The Department of Justice’s Executive Office for Immigration Review is creating specialized dockets for cases involving immigrant children.
In an announcement made this week, federal officials said the dockets would be available in 49 immigration courts around the country. It also noted that specially trained staff and judges would manage these cases, mainly those of unaccompanied migrant children.
Immigrant advocates for years have been pushing for an immigrant children’s court docket that’s separate from adult cases and includes child appropriate protocols.
“The U.S. immigration court system is fundamentally designed for adults, not children,” said Jason Boyd, senior director of policy at Kids in Need of Defense or KIND. “Historically, it has failed to take proper account of unaccompanied children’s unique vulnerabilities.”
EOIR’s new guidance outlines several child-friendly procedures, such as a judge should give an opening statement in “child-appropriate language.”
Other guidelines include:
- Immigration judges should remove their robes, so a child feels more comfortable in the courtroom.
- Allow a child to visit an empty courtroom before a hearing.
- Allow a child and interpreter to meet and establish a rapport before the child testifies.
- An immigration judge should make sure a child is competent enough to testify and understand the oath.
- A child should understand that it’s okay to say they don’t know an answer to a question.
Boyd said EOIR’s guidance is a step in the right direction. In November, a bipartisan group of legislators introduced a bill in Congress that would establish a children’s court within the federal immigration court system, but that bill has not been passed.
“Even the most seasoned immigration attorney may face challenges facing this arena,” he said. “So it can prove virtually impossible for a four or five-year-old child to even comprehend, much less successfully navigate the complex adversarial U.S. immigration system.”
Time after time, unaccompanied migrant children have appeared in court alone and the outcome for those children isn’t good.
According to the latest EIOR data, immigration judges were nearly 100 times less likely to grant relief to unaccompanied children without legal representation than those who did have someone present.
Boyd said the specialized juvenile docket could help make a severely backlogged immigration court more efficient. According to the latest TRAC report, there’s now a backlog of 3 million immigration cases, which is a million more cases that a year ago. And each immigration judge averages about 4,500 pending cases.
Got a tip? Email Stella M. Chávez at schavez@kera.org. You can follow Stella on Twitter @stellamchavez.
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