Today, First Focus Campaign for Children sent a letter to Rep. Mike Johnson, author of the Asylum Reform and Border Protection Act of 2023 (H.R.1183), to state our opposition to the bill.

Excerpt from the letter:

For more than a decade, the demographic of those arriving at our border seeking safety has shifted to a greater proportion of children and families.1 These children and families make a perilous journey to flee persecution, trafficking, and abuse in their countries of origin.2 Too often when children and families arrive at our borders and request humanitarian protection, they are met with detention, harmful stereotyping, and a complex and confusing immigration system that they must navigate without support, at an increased risk of being returned to the very persecution, trafficking, or abuse they fled. We are concerned that rather than promoting children’s health and safety, this legislation would undermine important protections in our federal laws to ensure children’s safety, health, and well-being.

Read the full letter here.