Each year, thousands of immigrant children are placed into court proceedings in which government prosecutors seek to deport them unless those children can prove they have a right to stay in the United States. Like adults, children in removal proceedings have the right to legal representation but only if hire their own lawyer. So, if a child cannot afford an attorney or find free representation, they must navigate a complex, adversarial process on their own and present their case in front of an immigration judge and argue with a professionally trained government attorney acting as a prosecutor.

When children are expected to argue their cases in courts on their own, it should be no surprise that Vera Institute of Justice found that “more than 90 percent of unrepresented unaccompanied children were issued an order of removal or voluntary departure. Unaccompanied children who had the benefit of legal representation at some point during their cases were more than seven times more likely to receive an outcome that allowed them to remain in the United States than those who did not have attorneys.”

If you think that expecting children to navigate the immigration court system alone is outrageous – we agree! That’s why Seattle’s Office for Immigrant and Refugee Affairs (OIRA) makes every effort to improve justice for children in our immigration courts.

Challenges of Providing Legal Representation to Unaccompanied Minors

A child is considered an “unaccompanied immigrant child” if they enter the U.S. alone at the border before the age of 18 without a parent or a legal guardian and without any lawful status. Most have left their home countries fleeing violence, persecution, neglect, abandonment.

The need for legal services by unaccompanied minors in our region is huge and is growing year by year. The total number of unaccompanied children released to sponsors in Washington State in the last three years is over 3,700. In 2023 alone, 1,350 unaccompanied children were released from federal immigration shelters to sponsors in Washington State, and King County received 618 unaccompanied children and youth released to sponsors, by far the majority compared to counties across Washington. Seattle plays an integral role in welcoming unaccompanied minors and all Washington State cases are heard in the Seattle Immigration Court.

Unaccompanied children require attorneys to help them fight removal proceedings and apply for immigration legal status. Immigration law, particularly for the removal defense of unaccompanied children, is one of the most complex and technically demanding areas of practice. Data shows that immigration judges are almost 100 times more likely to grant legal relief for unaccompanied children with counsel than those without legal counsel. Unfortunately, recent data from the Seattle Immigration Court indicate the juvenile released docket has about 1,300 children and youth on the docket with about 60% who are unrepresented.

In addition to the sheer volume of children in removal who need representation, providing adequate and quality representation to children faces challenges due to the specific nature of relations that children can form with legal professionals. As highlighted by the report Representing Children in Immigration Matters, kids do not have the same capacity as an adult to understand her situation and its implications. In fact, even if they appear mature, it is most likely due to the tremendous adversity and trauma the child has had to overcome at a very young age. Many simply do not have the information needed for their case, such as dates, duration, and frequency of occurrence, or the locations and names of people or places. Traumatized and mistreated by adult family members, some children may have a hard time trusting other adults who want to help them. Also, children who may have suffered physical, psychological, or sexual abuse, might often avoid disclosing abuse, neglect, or maltreatment, whether out of guilt, loyalty, recent communication with family, fear, denial, or some other circumstance. All these factors make it crucial to support quality professional services for unaccompanied children.

Kids In Need of Defense Represents Children

Since 2017, OIRA has worked with Kids in Need of Defense (KIND) to provide representation to unaccompanied children in Seattle. Through OIRA’s Legal Defense Network (LDN), KIND provides free legal representation to Seattle’s low-income unaccompanied immigrant children under the age of 21 who are in removal proceedings or face imminent threat of being placed in removal proceedings. KIND’s office services children from all over the world, including over 30 countries, speaking over 20 different languages. Many of KIND’s clients are fleeing pervasive violence in Central America—El Salvador, Honduras, and Guatemala—from which their governments cannot or will not protect them. They are survivors of gang violence, gender-based violence, or have suffered due to the abuse or neglect of a parent. KIND also serves children separated from their families during the cruel Zero Tolerance Family Separation Policy under the Trump Administration, as well as children and youth rendered unaccompanied when evacuated and relocated from Afghanistan in 2021.

KIND’s attorneys represent unaccompanied children before the Immigration Court and United States Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) and/or Washington state courts and applying for immigration relief. KIND attorneys provide crucial, culturally sensitive representation to children eligible for protection because of abuse, abandonment, neglect, persecution, or other forms of violence such as sex and labor trafficking and sexual assault. Because unaccompanied children are often left with little to no case management and navigation of social service as well, our social services team helps connect children to education, healthcare, driver’s licenses, emergency funds, and other much-needed resources.

Services in a typical legal case include the following steps:

• Legal screening and filing for relief:
  • Intake screening with KIND
  • Preparation of legal applications for relief
  • Gathering supporting documents
  • Document translations

• State court proceedings:
  • Dependency Hearings:
    • 72-hour Shelter Care Hearing
    • Pre-Trial Conference/Fact-Finding Hearing
    • Initial Dependency Review Hearing
    • Subsequent Dependency Review Hearings
  • Vulnerable Youth Guardianship Hearing
    • Vulnerable Youth Guardianship Hearing
    • Vulnerable Youth Guardianship Review Hearing
  • Family Court Hearings

• Assistance with USCIS and immigration court proceedings:
  • Requesting and reviewing client file
  • Master Calendar Hearing
  • Finding and securing expert witnesses
  • Biometrics appointment
  • Medical Exam
  • Practice interview sessions
  • Asylum Interview (to get asylum status granted)
  • Adjustment of status interview(to secure a permanent status, known as a “green card”)
  • Individual calendar hearing (trial) at the immigration court to get relief from deportation granted
  • Filing an appeal, if warranted

• Working with sponsor and social services:
  • Connecting with Washington Department of Health and Human Services—food, cash, medical benefits
  • Establishing medical provider
  • Enrollment in school & ongoing school support
  • Setting up bank account, ITIN if applicable, as well as filing of taxes, if applicable 
  • Once eligible, appointments with WA Department of Licensing—obtaining Washington state identity documents such as Washington State ID and Washington State Driver’s License
  • Once eligible, appointments with Social Security Administration—obtaining, correcting, replacing SSA card

Positive Outcomes from the KIND and LDN Partnership

In 2023, a youth whose asylum application had been pending since 2019 was approved for Special Immigrant Juvenile Status and Deferred Action. KIND represented her before the state court in a motion for Vulnerable Youth Guardianship based on her parents’ inability to protect her from poverty and gang violence in El Salvador.

Today, she is pursuing a GED so that she can attend college. With the work authorization provided to her through deferred action, this young woman holds two jobs to help support her mother and a young sibling in her home country. She is also saving up to buy a house, which she says she could never have done back home where she began working at the age of seven for mere dollars a day. She hopes to eventually become a flight attendant or other type of professional. 

Other 2023 KIND and LDN partnership results include:

• 69 youths had full direct representation in their removal cases
• 17 youths obtained their Employment Authorization Documents
• KIND attorneys filed for 47 immigration relief and/or benefits
• Nine children had permanent relief granted, including seven SIJS-based adjustments of status and two asylum grants
• 11 youths received an order dismissing or terminating their removal proceedings.