCYL’s @rwolozin.bsky.social told @nbcnews.com: Children and families are enduring months of fear, uncertainty, and trauma in ICE detention, while the government ignores humane and lawful alternatives. Watch: youtu.be/oepMPzXuIKA
youtu.be
NCYL's Becky Wolozin Talks to NBC News: The Reality of Children in ICE Detention
YouTube video by NCYLVideos
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Reposted by Melissa Adamson
Congresswoman Pramila Jayapal @jayapal.house.gov · 02/04/2026
At my immigration hearing, Marion Donovan-Kaloust detailed her experience working with unaccompanied children and the horrors they’ve seen under Trump. No child should have to go through this cruelty. It must end now.
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Reposted by Melissa Adamson
National Center for Youth Law (NCYL) @youthlaw.bsky.social · 27/03/2026
WATCH: NCYL’s Neha Desai just testified in DC at Rep. Pramila Jayapal’s shadow hearing on immigration policies harming children. Drawing on nearly two decades of experience, she spoke to the damage these policies inflict. Watch: www.youtube.com/watch?v=HsNu...
youtube.com
NCYL’s Neha Desai Testifies, Spotlights Harm to Youth at Shadow Hearing on Immigration Policy
YouTube video by NCYLVideos
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Reposted by Melissa Adamson
ProPublica @propublica.org · 26/02/2026
NEW: Guards have taken away crayons, colored pencils & paper during recent room searches at Dilley, according to detainees and others. After one inspection, the children just “cried and cried and cried,” a mother said. The facility denies the claims. By @mckenziefunk.com @micarosenberg.bsky.social
propublica.org
Seized Art, Eavesdropping Guards: Parents Describe a Clampdown at Dilley Detention Center as Kids Shared Their Stories
Detainees told ProPublica that art supplies have been removed in room searches, immigrants have lost access to Gmail and staff hover within earshot during video calls.
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Reposted by Melissa Adamson
National Center for Youth Law (NCYL) @youthlaw.bsky.social · 06/02/2026
NCYL's Becky Wolozin: “Liam is all the kids there. Just like Liam, we’ve had families tell us how their children have been horribly sick and throwing up repeatedly, refusing to eat and becoming despondent and listless.”
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Melissa Adamson @melissaadamson.bsky.social · 30/01/2026
Per RAICES, a legal services provider, families detained at the Dilley ICE Family Residential Center have raised concerns over inadequate medical care on at least 700 occasions since August 2025. Family detention is inhumane.
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Reposted by Melissa Adamson
National Center for Youth Law (NCYL) @youthlaw.bsky.social · 29/01/2026
Grateful to have US Senators, State Attorneys General's Offices, and 180+ youth and immigration organizations and experts file amicus briefs in support of the Flores Settlement Agreement.  Flores is a foundational legal safeguard for immigrant children detained in federal custody.
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Reposted by Melissa Adamson
National Center for Youth Law (NCYL) @youthlaw.bsky.social · 23/01/2026
Our court filing last month included over 20 declarations from children & caregivers detained at Dilley, detailing horrific conditions incl denial of critical medical care, worms and mold in their food, and threat of family separation. Read their stories: youthlaw.org/wp-content/u...
youthlaw.org
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Reposted by Melissa Adamson
National Center for Youth Law (NCYL) @youthlaw.bsky.social · 23/01/2026
5-year-old Liam is currently at Dilley, an ICE detention facility in Texas. NCYL's Neha Desai says children there have suffered a "dramatic decline in their physical and mental health;" it's "fundamentally unsafe for anyone, let alone young children." www.cbsnews.com/news/5-year-...
cbsnews.com
5-year-old taken into custody by ICE has active immigration case, preventing deportation for now
The 5-year-old immigrant boy taken into ICE custody alongside his father in Minnesota has an active immigration case and cannot be legally deported yet, records reviewed by CBS News indicate.
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Reposted by Melissa Adamson
National Center for Youth Law (NCYL) @youthlaw.bsky.social · 08/01/2026
New from @washingtonpost.com: The government is holding immigrant teens in a PA facility with a long record of abuse. NCYL’s Becky Wolozin saw it firsthand: "ORR is sending children to a juvenile detention center who should not be there." www.washingtonpost.com/business/202...
washingtonpost.com
Trump administration jails migrant teens in facility known for child abuse
Pennsylvania recently revoked a license for the secure juvenile detention center where the administration sends some migrant children, even some with no pending criminal charges.
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Melissa Adamson @melissaadamson.bsky.social · 19/12/2025
The government has essentially stopped releasing children in federal custody to their families. Children's time in custody has skyrocketed - in November, the average was more than six months. laist.com/news/politic...
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Reposted by Melissa Adamson
Congresswoman Delia C. Ramirez @ramirez.house.gov · 16/12/2025
The hypocrisy of those who would quote scripture asserting the preciousness of children, while they pursue new, cruel punishments for child refugees, is despicable.
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Reposted by Melissa Adamson
National Center for Youth Law (NCYL) @youthlaw.bsky.social · 17/12/2025
NCYL's Becky Wolozin spoke with @themarshallproject.org about ICE's long-term detention of kids: "The goal of this administration is to create as much pain as possible to the most vulnerable people in the hopes that that will mean they can more easily carry out whatever their deportation goals are."
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Reposted by Melissa Adamson
Rep. Melanie Stansbury (NM-01) @repstansbury.bsky.social · 16/12/2025
No family’s tragedy should ever be used as a reason for potential violence against other children. That is why I oppose H.R. 4371 and the ways in which it could be used to further abuse and traumatize immigrant children at the hands of the U.S. government. youtu.be/sTk8lZfKHns
youtu.be
Rep. Stansbury: Violence against immigrant children is unacceptable.
YouTube video by Rep. Melanie Stansbury
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Reposted by Melissa Adamson
Congresswoman Pramila Jayapal @jayapal.house.gov · 17/12/2025
Republicans want to give ICE the power to strip-search immigrant children to look for so-called “gang tattoos” and send them to prison-like facilities. Yes, the same ICE that sent men to El Salvador for soccer and autism awareness tattoos.
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Reposted by Melissa Adamson
Congresswoman Pramila Jayapal @jayapal.house.gov · 16/12/2025
Republicans are weaponizing Kayla Hamilton’s tragic death to push through more cruel immigration policies that will further traumatize families. This bill does nothing to prevent child trafficking. It just promotes family separation.
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Reposted by Melissa Adamson
National Center for Youth Law (NCYL) @youthlaw.bsky.social · 25/11/2025
We spoke directly with newcomer immigrant youth across the Bay Area for our new NCYL report, “Newcomer Immigrant Youth in the Bay Area: Uplifting Voices, Identifying Solutions.” Read more in our full report: youthlaw.org/newcomerreport
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Reposted by Melissa Adamson
Mario Bruzzone @bruzzone.bsky.social · 25/11/2025
Trump Admin planning a rule to re-decide whether *every* refugee who entered under Biden meets their criteria for a refugee. That’s 230,000 people! And no appeals! www.reuters.com/world/us/tru...
reuters.com
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Reposted by Melissa Adamson
Young Center for Immigrant Children's Rights @theyoungcenter.bsky.social · 06/11/2025
The places where our children grow, dream, and belong should always be protected. They deserve to feel safe in spaces that are made for them.
ICE out of daycare centers, schools and communities.
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Reposted by Melissa Adamson
National Center for Youth Law (NCYL) @youthlaw.bsky.social · 06/11/2025
ICE plans a 24/7 hotline to "track down" unaccompanied kids. NCYL's Neha Desai: “These children are then re-detained in a system that has become nearly impossible to exit.” Children deserve care and stability, not surveillance and fear. www.bloomberg.com/news/article...
bloomberg.com
ICE Contract Would Help the Police Track Down Immigrant Children
Advocates fear the move would increase the number of family separations.
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Reposted by Melissa Adamson
National Center for Youth Law (NCYL) @youthlaw.bsky.social · 29/09/2025
🚨 Together, NCYL and @acaciajustice.bsky.social released companion reports exposing recent ORR policy changes preventing unaccompanied children’s release from custody and highlighting the devastating consequences of these children’s prolonged custody. Read more: youthlaw.org/news/two-new...
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Reposted by Melissa Adamson
National Center for Youth Law (NCYL) @youthlaw.bsky.social · 18/09/2025
🚨 BREAKING: A district court has blocked the Trump admin from expelling Guatemalan children from the U.S. without due process. Every child deserves safety, dignity, and healing. We are proud to represent these children with @nilc.org and @icapgeorgetown.bsky.social. youthlaw.org/news/advocat...
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Reposted by Melissa Adamson
Anna Bower @annabower.bsky.social · 10/09/2025
Judge Kelly asked about Drew Ensign’s prior representation that “all of these children have their parents or guardians in Guatemala who are requesting their return.” Sarah Welch, for DOJ, agreed to withdraw that claim, saying she “can’t affirmatively represent that that is correct.”
EMenu
LAWFARE
The Government of Guatemala has requested the return of
these children, and all of these children have their parents or guardians in Guatemala who are requesting their return," Ensign told the judge. "We certainly dispute that these are
•
removals," he continued, referring to the statutory language used in immigration statutes, including the TVPRA. "This is reuniting children with their parents and guardians."
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Reposted by Melissa Adamson
Congresswoman Pramila Jayapal @jayapal.house.gov · 31/08/2025
Today is a win for due process, but this never should have happened. This admin's attempt to remove hundreds of kids in the dead of night and circumvent the Trafficking Victims Protection Reauthorization Act is shameful. The courts were right to step in. www.cbsnews.com/news/guatema...
cbsnews.com
Judge blocks deportation of Guatemalan migrant children as flights were ready to take off
The plaintiffs in this case are 10 migrant children between the ages of 10 and 17 who entered the U.S. without authorization and without their parents or legal guardians.
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Reposted by Melissa Adamson
Murshed Zaheed @murshedz.bsky.social · 23/07/2025
“Unaccompanied children are being used as pawns in an effort to deport as many people as possible, regardless of the human toll it takes on the most vulnerable members of our community.” - Neha Desai from @youthlaw.bsky.social Big scoop from @cnn.com's Priscilla Alvarez ↘️
cnn.com
Exclusive: Trump administration moves to rapidly deport migrant children, asking teens if they want to leave | CNN Politics
The Trump administration is moving to rapidly deport some migrant children who arrived in the US without a parent or guardian by having federal agents ask teens whether they want to voluntarily depart...
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Reposted by Melissa Adamson
Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez @aoc.bsky.social · 03/07/2025
I don’t think anyone is prepared for what they just did w/ ICE. This is not a simple budget increase. It is an explosion - making ICE bigger than the FBI, US Bureau of Prisons, DEA,& others combined. It is setting up to make what’s happening now look like child’s play. And people are disappearing.
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Reposted by Melissa Adamson
National Center for Youth Law (NCYL) @youthlaw.bsky.social · 30/06/2025
Detaining families in unlicensed, unregulated facilities for an unlimited time is a human rights violation—plain and simple. The Senate budget bill enables that cruelty. ✊🏽 Children deserve care, not cages. 📢 Tell Congress: NO on the budget bill. youthlaw.org/voteno
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Reposted by Melissa Adamson
National Center for Youth Law (NCYL) @youthlaw.bsky.social · 26/06/2025
The Senate budget bill lets the government detain immigrant families indefinitely in unlicensed facilities. This is a direct threat to children’s health and safety. Congress must reject this cruelty. 📢 Tell Congress: NO on the budget bill. youthlaw.org/voteno
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Melissa Adamson @melissaadamson.bsky.social · 24/06/2025
If you have been wondering how you can help in this moment, here is a place to start: The Senate budget bill guts key protections for detained immigrant children and allows indefinite family detention in unlicensed facilities. Tell Congress to vote NO on the budget bill 👇
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Reposted by Melissa Adamson
National Center for Youth Law (NCYL) @youthlaw.bsky.social · 23/06/2025
🚨 The Senate budget bill puts immigrant children in grave danger. It guts key protections, allows indefinite family detention in unlicensed facilities, and increases children’s risk of abuse, and exploitation. 📢 Tell Congress: NO on the budget bill. youthlaw.org/voteno
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Reposted by Melissa Adamson
National Center for Youth Law (NCYL) @youthlaw.bsky.social · 18/06/2025
BREAKING: Flores counsel — NCYL, @chrclla.bsky.social‬ & @childrens-rights.bsky.social‬ — filed a motion to enforce protections for immigrant children, exposing prolonged detention, filthy conditions, family separation & abuse. The gov't is failing children. Read more: youthlaw.org/news/amid-go...
youthlaw.org
Amid Government’s Efforts to Terminate Flores, Counsel File Motion to Enforce Agreement, Citing Prolonged Detention of Children and 'Culture of Cruelty' | National Center for Youth Law
Flores Counsel yesterday evening filed a motion to enforce the Settlement, citing the government’s prolonged detention of children, which has compounded the harm of other ongoing violations,…
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Melissa Adamson @melissaadamson.bsky.social · 29/05/2025
Last week: The Trump admin went to court to end basic humanitarian standards for children in immigration custody. This week: A pregnant mother and her family - including an 11-month old - were held by CBP for 24 days in a windowless cell. When someone shows you their plan, believe them.
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Reposted by Melissa Adamson
National Center for Youth Law (NCYL) @youthlaw.bsky.social · 22/05/2025
👉 Today, the Trump administration filed a motion in court to end the Flores Settlement - an agreement that provides basic safeguards for the treatment of children in federal immigration custody. Why does this matter? Let’s break it down: 🧵👇
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Aaron Reichlin-Melnick @reichlinmelnick.bsky.social · 22/05/2025
In a widely-expected move, the Trump admin is making yet another effort to terminate the Flores Settlement, which since the 1990s has imposed limitations on the government's treatment of children in immigration detention. They lost every effort to do this in Trump's first term.
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Reposted by Melissa Adamson
National Center for Youth Law (NCYL) @youthlaw.bsky.social · 22/05/2025
NEW: Today, the Trump admin filed to end the Flores Settlement-an agreement that provides basic safeguards for children in federal immigration custody. We, @chrclla.bsky.social & @childrens-rights.bsky.social will keep fighting to defend these children’s health & safety. youthlaw.org/news/trump-a...
youthlaw.org
Trump administration moves to end settlement that protects immigrant children; Flores counsel vow to defend vital safeguards | National Center for Youth Law
Today, the Trump administration filed a motion to terminate the Flores Settlement Agreement, which for years has set the standards for the humane treatment of immigrant children in government custody,...
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Congresswoman Pramila Jayapal @jayapal.house.gov · 18/05/2025
If Trump can undermine due process for immigrants here legally, he can do the same to you. What happens when he disagrees with you? What happens if he doesn’t like what you say? He’ll come after you just like he has to so many others. We must stand up for our collective rights.
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Mishan Wroe @mishanw.bsky.social · 08/05/2025
Deeply grateful to the brave children and their families who made this case possible. @youthlaw.bsky.social is ready to keep fighting to get these kids home to their families.
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Reposted by Melissa Adamson
National Center for Youth Law (NCYL) @youthlaw.bsky.social · 08/05/2025
BREAKING: Immigrant children are being detained in U.S. custody for months—even when their families are ready to bring them home. NCYL and @democracyforward.org just filed a class action lawsuit against HHS to stop it. Read more here: youthlaw.org/news/new-law...
youthlaw.org
New Lawsuit Challenges “Paperwork Barrier” Keeping Immigrant Children Separated from Family and Detained in Government Custody | National Center for Youth Law
Washington, D.C. — Today, children and an immigrant defense organization represented by the National Center for Youth Law (NCYL) and Democracy Forward filed a class action complaint in the U.S. Distri...
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Reposted by Melissa Adamson
Murshed Zaheed @murshedz.bsky.social · 07/05/2025
"Children in government care are now isolated—from their families, from lawyers and other professionals who can help them ..." Trump regime’s polices are prolonging children detention & making it nearly impossible for many families to reunite. Cruelty is always their point.
msmagazine.com
Immigrant Kids Trapped in U.S. Custody: The Hidden Crisis Inside the Office of Refugee Resettlement
A new form of family separation has been quietly engineered at the Office of Refugee Resettlement’s Unaccompanied Minors program, the HHS office responsible for the care and custody of immigrant child...
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Reposted by Melissa Adamson
Aaron Reichlin-Melnick @reichlinmelnick.bsky.social · 28/04/2025
The reconciliation package would also charge anyone who wants to sponsor an unaccompanied child out of an ORR shelter $8,500(!), of which $5,000 would be reimbursed years later if the child was not ordered deported "in absentia" for missing court. That's a price that would stop nearly all sponsors.
SEC. 70007. UNACCOMPANIED ALIEN CHILD SPONSOR FEE. 
(a) IN GENERAL.—In addition to any other fee au
thorized by law, before placing the child with an individual 
under section 235(c) of the William Wilberforce Traf
ficking Victims Protection Reauthorization Act of 2008, 
the Secretary of Health and Human Services shall collect 
from that individual a fee in an amount specified in this 
section as partial reimbursement to the Federal Govern
ment for the period during which the child was in the cus
tody of the Government, for processing, housing, feeding, 
educating, transporting, and otherwise providing for the 
care of the child. 
(b) INITIAL AMOUNT.—For purposes of this sub
section, the amount specified in this section for fiscal year 
2025 shall be such amount as the Secretary may by rule 
provide, but in any event not less than $3,500. SEC. 70020. FEE FOR SPONSOR OF UNACCOMPANIED ALIEN 
CHILD WHO FAILS TO APPEAR IN IMMIGRA
TION COURT. 
(a) FEE IMPOSED.—In addition to any other fee au
thorized by law, for the sponsor of an unaccompanied alien 
child, the Secretary of Health and Human Services shall 
impose a fee in an amount specified in subsection (b) prior 
to the unaccompanied alien child’s release to such sponsor (b) FEE SPECIFIED.— 
(1) INITIAL AMOUNT.—The amount specified in 
this subsection for fiscal year 2025 shall be such 
amount as the Secretary may by rule provide, but in 
any event not less than $5,000.
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Reposted by Melissa Adamson
Young Center for Immigrant Children's Rights @theyoungcenter.bsky.social · 21/04/2025
Children, no matter where they come from, deserve to live free from fear, with their families, safe in their communities. No child should ever dread going to school or outside to play thinking that ICE might deport them or their loved ones.
nytimes.com
Fear Shadows Many Children in Immigrant Families
Heightened immigration enforcement is stirring anxiety among children whose parents are vulnerable to deportation. “Every day I worry they could take my mom.”
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Reposted by Melissa Adamson
National Center for Youth Law (NCYL) @youthlaw.bsky.social · 19/04/2025
Because of the administration's harmful cuts to legal services funding for kids, immigrant children are left without support and representation. Our own Neha Desai, Managing Director of Children's Rights and Human Dignity, spoke with @cnn.com: edition.cnn.com/2025/04/17/p...
edition.cnn.com
‘Railroad kids through the system’: Immigration court’s youngest left to their own devices | CNN Politics
Every week, Evelyn Flores travels to government shelters in the Washington, DC, region for story time with migrant children, telling the tale of a cartoon cat learning to navigate a confusing immigrat...
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Reposted by Melissa Adamson
Rep. Jamie Raskin @raskin.house.gov · 14/04/2025
Trump’s State Department found no evidence linking Rumeysa Ozturk to antisemitic activity or terrorism, but ICE snatched her off the street and dispatched her to a prison 1,000 miles away with no hearing. This is a hallmark of fascist regimes and utterly incompatible with Due Process.
washingtonpost.com
No evidence linking Tufts student to antisemitism or terrorism, State Dept. office found
An internal memo, prepared before Tufts student Rumeysa Ozturk was detained by ICE, raises doubts about the Trump administration’s claims that she supports Hamas.
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