Other LanguagesOLYMPIA — Immigrant children should not be forced to represent themselves in complex deportation hearings, Attorney General Bob Ferguson asserts in an amicus brief filed today.
The “friend of the court” brief was filed with the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals in J.E.F.M v. Lynch, formerly J.E.F.M. v. Holder.
This class-action lawsuit was filed on July 9, 2014 on behalf of thousands of children, challenging the federal government's willingness to carry out deportation hearings against them without legal representation. For the most part, these children are fleeing to escape violence and crime back in their home countries. A majority of the children are coming from Honduras, El Salvador, and Guatemala.
“Hundreds of these children are already in Washington, some of them as young as eight,” Ferguson said. “An immigration proceeding cannot be conducted fairly where an experienced lawyer represents the federal government and an indigent child has no lawyer at all. It’s not just unreasonable — it’s un-American.”
In immigration proceedings, the consequences are particularly dire for children who can’t afford an attorney and fail to make their case on their own. Even before they are deported, children are often placed in detention facilities that are all too similar to prison.
If deported, children often must return to the same perilous conditions they fled. At least 83 deportees from the U.S. have been reported murdered upon their return to Central America since January 2014. One teenager was murdered only 17 days after being deported in 2004.
The Attorney General asserts that children need the assistance of counsel to navigate our labyrinth of immigration laws; otherwise, the risk of children being erroneously detained or deported is too high. According to Syracuse University’s TRAC Immigration, there is a significant disparity between outcomes for represented versus unrepresented children in Washington. Since 2005, 66 percent of children in Washington state who were represented by counsel had their cases resolved and were granted protection from deportation. In contrast, only 12 percent of children without representation were allowed to remain.
These data demonstrate that many of the unaccompanied immigrant children have viable claims of asylum, but they are unable to successfully articulate those claims without legal assistance.
Washington state has a history of taking a stand on issues involving refugees fleeing violence in their home country.
Ferguson hosted a meeting in 2014 on the need for representation for immigrant children. This amicus brief furthers the Attorney General’s commitment to the welfare of all children in Washington state.
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The Office of the Attorney General is the chief legal office for the state of Washington with attorneys and staff in 27 divisions across the state providing legal services to roughly 200 state agencies, boards and commissions. Visit www.atg.wa.gov to learn more.
Contact:
Peter Lavallee, Communications Director, (360) 586-0725; PeterL@atg.wa.gov