ABA's ProBAR 'jumped into action' to stop deportation of unaccompanied children from Guatemala
As the situation involving unaccompanied Guatemalan children unfolded last week, the ABA’s South Texas Pro Bono Asylum Representation Project stepped in. Leader Laura Peña provided this account of events:
It was just before midnight on Saturday when the calls to the ABA’s South Texas Pro Bono Asylum Representation Project staff began. Guatemalan children were being pulled from their beds in shelters across the state, rushed onto buses and driven under the cover of darkness to a small border town airport in Harlingen, Texas. Deep into the Labor Day weekend, the U.S. government had launched a new effort to expeditiously return immigrant children—alone and terrified—back to Guatemala.
Without hesitation, ProBAR attorneys jumped into action, rushing to shelters across the region and to the airport from which the children were expected to depart. It was a race against time but our team was ready. For the next 24 hours, our team worked around the clock to defend the rights of frightened children. We intervened for young girls at risk of trafficking, and we stood firm against a policy designed to strip children of their rights and procedures to ensure safety and due process.
Thanks to ProBAR’s advocacy efforts, two of those children are now named plaintiffs in a national lawsuit challenging this policy—including our 10-year-old client, a motherless child who fears being forced back to danger in Guatemala. ProBAR’s work resulted in evidence that was critical in challenging the government’s actions.
ProBAR attorneys talk more about these events and their work to defend the children’s rights here:
The ABA said in a statement Thursday that federal law requires that unaccompanied children be placed in removal proceedings in immigration court. The Homeland Security Act and Trafficking Victims Protection Reauthorization Act recognize that unaccompanied children—i.e., children without legal status who arrive at the United States border without a parent or legal guardian—face unique challenges in the immigration system. All respondents in removal proceedings have a right to be represented by counsel. Special protections for unaccompanied children go beyond this by requiring the government to provide legal representation “to the greatest extent practicable.”
Many of these children affected by the weekend’s events were represented by counsel and had already filed applications for relief in immigration court; these deportation efforts would have subverted due process to effectuate their rapid return to Guatemala.
“The safety of these at-risk children should remain the primary focus as things develop and an orderly court-reviewed process, which is now ongoing, is the best way to ensure this,” said ABA President Michelle A. Behnke. “Making sure children are protected is one of the most important roles that a lawyer can play.”
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