For over a century, the best interests standard has served as the cornerstone of a robust legal architecture erected by every state in the U.S. to safeguard the well-being of children, regardless of their immigration status. A global consensus, embodied in the U.N. Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC), has also embraced the best interests standard as the fundamental framework to guide decision-making involving children. As a signatory to the CRC, which this year marks its thirtieth anniversary as the most widely ratified treaty in recent history, the U.S. government has pledged not to act in a manner that undermines the best interests principle. And yet, despite these longstanding commitments, our country is witnessing a systematic assault on the rights of migrant children as the Trump administration works to roll back hard-fought progress in extending the best interests standard into immigration law and practice. 

Together with the American University Washington College of Law (WCL) and the American Immigration Lawyers Association (AILA), CLALS convened a high-profile, cross-disciplinary symposium to generate impactful publicity around this erosion of fundamental protections and to equip advocates and policymakers to defend and reassert the primacy of the best interests standard in the treatment of children in the U.S. immigration system.