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Refugee children could get advocates under pilot program
WASHINGTON (CNN) -- Increasing numbers of children from other countries are fleeing to the United States to escape persecution, reunite with family members or simply escape poverty. But child-refugee advocates fear that many child refugees may be deported because they are unable -- or too intimidated -- to adequately state why they should not be sent back. Children who arrive alone and who lack family in the United States have no one to explain the complicated immigration process to them or find them temporary homes. In addition, these children have no one to comfort them during an emotionally difficult time, the advocates say.
A pilot project set to begin this summer should make things easier for unaccompanied child refugees in the Phoenix, Arizona, area, advocates say. Under the program, which has the government's cooperation, trained volunteers will be assigned to unaccompanied minors held in a detention facility just outside Phoenix. The volunteers will help the kids with immigration questions, make the kids feel welcome and represent the child's interests in other ways. These "friends of the children" will work with the children from the time of their arrival in the United States to the time they appear before an immigration judge who decides whether or not they will be deported. Advocacy groups and government officials are scheduled to meet in Phoenix next month to discuss the project's details. Officials say the effort will cost roughly $250,000. Officials are trying to find a funding source. "We (should) look at every possible avenue a child has to obtain immigration relief so that we ... are confident that when we return children to their home countries, that is the best decision for them," said Wendy Young, a lobbyist for the Women's Commission for Refugee Women and Children. The senior immigration judge for the Phoenix area, John Richardson, agrees that children need a "surrogate parent" who can provide nurturing. "They are young, they are in a strange country, a strange language ... they need people to help them," he said. Advocates hope that the yearlong pilot program will catch on nationwide. They also hope to obtain government funding for a nationwide network of child-welfare professionals who will work with underage refugees. The non-governmental agencies involved are the Women's Commission, the University of Chicago, the Lutheran Immigration and Refugee Service, and the Florence Immigrant and Refugee Rights Project in Florence, Arizona. The Executive Office for Immigration Review, a Department of Justice agency that oversees the nation's immigration courts, and the Immigration and Naturalization Service also are involved in the effort. Advocates say they chose Phoenix in large part because of Richardson's sympathy for the plight of unaccompanied child refugees. Many refugee children in the Phoenix area are eligible for a legal service unavailable in most areas of the country: free legal representation coordinated by the Arizona Bar Association. Further, the detention center staff provides social workers to help the children adjust to daily life. Young said the friends of the children would offer services beyond those currently provided by social workers. Children who enter the country illegallyINS figures show that some 4,600 unaccompanied children entered the United States illegally last year. Advocates say that figure represents just the number of children who were apprehended by the INS; thousands more are living in the U.S. illegally. Children are temporarily released to their family members, as was the case with Elian Gonzalez, a 6-year-old Cuban boy who was released to his great-uncle Lazaro Gonzalez and other distant relatives in Miami. The Miami relatives are now embroiled in a headline-grabbing legal battle with the government to keep Elian in the U.S., though his father, Juan Miguel Gonzalez, wants the child to return to Cuba. If the INS cannot locate the family or if the child has no relatives in this country, the government temporarily houses the child. "The national policy is not to detain children," Richardson said. "The last thing you want to do is to keep a kid locked up." Some children are housed in private shelters under contract with the INS. In many instances, though, the kids are housed in juvenile detention centers or jails where the living conditions can be deplorable, advocates say. Whether with family or in shelters, the children must appear at immigration court hearings. The immigration judges decide whether the kids can stay or must be deported. It's during these so-called deportation proceedings that the children have the chance to make the case for staying. Richardson says he grants asylum to about half the roughly 520 child refugee cases he hears in a year. Advocates say the asylum-granting rate is lower in most other jurisdictions. Most children seek political asylum. The 1980 Refugee Act says political asylum seekers must prove they have a "well-founded fear" of persecution on account of their race, national origin or membership in a political or social group if returned home. Some children are eligible for other types of special visas to remain in the United States. INS figures show that children are detained on average for just over 30 days until they have their deportation hearings. But advocates cite many cases of kids being detained for several months or years. Even Richardson acknowledges that the waiting time tends to be longer. The nature of the volunteers' workVolunteers for the Phoenix Project most likely would be of the same ethnic heritage as the child they are assisting, said Christopher Nugent, executive director of the Florence Project. A volunteer would undergo a background check, learn immigration procedure and be trained to provide emotional and social help, he said. The volunteer also would help the child articulate his or her case to lawyers, if legal representation is available, he said. The idea is for the volunteer to be a "trusted adult figure" for the child, Nugent said. Officials estimate that the Phoenix Project would cost $250,000 for volunteer training, training materials, reimbursement of travel and other operating expenses. Nugent said a trained volunteer would have been helpful in the case of a 16-year-old Nicaraguan boy who came to the U.S. after being abandoned by his alcoholic parents. After living on the streets, the boy now is being detained in Florence, Nugent said. The INS has refused to grant him a visa and is proposing to deport him. The boy is being held in a government facility because no temporary private placement could be arranged, Nugent said. "If he had a friend of the child, that would be really helpful for purposes of finding a placement for him, helping him consider whether he would be better off in Nicaragua or the United States," Nugent said. Nugent gave another example of two Guatemalan boys, ages 14 and 16. Nugent said the boys would be deported soon because their family in this country could not be located. The boys are afraid of what they will face when they are sent home. Nugent said a volunteer could help soothe them during this emotionally wrenching time and perhaps intensify efforts to find the family members. "They do have rights to a fair day in court. In order to fully exercise those rights they merit special consideration as children," Nugent said. "I think America has a tradition of respecting that children need safeguards for justice." RELATED STORIES: Elian's father urges Supreme Court to reject final petition to keep son in U.S. RELATED SITES: Lutheran Immigration and Refugee Service | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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