Sam, eighteen, attended his hearing at the Immigration Court on Wednesday, April 9 in the center of Los Angeles without a lawyer.
Hello, a white jacket, jeans and white shoes, and held a bright blue folder with his documents, looking directly while waiting for an immigration judge to call him.
Sam, who requested that his last name was not published for fear that his case could, said it is difficult to find a lawyer to help him and represent him in his immigration processing. Upon entering the court on Wednesday, he felt nervous, he said, because “I did it if he was going to be expelled from the country.”
Sam said he entered the United States when he was 16 years old with only a few personal beliefs. He is from Mexico and said he left because he didn’t want to be recruited to sell drugs.
“My friends who stayed in Mexico were buried a month ago,” said the teenager.
The fight to maintain
As young adults, adolescents and young people in the immigration court fight to find a legal representation, organizations that until recently had funds to provide them are struggling to stay afflate.
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Last month, the Trump administration cut funds related to legal representation for 26,000 children not accompanied throughout the country.
Now, some organizations that provide representation services of the low -cost or low -cost immigration court cannot face any new client and are forced to reject some remaining to navigate only their processes of the immigration courts.
“That means that many children who have fled from the persecution, who have fled abuse, who qualify for legal status in the United States will be deported because it is almost impossible for a legal status of bathtub not slow in the United States, much less a child,” said Mickey Donovan-Kaloust, director of legal services in immigration defenders in Los Angeles.
Immigration defenders resolve 50% of their funds last month, which forces him to say goodbye to staff. The organization cannot assume any new cases, apart from a small group of unaccompanied minors detainees.
The legal organization can only assume that small case subset or a temporary restriction order issued by a federal judge in California last week, it is supposed to temporarily restore legal assistance services. Donovan-Kaloust said immigration defenders have not received confirmation that services have been restored.
‘A family separation crisis’
Due to the movement of Trump administrations, immigration defenders have been forced to reject children who need help.
Donovan-Kaloust said he has “really heartbreak bone, we have children in the position of refugee restart, the custody of Castody accelerates through the deportation process, which approach her 18th birthday and despair their options desperately, and we are suffering capable of providing that.”
Children who enter only the US.
The resettlement office has recently begun to share information from the sponsor with ICE “presumably for compliance purposes. So that will really put a chilling effect on sponsors, in the ability of families to recipn their children, and it is that perhaps, and it is Goiteldren,” said Donovan-Kaloust.
“It will create another crisis of family separation as we saw under zero tolerance.”
Appearing alone
A few weeks ago in a room of the immigration court in downtown Los Angeles, none of the minors who appeared in person for their hearings had a lawyer. Some appeared with sponsors, one appeared alone. All difficulties assigned to find legal representation for their immigration cases.
Alex, 18, was in the midst of the elimination procedures. He entered the United States without permission when he was 16 years old. Speaking three Spanish interpreters designated by the Court, he said he was afraid to return to his native country in Guatemala. Hey, he did not elaborate.
Immigration judge Rachel Ann Ruane said Alex requested more time to find a lawyer duration of her last appointment in court in January. Alex replied that he still couldn’t find one.
For now, it is expected to be represented in its elimination processes.
According to the most recent data published by the Clearinghouse access to transactional records, 63.2% of people with pending immigration cases in Los Angeles County had legal representation.
But for those with immigration cases presented within the last 90 days of the published data, the number fell to 23.6%.
The Department of Health and Human Services, which exposes the Rease Office, did not respond to a request for comments.