Trump Stripped Legal Right to Representation for Immigrant Kids. What Now?

FEATURING SHAINA ABER -  Tens of thousands of children are going to start having to defend themselves in immigration court proceedings after the Trump administration refused to renew contracts with legal advocates.

Children as young as a few years old, will be expected to make their case for why they should be allowed to remain in the United States, or risk deportation.

Congress has allocated funding for immigrant minors under the Office of Refugee Resettlement for decades, and the federal government has had contracts with nearly 100 legal organizations. One of them is Acacia Center for Justice. Its executive director, Shaina Aber--who recommends people of conscience sign this petition--spoke with Sonali Kolhatkar about what's happening and how to stop it.

ROUGH TRANSCRIPT:

Sonali Kolhatkar: Explain first of all, what the practice has been. I mentioned that Congress allocated funding. Up until the Trump administration came into office and basically began dismantling people's rights, what was the norm for a child who might be in the United States without a parent present? 

Shaina Aber: Yeah. So in 2005, Congress began really taking seriously trafficking risks and persecution claims that children might have who are arriving unaccompanied by an adult legal guardian in the United States. And in taking that seriously, they began to pilot a program, I think from 2003 to 2005, there was a pilot for legal services for children so kids could understand what their rights are, both in custody and as they're going through immigration court proceedings, and to break the cyclical trafficking risks, which were really apparent with kids who had been trafficked, being sent back to their traffickers and then trafficked again over the border. 

And so in 2008, under President George W. Bush, who, as your listeners might remember, had a real commitment to trafficking survivors, there was a bipartisan, unanimous Congress that passed into law, basically memorializing a model by which children would be able to have legal services provided for them while they're in custody and where some children would be able to actually have legal representation. 

That was signed by George W. Bush, and the norm over the years has been to continue to invest in ensuring that children have the ability to have their voices heard in immigration court in one of the most complex legal systems in the country.