Congresswoman Lucille Roybal-Allard (CA-40) has introduced two crucial bills in response to the Trump Administration’s cruel and inhumane interior enforcement policies. Separately, the bills help keep immigrant families together, and help protect immigrant children who are separated from their families.

“The HELP Separated Children Act [H.R. 3451] and Help Separated Families Act [H.R. 3452] would codify important safeguards to protect family unity, especially in the face of this administration’s cruel policies and immigration enforcement tactics that target and separate immigrant children and their families,” said Leah Chavla, policy advisor at the Women’s Refugee Commission. “Together, these bills represent critical steps toward ensuring that parents, if apprehended, are able to make care arrangements for their children – something that ICE officers frequently fail to even ask about – and that their parental rights are not unnecessarily terminated. If enacted, families would be better protected from avoidable and needless permanent separations and the inherent and long-lasting harms they cause.”