To: President Donald Trump, The Arizona State House, The Arizona State Senate, Governor Doug Ducey, The United States House of Representatives, and The United States Senate
Demand Legal Representation for Undocumented Children that are Unaccompanied
I urge you to support the effort to require the government to provide legal assistance for undocumented children who are unaccompanied. No children should ever experience immigration proceedings in a legal system designed for adults alone.
Why is this important?
The dramatic increase in the number of undocumented children who are unaccompanied, and the unfair legal process through which they must go in order to stay legally in the U.S., is disturbing.
Insufficient access to legal representation in their immigration proceedings practically puts these children from Central America and Mexico, held in U.S. federal custody, at a disadvantage. Eventually this ruthless event practically dictates their deportation. After their undeserved repatriation, they once again face dangers and problems including human trafficking, violence, crime, and the abuse from which they fled from the beginning. Such occurrences are creating a vicious cycle, and the ones who continuously get hurt both physically and mentally are children.
As a nation, it is our moral obligation and responsibility to care and protect the rights of undocumented children who come by themselves, but we have failed to do so. Unfortunately, the American values and the “best interest” of children in due process have been undermined. To flip the page, our government must increase its efforts to address the issue.
The U.S. government, in coordination with state and local courts, should establish a better mechanism in order to provide free legal support to every single undocumented child. In addition, they should prohibit, and sanctions must be applied to, any legal proceeding that takes place involving an unaccompanied child who has no assistance whatsoever.
Insufficient access to legal representation in their immigration proceedings practically puts these children from Central America and Mexico, held in U.S. federal custody, at a disadvantage. Eventually this ruthless event practically dictates their deportation. After their undeserved repatriation, they once again face dangers and problems including human trafficking, violence, crime, and the abuse from which they fled from the beginning. Such occurrences are creating a vicious cycle, and the ones who continuously get hurt both physically and mentally are children.
As a nation, it is our moral obligation and responsibility to care and protect the rights of undocumented children who come by themselves, but we have failed to do so. Unfortunately, the American values and the “best interest” of children in due process have been undermined. To flip the page, our government must increase its efforts to address the issue.
The U.S. government, in coordination with state and local courts, should establish a better mechanism in order to provide free legal support to every single undocumented child. In addition, they should prohibit, and sanctions must be applied to, any legal proceeding that takes place involving an unaccompanied child who has no assistance whatsoever.