New bill proposal aims to track children separated from parents at border

Ayana Harry

Originally published in PIX 11

MIDTOWN, Manhattan — As protestors shut down Fifth Avenue Wednesday afternoon outside Trump Tower to protest migrant children bring separated from their parents, State Senator Brian Benjamin introduced the Separated Children Accountability Response Act.

Senator Benjamin wants to create a public reporting system to track the migrant children brought to New York without their families.

“The organizations that are licensed by the state and actually have the children, we need them to tell us how many children do you have in your custody that were forcibly removed from their parents, how many have been returned to their parents, how many have been provided to foster care.”

The bill lays out stiff penalties for providers who fail to provide information on the migrant children they cae for to the public.

“They can have their license revoked and if they knowingly provide us with false information they can face jail time,” Senator Benjamin explained.

The state legislature is currently on summer break, a special session would need to be called to vote on the new legislation anytime soon .