Page 37 - Impact: Collected Essays on Expanding Access to Justice

need of appointed counsel in the immigration context .22 Creating a stable, funded, legal defense system will benefit the overall system not only for helping these desperate children but also for systemic efficiencies and reforms that are possible when the court system operates with effective and prepared counsel .23
II. miguel: Navigating Alone
Miguel is eight years old .24 He is from El Salvador . His mother left him when he was a baby—he does not have a relationship with her . His father traveled to the United States a few years ago to work to support Miguel and his uncles . Miguel came to the United States on buses with a teenage cousin across Mexico after his uncles were killed by gang members who threatened to murder their entire family . U .S . Customs and Border Protection (CBP) apprehended Miguel at the southern border of the United States . He was taken to a juvenile detention center run by the federal Office of Refugee Resettlement (ORR) and a representative of the federal government interviewed him and learned that his father is living in New York City . They contacted Miguel’s father . After several weeks, they released Miguel to his father, who was designated his “ORR Sponsor,” and handed them a packet of papers explaining that Miguel is in removal proceedings and will receive a letter that tells him when he must appear at Immigration Court in Manhattan . These papers explain that if Miguel does not attend, the Department of Homeland Security can order him deported .
The day of Miguel’s hearing arrives . He and his father traveled to downtown Manhattan at 8:30 a .m . Miguel is in the courtroom . He wears his best shirt and his jeans are clean and pressed . He tightly grips the arms of the courtroom chair . He is so small that his feet do not touch the floor . The Immigration Judge is speaking to him slowly and kindly but Miguel turns his small face up to look only at the court’s Spanish-speaking interpreter . The judge is asking, “Are you here alone today?” Miguel responds, “No, I am here with my father .” “Where is your father?” the Judge asks . Miguel pauses . He looks at the judge . He turns his head to the left and looks at the government prosecutor from Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) . He turns to the interpreter . Slowly he says, “I don’t know . He is outside?” Miguel’s father has no papers . He is undocumented and afraid, like so many immigrants, to come inside the courtroom .
This scene is repeated with small variations every day at the New York Immigration Court . The Immigration Judges see many unrepresented people in the courts and now, a growing percentage of people facing deportation alone are children .
22 Letter from Lenni B. Benson, Comm. on Immigration and Nationality Law Chair, to the Senate Judiciary Committee (Apr. 24, 2014) (regarding Position Paper on the “Right to Counsel”), available at http://www2.nycbar.org/pdf/report/ uploads/20072470-SupportofRighttoCounselbill.pdf.
23 See dr. John d. monTgomery, cosT of counsel in immigraTion: economic analysis of ProPosal ProViding Public counsel To indigenT Persons subJecT To immigraTion remoVal Proceedings (2014) (commissioned by the New York City Bar Association), available at http://bit.ly/1EurONw.
24 Miguel’s case is discussed in testimony Claire Thomas provided at a New York City Council hearing on February 25, 2014. Testimony of Claire R. Thomas Before New York City Council, Safe Passage Project (Feb. 25, 2014), available at http://www.safepassageproject.org/claire-r-thomas-testifies-before-new-york-city-council/.
Specific Areas for Reform: Immigration
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