USCCB Letter to U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement regarding regulations on the apprehension, processing, care, and custody of immigrant children (2018)

USCCB Letter to U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement regarding regulations on the apprehension, processing, care, and custody of immigrant children, October 23, 2018

The United States Conference of Catholic Bishops (“USCCB”), the public policy agency of the Catholic Bishops in the United States, offers the following comments to the Department of Homeland Security (“DHS”) and the Department of Health and Human Services (“HHS”) regarding the Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (“NPRM” or “proposed rule”) to implement and amend regulations relating to the apprehension, processing, care, and custody of immigrant children under the Flores Settlement Agreement (“FSA”), published in the Federal Register on September 7, 2018 (83 Fed. Reg. 45,486).

USCCB’s Department of Migration and Refugee Services (“USCCB/MRS”) has operated programs, working in collaboration with the U.S. government, to help protect unaccompanied children from all over the world for nearly 40 years. Since 1994, USCCB/MRS has operated the “Safe Passages” program. This program serves undocumented immigrant children apprehended by DHS and placed in the custody and care of HHS’s Office of Refugee Resettlement (“ORR”). Through cooperative agreements with ORR, and in collaboration with community-based social service agencies, the Safe Passages program provides residential care (i.e., foster care and small- scale shelter placements) to unaccompanied children in ORR custody.

NPRM-MRS-Flores-Comments-DHSDocketNo-ICEB-2018-0002-10-12-FINAL.pdf