Neha Desai

Even before applying to law school, Neha Desai knew she wanted to work at the intersection of children’s rights and immigration. While in college at University of Chicago, Neha worked with immigrant and refugee children in a variety of capacities—tutoring, teaching dance, shuttling them to and from appointments—and after graduating, she volunteered as a translator for an attorney representing an unaccompanied child from India. This experience was formative—as a translator, Neha learned the details of the child’s story and witnessed the advocacy needed to provide him with relief. She took that passion with her to law school, where she worked in Berkeley School of Law’s International Human Rights Law Clinic. When she graduated, she searched for opportunities to work on children’s human rights issues, but there wasn’t an established field of children’s immigration advocacy or ready opportunities at legal organizations to do this work. So, Neha sought opportunities to hone her child advocacy skills and find other ways to build her expertise around youth immigration issues. 

Neha was awarded a Zubrow Fellowship in Children’s Law at Juvenile Law Center and spent her first four years as a lawyer working on legal issues affecting youth in the child welfare and juvenile justice system. She did this by writing appellate and amicus briefs, engaging in policy reform efforts, and as a member of the class action litigation team in the notorious Kids for Cash case. Neha continued to seek opportunities to bring her human rights expertise into her advocacy at Juvenile Law Center. She co-authored an amicus brief to the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals on behalf of a young person held in detention at Guantanamo Bay. She took on pro bono Special Immigrant Juvenile Status cases in Philadelphia family court and worked with other advocates to draft guidance around creating a less adversarial process for child asylum seekers. As she considered the next step in her career, she was hungry to work in direct services and moved to California to work with Casa Cornelia Law Center, an organization providing legal aid to children at the border. The experience was deeply challenging, and she realized that she was better suited to work on systemic children’s rights issues.

Neha later joined the National Center for Youth Law (NCYL), but at the time there was not an immigration team, and so she worked on issues including the commercial sexual exploitation of children and children’s mental health. But in 2016, under the Trump administration, there was increased interest in reviving the organization’s immigration work—a longstanding case, Flores v. Reno, allowed her a pathway back to the field.

Under the settlement reached in Flores in 1997, the government is required to meet minimum standards for the treatment and placement of minors in what was then Immigration and National Services custody. Now, the Department of Homeland Security and the Department of Health and Human Services’ Office of Refugee Resettlement are bound by these standards that favor releasing youth from detention. However, NCYL and partners have needed to file numerous motions to enforce the terms of the settlement agreement since the beginning. And when Neha began investigating in 2016, the violations continued to be egregious.

Given there was no dedicated immigration team, Neha worked in partnership with attorneys on the child welfare team and dove deep into the case. She conducted site visits around the country, interviewing children in custody and evaluating which provisions of the settlement agreement were in the greatest need of enforcement. Through her time conducting these visits, the need for additional work on these issues emerged. She has slowly built a team, which currently includes nine people—attorneys, a program associate, and a community organizer—and together they engage in federal and state policy, develop resources for the field, and litigate. Neha also spends significant time educating the media and the public to shift the narrative around children in custody. This media work is an important part of the legal advocacy Neha and her team do, and it provides alternative context to fearmongering media portrayals of children and families at the border.

Neha’s litigation work was active through the Trump administration and the family separations at the border. Yet, even after the change in administration, the horrors have continued. Early in the Biden years, Neha’s team visited a dozen emergency intake sites where thousands of children were placed in settings ranging from military bases to convention halls to oil worked “man camps.” The majority of children Neha interviewed were experiencing serious mental distress, and multiple children expressed suicidal ideation. Neha paused numerous interviews so she could pull in mental health support for these children. Although all of the emergency intake sites have since been closed, open air detention centers continue to impose harm on children and violate the key provisions set forth by Flores.

Recently, Neha’s team has reached three settlements in Lucas R. v. Azar, the latest case brought to enforce constitutional protections to children in immigration custody. While the settlements were open for comment, multiple children in custody submitted comments to share their experiences and their perspective, despite the reality that these settlements were unlikely to affect them personally. Neha marveled at this: that children who remain detained would take the time to write to the court to try to make things better for other kids.

While meeting directly with youth and hearing their stories is the hardest thing Neha said she does, it is also the most fulfilling. “Every member of our class is stronger and more resilient than I am. I draw strength from them.” Neha is also constantly motivated by her team. “I love leading our team. I find a lot of inspiration from people on my team and the amazing people at NCYL. Everyone here makes me a better advocate and a better person and that keeps me going.”

While Neha’s path was not a straight line to this work, she has known that this was the work she was always intended to do. “Being a children’s attorney is a significant part of my professional identity and a throughline of everything I have done.” And to those who may also not find that straight line, Neha says to “stay the course. If you’re dedicated and look for the opportunities, you’ll find your way.”

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