Future uncertain for programs supporting unaccompanied migrant children facing immigration court
There are organizations around the U.S. that help minors navigate the process, but the future of these programs is now uncertain.
"The different circumstances that lead these children to arrive have to do with poverty, have to do with persecution," said Farheen Siddiqi, a managing attorney at the International Rescue Committee (IRC), a nonprofit that helps people affected by humanitarian crises across the U.S. and the world. "They're already carrying a high level of trauma."
For migrant children, who range in age from 3 to 17 years old and arrive in the U.S. without a guardian, applying for asylum can be another confusing obstacle.
"The immigration system is so complex," Siddiqi said. "And then seeing the children's faces. They have really no idea how to navigate that."
It's why U.S. law provides protections for unaccompanied children and why federal grants go toward legal representation for these children.
The International Rescue Committee is one of the groups that receives funding to help unaccompanied minors.
"We've gone through a lot of different variations of the funding being cut," Siddiqi said.
This year, Siddiqi said the money that organizations like the IRC rely on has been jeopardized.
In March, the network that oversees these nonprofits received a letter from the Department of the Interior ending the contract that pays for the network's services.
It puts legal representation for about 26,000 unaccompanied kids at risk. As a result, some of the nonprofits have sued.
A federal judge has since restored the funding, for now.
"But ... there's no certainty as to the future of the program," Siddiqi said. "It's only until September that we have continued funding."
"If this elimination extends, in the future, that means that these children are going to be left with no representation whatsoever," Siddiqi added.
Ultimately, that could mean children alone in courtrooms, unable to adequately present their case for immigration relief, end up with deportation orders.
"As attorneys, we might be able to find another job, but these children and their future is at risk, ultimately," Siddiqi said.
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