The Office of Refugee Resettlement (ORR), which reports to the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), canceled the legal defense contract for unaccompanied migrant children in its custody.
“Acacia is the organization that contracts directly with the government and they contract with many organizations throughout the United States to have the contract to represent unaccompanied children,” explained Karina Ramos, Director of Advocacy at Immigrant Defenders Law Center (ImmDef).
For 20 years and in a bipartisan decision by Congress, the ORR must provide legal help to children in custody, but now the Trump administration seeks to change the rules and places children at risk of deportation.
"We represent unaccompanied children. It is a legal term that is given to these children when they arrive at the border without a father, a mother, a guardian at that time," Ramos added. "If there is no one who can reunify with them, they have no family, [they must] remain in government custody. Our representation begins from the moment these children arrive at those shelters."
Although the federal government receives the children, that does not mean that it authorizes their permanent stay in the country, since it will be a judge who determines that these minors are deported or can remain under the guardianship of a family, even if they are granted a Legal Permanent Residence or Gren Card.
“We must understand that from the minute children enter these shelters, they are already in deportation processes,” said Ramos. “So, we as lawyers are there to see immediate necessary things because these children come with a lot of trauma, you can imagine, but we accompany them in all their court procedures.”
Comprehensive help
In addition to legal advice, the children receive support from social workers, who help them face the trauma experienced upon their arrival in the United States, since some may even have been victims of violence or human trafficking.
Ramos indicates that his main concern is not the contract, but the future of the children and who will take their cases in court.
"I want us to think for a minute that this is not about contracts, money that is owed [...] we are talking about children, the most vulnerable beings in this world who are going to lose their lawyers [...]. but the immigration mechanism, of deportation, continues," the lawyer insists.
It is estimated that some 24,000 children are left without legal defense from almost a hundred civil organizations distributed throughout the country. ImmDef, for example, represents nearly 1,500 children, primarily in California.
Most of the children are in states where there are more immigrants, such as Florida, New York and Texas.
Ramos warned that immigration laws in the US are complex and even new lawyers who could represent the children would take time to familiarize themselves with the cases.
“Immigration laws are some of the most complicated in the United States,” Ramos said on the podcast ‘El Diario Sin Límites’. "A child who walks into immigration court without a lawyer is going to be deported. It's that easy. A child who has the best immigration case to be able to stay in the United States is not going to win his case if there is not someone presenting his application in front of a judge."
Pressure for voluntary deportation
Ramos warned that immigration judges and federal authorities are pressuring children to sign their voluntary departure from the United States, also known as “self-deportation.”
"The judges and the government are trying to force children to sign their own voluntary deportation. That is happening all the time," he lamented. "So, yes, there are going to be children who come into court who have to plead guilty, we can put it like that. [...] So a child should have someone there to help them in the process, in a process that will dictate whether they have to return to a place from which they fled."
