Immigrant toddlers appear in court alone

Children as young as 3 are appearing in court without their parents to plead their case to stay in the country.

News Story (NATIONAL)

Christina Jewett, Shefali Luthra
Kaiser Health News (KHN)
June 28, 2018
READ THE FULL STORY HERE

Tags: Courts, Family Separation, Immigration Process

Organizations mentioned/involved: Immigrant Defenders Law Center (Los Angeles), Kids in Need of Defense (KIND), Immigrant Legal Resource Center (ILRC), American Immigration Lawyers Association (AILA)

DETAILS

The 2,000-plus children will likely need to deal with court proceedings even as they grapple with the ongoing trauma of being taken from their parents.

“We were representing a 3-year-old in court recently who had been separated from the parents. And the child — in the middle of the hearing — started climbing up on the table,” said Lindsay Toczylowski, executive director of Immigrant Defenders Law Center in Los Angeles. “It really highlighted the absurdity of what we’re doing with these kids.”