Nearly half of all children who have appeared in federal immigration courts for deportation proceedings over the past decade were not represented by attorneys, and only one out of every 10 of them was ultimately allowed to stay in the U.S., a new report shows.
In contrast, half of those represented by a lawyer were allowed to remain here, according to the report by the Transactional Records Access Clearinghouse, a research organization at Syracuse University. TRAC based its findings on federal records of 101,850 deportation cases involving children from October 2004 to June of this year.
TRAC released the report this week amid a growing surge of Central American children who are illegally crossing the southwest border. After apprehending them, the federal government is placing some in the care of relatives in Georgia and other states while they undergo deportation proceedings that can last months or even years because of court backlogs.
The Obama administration has asked Congress for $3.7 billion in additional funding to help respond to the crisis and expedite these deportation proceedings. That request includes $2.5 million to expand legal orientation programs for their adult custodians and $15 million for legal representation for the children.
President Barack Obama’s Republican critics in Congress oppose his funding request, saying it would not address the root causes of the problem. They say the Obama administration’s immigration policies are to blame for the crisis. On the other side, congressional Democrats are raising concerns about sending the children back to Central American countries beset by crushing poverty and gang violence.
The White House this year announced a new effort aimed at providing attorneys for these children. Called “Justice AmeriCorps,” the partnership is a joint effort led by the U.S. Justice Department and the Corporation for National Community Services, which administers AmeriCorps.
Read TRAC's report here.
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