Collaborative on Global Children's Issues

Innovating Protection for Children Along the Migratory Route and at the U.S.-Mexico Border

Helping Children Along the Migratory Route and at the U.S.-Mexico Border

Unaccompanied children face a gauntlet of protection risks and dangers as they make their way to the U.S.-Mexico border. Many are deported from southern Mexico, become stranded in dangerous border towns or languish in shelters in northern Mexico. With a team of attorneys, social workers, and other advocates based in southern Mexico and along the U.S.-Mexico border, KIND Mexico offers legal assistance, social services, and counseling to help children understand their legal rights, reunite with family members, and feel safer where they are. For example, KIND Mexico’s social work staff created a series of videos for children in migrant shelters who are awaiting the next steps of the process to help them better cope with the stressors of migration.

As children arrive at the U.S. border, one journey ends and another begins. Unaccompanied children must navigate an immigration system that was designed for adults and takes little heed of their unique needs.

Unaccompanied children face the adversarial U.S. immigration system upon arriving in the United States. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) agents are often the first to encounter children seeking safety in the United States and follow a law enforcement approach. Instead, the U.S. government should adopt a fundamentally humanitarian system that recognizes unaccompanied children’s need for protection and ensures their appropriate reception, screening, and care. Hiring child welfare experts to be placed at CBP stations would help ensure that migrant children receive the assistance they need and deserve after a long and often frightening journey from their home countries. These experts could also help promote family unity and help safely expedite the placement of children with sponsors.

Innovating Protection for Migrant and Asylum-seeking Children in U.S. Communities

Safeguarding Legal Rights

Once a child is transferred from the border, they face the daunting U.S. immigration and asylum systems, which demand that they make their case for U.S. protection. However, without an attorney, children cannot meaningfully access this system. Immigration attorneys are a lifeline for these children and are essential not only to help them gain safety, but in supporting them to build a robust future in the United States. But children are not guaranteed an attorney in U.S. immigration court, and over half of all unaccompanied children in the United States do not have a lawyer in court. As one KIND client said, “[Without an attorney] I wouldn’t have had the opportunity to put my papers in order… because just imagine, without studies, without English, without a job, how would I have been able to get where I am now, without citizenship and everything?”

KIND has advocated and worked for more than a decade to ensure that no child stands alone in immigration court. Our public-private model leverages private sector volunteers and resources to bridge the representation gap so that as many children as possible are represented by trained attorneys in their immigration proceedings. KIND has over 700 law firms, corporate, bar association, and law school partners and has trained more than 40,000 pro bono attorneys to represent the thousands of children referred to KIND each year. We have advocated for years to provide counsel to all unaccompanied children in deportation proceedings, as is envisioned in a recent bill in the U.S. Senate that we helped shape.

Adapting to Life in the United States

After children are released from U.S. custody into the care of a sponsor, they desperately need social services to help them address the trauma they experienced and to integrate. Key assistance includes medical and mental health services, help with school enrollment, parent education and support, and family counseling. KIND has implemented a number of innovative projects that have helped clients express themselves as part of a healing process, including participating in a virtual art course, painting a large-scale public mural, creating photos essays about their journey and achievements, and sharing their stories through audio conversations.

In addition to these services, helping unaccompanied children obtain legal permanent residence and citizenship is the ultimate legal solution. Both would substantially enhance children’s legal protections and eligibility for future opportunities and help them thrive.

Conclusion

Migrant and refugee children must be treated with the dignity and care all kids deserve. While KIND has outlined important additional measures that the United States could advance to promote reform of the treatment of these uniquely vulnerable children, we need fundamental changes across the globe that center on children’s best interests and create pathways that allow children to thrive.

Mario made the perilous journey to the United States, where he was eventually connected with a KIND lawyer to help him navigate the immigration system. He is finally safe and is devoting his life to safeguarding the United States. He has pledged, “to help others as this country has helped me. I will defend the values of freedom, liberty, and justice for all – as only one who has been denied those fundamental rights can.”

​Wendy Young has led KIND since 2009 and brings extensive immigration policy experience to the organization. Prior to KIND, she served as chief counsel on immigration policy in the Senate Judiciary Subcommittee on Immigration, Border Security and Refugees for Senator Edward M. Kennedy. She held prior immigration policy positions with organizations such as the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, the Women’s Refugee Commission, the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops, and the National Council of La Raza.