Contains testimony in support of Senate Bill 121, the Unaccompanied Alien Child Protection Act, that promotes alternatives for unaccompanied alien children and use of foster care for these children. The Migration and Refugee Services/United States Conference of Catholic Bishops and Lutheran Immigration and Refugee Service have resettled unaccompanied refugee minors for 25 years, providing child welfare services to more than 12,000 unaccompanied children. The most import aspects of the proposed legislation include: (1) creation of an office within the Department of Justice to handle children’s care and custody separately from the Immigration and Nationalization Service; (2) access to counsel for unaccompanied alien children; (3) provision of impartial guardians ad litem to offer recommendations about the best interests of the children; (4) enactment of standards of detention that ensure that unaccompanied alien children are not mistreated by being placed in facilities with adults or with juvenileoffenders, and are not unnecessarily restrained; (5) enactment of standards that require placement in the least restrictive setting possible and that those settings take into account the educational, health, and spiritual needs of the children; (6) enactment of standards favoring release of children to responsible caregivers; (7) establishment of family reunification as the priority in placement decisions; and (8) reform of the Special Immigrant “J’ visa. (IP)
