Unaccompanied migrant children, or children who come to the U.S. without their parents, not only have to deal with the trauma of leaving their home countries due to violence and other factors, some must also deal with the trauma, once here, of facing an immigration judge by themselves. This isn’t new. Unlike criminal courts, the law does not guarantee legal representation to immigrants in immigration court. Roger, three, and Basillo, five, do have a lawyer, but they’re essentially still by themselves because their parents were ripped away at the border:
"What's your name?" asked Judge Robert Hough. An interpreter repeated the question in Spanish to the smallest one.
"Es un avion" — "It's a plane!" — the boy replied, pointing at a picture book with an illustration of a plane.
Both boys crossed the U.S./Mexico border with their dads, and both boys were torn from their dads’ arms due to the Trump administration’s barbaric “zero tolerance” policy, a policy that has not ended despite his sham executive order stunt, and a policy that has reclassified them into unaccompanied minors despite coming with their dads. Adding to the chaos is, that children, and those lucky enough to have representation, can’t find parents detained by the government.
"That’s definitely the biggest issue we have dealt with,” said Diocesan Migrant and Refugee Services executive director Melissa Lopez, “the lack of knowledge about where the other party is. They aren’t told where their parents are. And the parents aren’t told where their children are." Roger’s dad has been located, and they’ll be deported together. But the identification number for Basillo’s dad, given to his attorney, doesn’t work. They have no idea where he is.
“’Why that is I'm not sure,’ said Judge Hough, noting that an expedited deportation may have taken place,” according to Buzzfeed. Basillo’s attorney does know where his mom is, and the boy may be deported to Guatemala soon to her. But up in the air are the fates of more than 2,000 other separated children, taken hostage by an administration that has absolutely no plan set on how to ever reunite them with their parents.
Can you give $5 to help keep families together and make sure that no child has to appear in court without an attorney?