Arkansas bills aim to limit foster care removals
A pair of bills moving through the Legislature seek to tweak foster care and child maltreatment policies, including making it harder to take children away from their parents because of poverty-related neglect.
Why it matters: Advocates argue that removing children from their parents is traumatic and should happen only when necessary, J. Robertson of Opportunity Arkansas told Axios.
The big picture: The idea that poverty is not neglect is already instilled in Arkansas law, but language in the proposed legislation would make it harder to take a child away solely because of parental finances, Christin Harper, policy director for Arkansas Advocates for Children and Families, told Axios.
Family services would be provided first more often before removal was considered, Robertson said.
For example, Robertson cited providing a winter coat for a child if not having one was the reason for a Department of Human Services (DHS) call.
Zoom in: SB326, filed by state Sen. Alan Clark (R-Lonsdale), states children's health or physical safety being in "immediate danger that cannot be mitigated with the provision of services and support" are grounds to remove them from their parents rather than "substantial risk of serious harm."
It also defines neglect as a pattern and removes emotional neglect from the definition. Clark has said that emotional neglect should be removed from the law because it's not clearly defined.
SB325, also filed by Clark, would allow parents whose rights were terminated to file to get them back, a filing traditionally handled by DHS or an attorney.
That process could start as early as two years after parental rights are terminated instead of the current three-year waiting period.
How it works: Harper said it's ideal for children to reunite with their parents in most cases, but it typically requires changes by the parents.
The state usually waits at least a year to terminate parental rights after placing children in foster care, giving parents a chance to change.
Caveat: The state moves to terminate parents' rights faster in extreme cases, including sexual abuse.
By the numbers: As of the end of February, 3,353 children were in foster care in Arkansas, according to DHS.
Arkansas had 1,359 foster homes as of Jan. 1, short about 440 of the Division of Children and Family Services' (DCFS) goal of 1,800, DHS spokesperson Gavin Lesnick told Axios in an email.
State of play: About 62% of Arkansas children in foster care are moved to a home outside their county, which often means being moved to a new school, according to DHS data.
That's partly because the DCFS prioritizes placing children with a family member or family friend who might live outside the child's home county, Lesnick said.
Zoom out: SB325 also specifies who, and what cases, will be on the child maltreatment registry, which currently includes all substantiated determinations of child maltreatment.
The proposed legislation does not require that parents accused of neglect be on the registry.
Being on the registry can prevent parents from getting a job they need to support their child, Robertson said. The proposed law would keep parents investigated for abuse, sexual abuse or sexual exploitation on the list.
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Associated Press
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After decades in the US, Iranians arrested in Trump's deportation drive
Mandonna 'Donna' Kashanian lived in the United States for 47 years, married a U.S. citizen and raised their daughter. She was gardening in the yard of her New Orleans home when U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers handcuffed and took her away, her family said. Kashanian arrived in 1978 on a student visa and applied for asylum, fearing retaliation for her father's support of the U.S.-backed shah. She lost her bid, but she was allowied to remain with her husband and child if she checked in regularly with immigration officials, her husband and daughter said. She complied, once checking in from South Carolina during Hurricane Katrina. She is now being held at an immigration detention center in Basile, Louisiana, while her family tries to get information. Other Iranians are also getting arrested by immigration authorities after decades in the United States. The U.S. Department of Homeland Security won't say how many people they've arrested, but U.S. military strikes on Iran have fueled fears that there is more to come. 'Some level of vigilance, of course, makes sense, but what it seems like ICE has done is basically give out an order to round up as many Iranians as you can, whether or not they're linked to any threat and then arrest them and deport them, which is very concerning,' said Ryan Costello, policy director of the National Iranian American Council, an advocacy group. Homeland Security did not immediately reply to an email seeking comment on Kashanian's case but have been touting arrests of Iranians. The department announced the arrests of at least 11 Iranians on immigration violations during the weekend of the U.S. missile strikes. U.S. Customs and Border Protection said, without elaborating, that it arrested seven Iranians at a Los Angeles-area address that 'has been repeatedly used to harbor illegal entrants linked to terrorism.' The department 'has been full throttle on identifying and arresting known or suspected terrorists and violent extremists that illegally entered this country, came in through Biden's fraudulent parole programs or otherwise,' spokeswoman Tricia McLaughlin said of the 11 arrests. She didn't offer any evidence of terrorist or extremist ties. Her comment on parole programs referred to President Joe Biden's expanded legal pathways to entry, which his successor, Donald Trump, shut down. Russell Milne, Kashanian's husband, said his wife is not a threat. Her appeal for asylum was complicated because of 'events in her early life,' he explained. A court found an earlier marriage of hers to be fraudulent. But over four decades, Kashanian, 64, built a life in Louisiana. The couple met when she was bartending as a student in the late 1980s. They married and had a daughter. She volunteered with Habitat for Humanity, filmed Persian cooking tutorials on YouTube and was a grandmother figure to the children next door. The fear of deportation always hung over the family, Milne said, but he said his wife did everything that was being asked of her. 'She's meeting her obligations,' Milne said. 'She's retirement age. She's not a threat. Who picks up a grandmother?' While Iranians have been crossing the border illegally for years, especially since 2021, they have faced little risk of being deported to their home countries due to severed diplomatic relations with the U.S. That seems to no longer be the case. The Trump administration has deported hundreds of people, including Iranians, to countries other than their own in an attempt to circumvent diplomatic hurdles with governments that won't take their people back. During Trump's second term, countries including El Salvador, Costa Rica and Panama have taken back noncitizens from the U.S. The administration has asked the Supreme Court to clear the way for several deportations to South Sudan, a war-ravaged country with which it has no ties, after the justices allowed deportations to countries other than those noncitizens came from. The U.S. Border Patrol arrested Iranians 1,700 times at the Mexican border from October 2021 through November 2024, according to the most recent public data available. The Homeland Security Department reported that about 600 Iranians overstayed visas as business or exchange visitors, tourists and students in the 12-month period through September 2023, the most recent data reports. Iran was one of 12 countries subject to a U.S. travel ban that took effect this month. Some fear ICE's growing deportation arrests will be another blow. In Oregon, an Iranian man was detained by immigration agents this past week while driving to the gym. He was picked up roughly two weeks before he was scheduled for a check-in at ICE offices in Portland, according to court documents filed by his attorney, Michael Purcell. The man, identified in court filings as S.F., has lived in the U.S. for over 20 years, and his wife and two children are U.S. citizens. S.F. applied for asylum in the U.S. in the early 2000s, but his application was denied in 2002. His appeal failed but the government did not deport him and he continued to live in the country for decades, according to court documents. Due to 'changed conditions' in Iran, S.F. would face 'a vastly increased danger of persecution' if he were to be deported, Purcell wrote in his petition. 'These circumstances relate to the recent bombing by the United States of Iranian nuclear facilities, thus creating a de facto state of war between the United States and Iran.' S.F.'s long residency in the U.S., his conversion to Christianity and the fact that his wife and children are U.S. citizens 'sharply increase the possibility of his imprisonment in Iran, or torture or execution,' he said. Similarly, Kashanian's daughter said she is worried what will happen to her mother. 'She tried to do everything right,' Kaitlynn Milne said.
