“If the government takes a kid out of their family, we make a commitment to that child that their life will be better because of the government interaction,” said James McIntyre - who "spent 17 years in the custody of the Illinois Department of Family services" - as quoted in this article from the Nation. “That’s just not true. And we don’t have anybody talking about those issues on a [US[ federal level.”
"This high-level silence is the norm—in part, advocates say, because the young people who bear the full impact cannot vote," says the article. "About 1 out of every 20 children will spend some time in foster care, according to research by Christopher Wildeman, professor at Cornell University who helps manage the largest federal government database of foster care statistics," the article continues. "But the issue goes largely ignored, especially in presidential politics."
“I want people who make the rules to talk to us like we are equals instead of using our stories and moving on to the next person,” said McIntyre. “People want us to support them, but they don’t want to fight for us.”