NCYL and co-counsel file amicus brief in support of legal representation for unaccompanied children
Today, the National Center for Youth Law (NCYL) took action to protect unaccompanied immigrant children. We are proud to announce that we have filed an amicus brief on behalf of children’s civil rights groups with years of experience representing detained immigrant children, supporting legal service providers challenging the Trump administration’s cuts to legal aid for unaccompanied children.
On March 21, the Trump administration largely eliminated funded legal representation for unaccompanied immigrant children - taking away trusted advocates from children who are deeply vulnerable to mistreatment and abuse and leaving children as young as 2 years old to represent themselves in immigration court. In response, legal service providers filed suit — CLSEPA v. HHS — in the Northern District of California.
Our amicus brief, filed in support of the plaintiffs’ motion for a preliminary injunction and in partnership with the Center for Human Rights and Constitutional Law, Children’s Rights, and the University of California Davis Immigration Law Clinic, draws on hundreds of interviews with children in immigration custody and investigations of detention conditions across the country over many years. Through our experience as co-counsel on Flores and Lucas R., cases that established critical legal protections for children in federal immigration custody, we have seen firsthand the crucial role of legal service providers in protecting children from mistreatment and abuse and assisting them in exercising their legal rights.
As explained by children we interviewed in government custody:
"My lawyer has really helped me to learn about my rights and has supported me in times where I havebeen very afraid. I want to help other children like my lawyer has helped me."
"I liked the attorney I worked with when I was at [my prior placement]. Now that I've been transferred, I don't know what's going on with my case...I can't stand being locked up any more. I feel so helpless and desperate. I don't know what to do. I want to be released so badly. I want to live with my family."
Decades of well-corroborated accounts of the severe mistreatment unaccompanied children have faced in government custody, and the structural deficiencies within the government that result in this mistreatment, illustrate the necessity of funded legal representation in fulfilling Congress’s objective of ensuring the safety of unaccompanied children.
Read our full amicus brief here.
