The American Bar Association (ABA) is gravely concerned about the lack of legal representation on behalf of unaccompanied children in removal proceedings. The humanitarian crisis at the border confronting the nation last summer has developed into a nationwide due process crisis in our country’s immigration court system, a system that is already significantly overburdened and under-resourced.
The ABA has worked on these issues for several years and continues to take action to address the current crisis through its Commission on Immigration (Commission) and Working Group on Unaccompanied Minor Immigrants (Working Group). The Working Group has set up a website for this purpose at www.ambar.org/ican. Attorneys willing to volunteer to represent unaccompanied children can enroll directly at this website by signing up at the “Volunteer Now” link. Those who enroll will be matched with a legal service provider in their area who will do their best to match the volunteer with a child in need of representation.
The Commission on Immigration is providing these educational materials from trainings for attorneys who will be representing unaccompanied minors in immigration proceedings. The trainings were held in New Orleans as part of the Spring Meeting of the Section on Litigation which met at the law firm of Baker, Donelson, Bearman, Caldwell & Berowitz, PC on April 15, 2015, and in San Francisco as part of the ABA Business Law Section Spring Meeting on April 17, 2015.