USA TODAY
Unlike almost three-quarters of high-income countries, the U.S. does not prohibit or limit the detention of accompanied asylum-seeking children, a study released Wednesday finds.
The study by the UCLA Fielding School of Public Health's WORLD Policy Analysis Center looked specifically at laws affecting asylum-seeking children – youths seeking protection from human rights violations in their home country – and migrant children – youths leaving their country for a variety of reasons, such as economic opportunities, education or to join family.
According to the study's findings, the U.S. does not have legislation protecting accompanied migrant children.
“The U.S. lags behind when it comes to protecting the most fundamental rights of migrant children,” said Dr. Jody Heymann, director of WORLD and a professor at UCLA. "Adopting legal protections that provide for the types of effective alternatives to detention modeled elsewhere is critical to bringing the U.S. in line with its peers."