1. Child Migrants in the United States Rights Abuses and Programmatic Needs Alison Parker, Director US Program, Human Rights Watch

2. US Program of Human Rights Watch We investigate human rights abuses wherever they occur, in 90 countries including the US, expose our findings to the media, and press policymakers for change. Four categories of child migrant experience inside the United States: 1) Unaccompanied child migrants; 2) Families separated across the border; 3) Children migrating with family members; 4) Child migrant workers. Note: Human Rights Watch does not reveal childrens’ identities in our videos or photographs.

4. Unaccompanied child migrants “Jose’s” attempts to migrate to the U.S.

5. Unaccompanied child migrants In 2015, 41,000 unaccompanied child migrants are expected to arrive in the US from Mexico and Central America. Abuses suffered during migration: sexual violence, trafficking, involvement with international criminal groups, lack of access to food, water, education, and shelter. Children told us that they fear for their lives if they attempt to leave the control of international criminal groups and / or traffickers. At the border, we are deeply concerned that US law has no requirement for border agents to consider the best interest of children in their custody.

6. Families Separated Across the Border

7. Young migrant children are separated from their caregivers every week in the United States. There are 4.1 million US citizen children living with an undocumented parent today. These parents are constantly at risk of deportation. Parents must make the heart-wrenching decision to bring their children with them, often to a country that no-one in the family has connections to; or to agree to be deported without their citizen children. Deported parents often repeatedly try to cross the border to reunite with their children – only to be imprisoned and deported again. Children facing family separation often experience: increased levels of anxiety, psychological harm, impacts on their well being due to reduced resources of family members left to care for them, poor school performance, and isolation from family due to entering the foster care system.

9. Infants and Children Migrating with Caregivers Arriving infants and children traveling with mothers seeking asylum are first held in Border Patrol lock-ups notorious for their freezing cold conditions. Detainees complain of insufficient food, and children often get colds or other illnesses. Next, they are sent to detention centers where they are afforded no privacy and told when to eat, when to sleep and when to wake up. Currently, the US has 3 family detention centers, with 4,000 beds. Six-year-old “Camila’s” story.

10. Infants and Children Migrating with Caregivers Problems faced by infants and children migrating with family members: pre-migration trauma; psychological and health consequences of the hostile and prison-like conditions of detention, including suicide attempts by mothers and children. Thanks to HRW’s advocacy and the work of many partners, the duration of family detention has been reduced. However, now mothers are forced to wear ankle bracelets when they are released from detention. Children report feeling shame at their mothers being shackled.

11. Child Migrant Workers There are an estimated 300,000 – 800,000 child migrant workers in the US, of whom some significant proportion are non-citizens. While most child labor is outlawed in the United States, there is a major exception for agricultural work. Very young workers, ages 7, 8, 9, can be found working in the fields inside the U.S. Children this young typically attend school and work only part of the day.

12. Child Migrant Workers Harm suffered by migrant workers: dropping out of school, physical injuries from working with farm equipment, nicotine poisoning resulting from work in tobacco fields, exposure to pesticides, sexual and physical abuse. Due to HRW’s advocacy, US law was changed in 2015 to ban children under 18 from handling pesticides and re-entering fields where pesticides were recently sprayed. In addition, some tobacco companies have agreed not to employ children below the age of 16.

13. Drawing Global Lessons from US Experience: Key intervention points for health and service providers 1.Trauma. Recognize that children experience trauma before, during and after migrating; 2.Border. Work with border enforcement agencies to gain access to children and their families as early as possible after apprehension; 3.Best interests. Require border officials to assess the best interests of children apprehended; 4.Don’t split families. Allow the weighing of family relationships and the best interests of children before splitting families in deportation and detention decisions; 5.Prohibit detention of children. Instead, work to place children community support settings (including with relatives already inside the host country) where they can better access the services they need; 6.Prohibit the employment of children. Recognize that families need social support to ensure that they enroll their children in school and can manage without additional income from children; 7.Protect children involved in organized crime. Address sensitively the possibility that children have been involved in criminal organizations before or during their migration; 8.Integrate health, legal, and social services. Negotiate with border and government authorities to provide holistic support services (legal, social, health) to migrant families. Prioritize legal assistance for children, access to education, health care (including mental health care), and ability for children and their families to live in community settings better suited to their developmental needs.