A rare bipartisan immigration bill aims to make the immigration court system friendlier and easier to navigate for unaccompanied immigrant children.
There are 62,000 cases pending in U.S. immigration courts involving children who crossed the border without a parent, and many now have to defend their right to stay in the U.S. without lawyers in courts designed for adults and before judges who may not understand their unique situation.
Data from the Department of Justice suggests that nearly half are defending themselves against deportation without legal representation. Sometimes, children who are too young to communicate verbally are left in front of judges who are not trained to handle such sensitive cases.
The Immigration Court Efficiency and Children’s Court Act of 2023 was introduced in the Senate on Wednesday by Michael Bennet, D-Colo. and Lisa Murkowski, R-Alaska, and in the House by a group of Republicans and Democrats. The bill aims to give immigration judges special training and allow them to see a special children-only docket. It would also ensure that children are treated “appropriately for their developmental age” and linked to legal services organisations.
Bennet, who was part of the bipartisan “Gang of Eight” senators who wrote an immigration reform bill in 2013, the last time Congress came close to passing comprehensive reform, said: “I think this is a small way that we can make it more humane and more efficient with respect to some of the most vulnerable people that are involved, and that’s children.”
Judge Kathleen Reilly presided over a courtroom in Hyattsville, Maryland, where all the migrants in the morning session had entered the country as unaccompanied children. Some were brought by their adult sponsors, some are now adults, some were there by video link, but almost all had lawyers representing them.
Reilly told one young woman that she had to try to find a lawyer and come back later for another hearing. To others, she explained their rights and what it would mean to opt for voluntary departure or to continue their cases, which could end in a deportation order or “final order of removal”.
At the back of the courtroom, a local representative from a legal aid organisation, Kids in Need of Defense (KIND), stood by to determine which cases might need additional legal assistance. In some courtrooms like this one, young children might be offered teddy bears.
Responding to the introduction of the bill, KIND President Wendy Young said: “Immigration courts are designed for adults and do not recognise the unique vulnerability of unaccompanied children. Other court systems that deal with children create separate structures that take into account children’s developmental levels and challenging circumstances. Immigration courts should follow best practices from these settings to create a more child-friendly environment that improves their access to due process.”
Bennet said the bill aims to make the process not only more humane for children, but also more efficient. If children are connected with lawyers earlier in the process, fewer cases will be delayed. And if judges can focus on child-only dockets, the bill’s authors argue, it would “address the immigration court backlog,” which stands at more than 2.7 million cases.
Bennet said he is hopeful the bill will pass because it has already achieved bipartisan and bicameral status, a rare feat for legislation in the current political climate, especially on the issue of immigration. But, he said, regardless of whether the bill passes, the US needs more immigration judges to deal with the backlog of pending cases.
The bill does not guarantee that the children will have lawyers – the right to counsel is only afforded to US citizens – but Bennet said he believes more will find lawyers as a result of the legislation.
“The idea here is that judges, if they are people who have experience with children and if they are people who have a docket that is dedicated to children, that they would have more access to outside organisations that have lawyers and other advocates that could work with children,” he said.
