GENEVA, Switzerland: United Nations rights experts warned Tuesday that the US government’s decision to cut federal funding for legal services for unaccompanied migrant children has led to “serious violations” of their rights.
Shortly after President Donald Trump returned to the White House a year ago, the US government ordered non-profit legal service providers to halt work and ended funding for attorneys representing unaccompanied children.
Three independent UN experts, including the special rapporteurs on the rights of migrants and on human trafficking, maintained that the move violated a US law guaranteeing unaccompanied children in federal custody access to legal counsel.
The 2008 Trafficking Victims Protection Reauthorization Act (TVPRA) also requires the government to protect children from mistreatment, exploitation and trafficking in persons, they said.
But since the shift last February, “many of the 26,000 affected children lost legal counsel and remain at risk of forced removal despite being eligible for relief”, the statement said.
“Denying children their rights to legal representation and forcing them to navigate complex immigration proceedings without legal counsel is a serious violation of the rights of children,” warned the special rapporteurs, who are independent experts mandated by the UN Human Rights Council and therefore do not speak on behalf of the UN itself.
Their comments came as Washington faces intensifying pressure over its immigration crackdown in Minneapolis, where federal agents shot dead a second US citizen.
Outrage over children being swept up in the frenzy has also been mounting since images emerged of an apparently terrified pre-schooler, Liam Conejo Ramos, being held by immigration officers who were seeking to arrest his father.
The rights experts pointed to reports indicating that “children are being held in windowless cells, denied adequate medical care and separated from parents or caregivers for long periods”.
Between January and August last year, the average custody time rose from about one month to six months, while releases to family caregivers plunged from around 95 percent to 45 percent, according to the statement.
“There have been consistent accounts of unlawful deportations of unaccompanied children, in breach of the obligation of non-refoulement, including for child victims of trafficking, and children at risk of trafficking,” the experts said.
They highlighted reports that children are being pressured to either accept a $2,500 cash payment to self-deport, relinquishing protections under the TVPRA, or face “indefinite detention and transfer to ICE custody upon turning 18”.
The experts insisted that “child-sensitive justice procedures should be guaranteed in all immigration and asylum proceedings affecting children”.
“Expedited proceedings should only be pursued when they are consistent with the child’s best interests and without restricting any due process guarantees,” they said.
