Response to Immigration Policies

The Board of Directors of the Children’s Literature Association unequivocally condemns the recent separation of children from families as ordered by the U.S. Department of Justice at the southwest border. The inhumane treatment of young people and their caretakers is a blatant abuse of human rights. The Department of Justice’s “zero-tolerance policy” violates the Convention on the Rights of the Child, counters the edicts of the American Convention on Human Rights, violates the U.S. Constitution’s amendments supporting due process and prohibiting cruel and unusual punishment, and defies standards of human decency. We condemn any separation of families, the criminalization of asylum seekers and undocumented immigrants, the horrific psychological and physical violence against children and asylum seekers, the treatment of non-U.S. children as U.S. property, and the arbitrary detention of separated family members. We call upon U.S. national, regional, and local representatives to stand up for fundamental human rights, to take immediate steps to reunite severed families, and to ensure the safety of our world’s most vulnerable populations. The Board of Directors of the Children’s Literature Association stands with the thousands of families separated under this cruel and immoral policy.