Letter to the Hon. Rex Tillerson, Secretary of State and the Hon. Tom Price, Secretary of Health and Human Services - Klobuchar Urges State Department and HHS to Resume Placement of Orphaned and Other Vulnerable Refugee Children with Families in the United States
Letter
Dear Secretary Tillerson and Secretary Price:
As co-chair of the Congressional Coalition on Adoption, I am concerned about recent reports that the Unaccompanied Refugee Minors (URM) program has been halted, resulting in orphaned children remaining in precarious living situations and American foster families left uncertain about whether they will ever be able to welcome these children into their homes.
Since its inception in the 1980s, the URM program has helped more than 6,000 children enter our country, including 203 children last year. In addition to providing refuge for these vulnerable children, the program also offers foster care services including medical care, mental health services, educational support, and career counseling. These unaccompanied children must undergo a rigorous process to enter the program, including security screenings, before they are matched with an American foster family or group home.
According to press reports, the Administration's executive order has left more than 100 refugee children who were already matched to waiting American foster families stranded overseas. It is my understanding that this is because the executive order currently prevents refugees who lack a "bona fide relationship" with a person or entity in the United States from entering the country.
I know that many Americans have opened their hearts and their homes in the hopes of fostering children through the URM program. In light of these troubling reports, I urge you to consider issuing guidance that these children have a "bona fide relationship" with either their future foster parents or the agencies that have facilitated these connections, so that the URM program can resume placement of orphaned refugee children with loving foster families in the United States. Thank you for your attention to this matter.
Sincerely,
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