The Trump administration has a record number of migrant children, most of them minors who came to the U.S. alone, under custody. This is intentional, and it’s a heart-wrenching sight, because not only are more and more kids appearing in front of an immigration judge, they’re also getting younger. In fact, “we rarely had children under the age of 6 until the last year or so,” said Ashley Tabaddor, president of the National Association of Immigration Judges. “We started seeing them as a regular presence in our docket.”
One of these children is Fernanda Jacqueline Davila. She’s just 2 years old and “so small she had to be lifted into the chair.” She was torn from her grandmother at the U.S./Mexico border this past July due to the Trump administration’s barbaric “zero tolerance” policy, and has been in U.S. custody since. “How old are you?” Do you speak Spanish?” the judge asked. Fernanda didn’t answer back after her interpreter whispered into her ear in Spanish. “She’s … she’s nodding her head,” the judge replied.
It’s unclear how many of the kids who appeared in immigration court that day had an attorney, but immigrant children do appear in court alone because unlike the criminal court system, the law does not guarantee representation to immigrants in immigration court, even if they are children. According to data from the Transactional Records Access Clearinghouse (TRAC) at Syracuse University, last year only 33 percent of unaccompanied kids had representation.
The record number of migrant children under U.S. custody comes as Jefferson Beauregard Sessions III is using his vast power as attorney general to rig immigration courts against immigrants, including stomping on the asylum claims of women escaping domestic and gang violence in Central America. “While other Attorneys General have been careful not to abuse their broad authority over the immigration courts,” DHS Watch reported, “Sessions is turning back the clock.”
Meanwhile, nearly 13,000 other migrant children, many in a Texas prison camp, wait to hear about their own future.
Back in Fernanda’s New York courtroom, immigration Judge Randa Zagzoug granted the request of relatives back in Honduras to have her returned. “Zagzoug had nearly 30 children to hear from, ages 2 through 17. Fernanda was No. 26.”
“The administration’s dehumanization of people with brown skin is despicable,” said Frank Sharry of immigrant rights advocacy group America’s Voice. “This, and the people responsible, will be remembered for generations to come. This, and the people responsible, will forever be known as the officials who separated families and locked up kids. This, and the people responsible, will, one day, be held accountable.”
These children continue to need our help. Can you give $5 to some of the important grassroots organizations working to make sure they have legal representation in court?