Contact: Tom Salyers, Director of Communications, [email protected]
Members of the Children Thrive Action Network (CTAN) are gravely concerned about the harm the Laken Riley Act, which Congress passed on January 22, 2025, could cause to immigrant children and children of immigrants across the U.S.
The bill’s sweeping punitive measures mean that children can be detained, possibly indefinitely, in jails, detention centers, and/or conditions that are harmful to their well-being. Twenty-four states have no minimum age for prosecuting children, which means very young children–possibly even toddlers–could be subject to mandatory detention. The bill also allows people, including children, to be detained before or without a conviction for nonviolent offenses such as pocketing a lollipop from a gas station. This Act will disproportionately impact teenagers for nonviolent offenses like shoplifting and petty theft, which the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry deems as common behavior among teens and children.
Laws to deter nonviolent and violent crimes already exist at the federal, state, and local levels. This bill simply targets and scares immigrant communities. Detaining anyone accused of a nonviolent crime indefinitely and without bond is extreme and unprecedented, and even more cruel when children and youth are those being criminalized.
Every politician who voted for this bill voted against children’s best interests. Mandatory detention under this bill will result in family separation, which is proven to be irreparably harmful. Research shows that children experience immediate and long-term trauma due to detention and family separation. There is no safe way to detain a child.
Melissa Adamson, an attorney at the National Center for Youth Law, said, “The Laken Riley Act will gravely harm thousands of children. Subjecting anyone – especially children – to mandatory imprisonment without a charge or conviction is unprecedented. I have witnessed the significant harm that detention inflicts on children – the consequences of being imprisoned and separated from one’s family can last a lifetime. Congress has the power to introduce new legislation protecting children from this extreme law and should do so immediately. Immigrant children are children – and ensuring children’s wellbeing is a fundamental American value and our country’s deepest moral responsibility.”
Mina Dixon Davis, a senior policy analyst at the Young Center for Immigrant Children’s Rights, said, “Congress must feel empowered to affirm children’s rights and well-being and reject attempts to use tragedy to serve political ends. As advocates for children, the Young Center is alarmed to see the Laken Riley Act endanger children in the name of public safety and falsely correlate immigration status and criminality. It doesn’t have to be this way. Congress can choose to move forward and uphold children’s best interests–their right to safety, to family unity, to liberty, development, and identity. All children deserve protection and their best opportunity to thrive.”
Wendy Cervantes, director of the immigration and immigrant families team at the Center for Law and Social Policy (CLASP), said, “It is horrifying that this bill has passed, but the fact that it passed without basic humanitarian protections for children is a tragedy. As immigrant families face an onslaught of federal immigration policy attacks in the years ahead, it is up to Congress to do what it can to mitigate the harm to children and families whenever possible. This was a missed opportunity to do just that.”
We are deeply disappointed about the passage of this law and, moving forward, call on policymakers to join us in fighting for the best interest of immigrant families and children.
CTAN is a national network of children’s advocacy organizations and service providers committed to protecting and defending children in immigrant families, guided by policy principles to ensure that immigration policies safeguard children’s health, safety, and well-being. Since 2019, CTAN has urged federal and state officials to advance the “best interest of the child” in all policies and to reject policies that put children in harm’s way and undermine their pursuit of safety.
