Many of the migrant children who remain separated from their parents will have to appear in immigration courts alone and are at greater risk of deportation, legal experts told HuffPost.
“In some cases, children as young as 5 will be in front of an immigration judge, expected to explain why they should not be deported and manage the legal process that is required to prove that,” said Kate Lincoln-Goldfinch, an immigration lawyer who has been interviewing migrant women.
Trump announced an executive order last week to end family separation at the border, and immigration officials announced Friday that 500 parents and children have been reunited. But the government doesn’t plan to bring the remaining families together until a parent has finished their deportation hearings ― a process that can take several months ― and advocates say there is still no clear reunification system in place. As a result, children who aren’t even old enough to know the name of their home country will be forced to navigate a complex legal system by themselves.
Last year, only 33 percent of unaccompanied minor children ― the category that these separated kids fall under ― had lawyers to help them through the process, according to data from the Transactional Records Access Clearinghouse (TRAC) at Syracuse University. Since migrants are not entitled to public defenders at their hearings, they rely on limited pro bono legal services.
There’s no minimum age for appearing in immigration court.
“Babies are subject to deportation,” said Wendy Young, president of Kids in Need of Defense, an organization that pairs unaccompanied minors with lawyers. “The norm is that babies are supposed to be with their parent and the parent would speak for the baby [in court]. But, in these cases, we’re seeing them separated.”
They are just completely disoriented, and they are in the middle of their trauma. Their singular focus is ‘Where’s my mommy and how will I get back to her?
It’s already the case that children who arrive at the border without…
