The Need for Pro Bono Immigration Attorneys in Juvenile Immigration Cases
More than 100,000 unaccompanied children have been arriving annually in the United States over the last several years. They are placed in removal proceedings but are not provided an attorney, regardless of age. As a result, thousands face immigration court without an attorney to help them present their case to an immigration judge and defend themselves against a U.S. government attorney who is arguing for their removal. Children cannot navigate the U.S. immigration system alone. Without an attorney, many face return to the conditions they fled.
KIND is the preeminent international nongovernmental organization devoted to the protection of unaccompanied and separated children. KIND’s pro bono program helps bridge the gap in representation and leverages limited resources to reach as many children in need of legal services as we can. KIND has fostered a national network of attorneys for unaccompanied children and has collaborated with more than 10,000 pro bono attorneys across the United States. KIND’s pro bono program has led to the representation of more than 13,000 cases since 2008. We see a 95 percent success rate in cases where KIND and its pro bono attorneys represented the child through the conclusion of their legal case. (For more, see Global Impact Report 2022, KIND (2022).)
KIND’s offices nationwide conduct regular recruitment efforts to expand our reach to the thousands of children who are still in need of legal representation and for the thousands more who continue to come to the United States each year. As an example, 51,855 unaccompanied children were released from a U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Office of Refugee Resettlement (ORR) shelter after their entry into the United States between October 2023 and March 2024 (Unaccompanied Children Released to Sponsors by State - March 2024, U.S. Dep’t of Health & Hum. Servs. (Mar. 2024)). We need more pro bono attorneys to join our mission.
How to Get Involved
The way to get involved is easy—go to KIND’s website, click on “Get Involved,” and choose “Become a Pro Bono Attorney.” You will be directed to an email address where you can write to express your interest in taking a case. No prior immigration experience is required. We have 15 field offices across the United States where pro bono attorneys can work with and make an impact on the life of a child seeking legal representation in their immigration proceedings.
After you express your interest in taking a case with KIND, we will match you with a KIND attorney for the duration of your client’s case. KIND attorneys are experts in representing unaccompanied children and will provide you with a road map of the steps to initiate the pathway for relief for your client. All cases placed with pro bono attorneys have a viable form of immigration relief, and KIND provides guidance on case strategy, templates, feedback on drafts, mock adjudications, trainings, and an abundance of resources to ensure your confidence and knowledge in the relevant law. KIND’s San Francisco office has a robust resource bank for attorneys to navigate independently. In other words, KIND provides all the necessary training and mentorship to ensure pro bono attorneys are equipped to advocate for their clients.
What to Expect
Here is an overview of what your case would look like if you volunteered with KIND. Many of the children fleeing alone to the United States suffer abuse, abandonment, and/or neglect and may have experienced violence and persecution in their home country. Under this fact pattern, an unaccompanied child can be eligible for two pathways to permanent status in the United States: Special Immigrant Juvenile Status (SIJS) and asylum. At the start of the case, your KIND mentor will schedule a call with you and walk you through a detailed road map of the steps to initiate your client’s two identified pathways to permanent status in the United States. To help you move forward, your mentor will provide a full sample SIJS filing and/or sample asylum application filing from KIND’s resource portal. Your mentor will then review and provide feedback on every piece of your work product prior to filing. Your mentor will set up a call to prepare you in advance of your clients’ state court hearing for SIJS or to prepare you for their asylum interview. KIND staff will offer live and recorded trainings on a number of topics that are relevant to representing unaccompanied children. If your clients encounter a nonlegal issue, such as food insecurity, your mentor will help connect your clients with KIND’s social services team to provide gift cards to access food and a list of food banks near their home. If you do not have the resources to provide your client with foreign-language interpretation, KIND offers paid and free interpretation resources. At no point would you be on your own if you were to become the attorney to represent this child.
Solos and KIND
Our smallest demographic of pro bono attorneys are solo practitioners. Some express concern at first that they do not have the capacity to take a KIND case because they cannot rely on the same resources and support that big law attorneys receive through their firm. KIND’s resources and hands-on mentorship provide significant support to all pro bono attorneys to ensure they successfully represent their client. Our pro bono program is built for anyone to take a KIND case regardless of the size of their practice.
For example, Jeff Bairey is a solo practitioner who has five cases with KIND, and I am his mentor for two of those cases. Jeff spent his legal career practicing civil tort litigation in medium and large firms. When Jeff retired from his firm, he wanted to continue his legal career as a solo practitioner through pro bono work for children who fled to the United States on their own and did not have legal representation in their immigration cases. Without any prior training in immigration law, he reached out to KIND after learning about our mission and the support we offer pro bono attorneys. Jeff said that “KIND’s initial training modules were very helpful, on point, and detailed but not too onerous. KIND also provided exemplars of sample pleadings, applications, forms, supporting documents, and cover letters.” These resources helped him see “how cases are filed, how they’re supposed to look, and what works in the real world.” He said that his work with KIND “does not take over” all his time and that the hours spent on KIND cases are manageable. As a solo practitioner, Jeff initially hesitated to take a KIND case without the resources of a firm. However, he reported that work on a KIND case “is readily done by a solo with a laptop or desktop with Internet access and a basic copy machine,” and he urges other solo practitioners to “take the plunge” and become involved.
Today, thanks to Jeff’s advocacy, the immigration court has dismissed the immigration proceedings for all five of Jeff’s clients. All five have a pending pathway to relief, and one of his clients is nearing the finish line to become a lawful permanent resident in the United States. Jeff’s clients are children who traveled alone to the United States and did not have legal representation until Jeff volunteered to take their case. Jeff said that he is “privileged to see glimpses of the new lives [his clients] are forging in this new country with a new language, new possibilities, and new challenges.” Jeff encourages solo practitioners to represent a KIND client in their immigration proceedings and guarantees that “it will change the life of the child, and it might recharge your batteries and your outlook on the practice of law as well.”
If you would like to change the life of an unaccompanied child in the way that Jeff has with his five clients, I hope KIND hears from you soon. Our work is nowhere near done. Help us make sure no child appears in immigration court without the representation of an attorney.
