A Buzzfeed article published earlier today stated that a legal counsel initiative started by the New York City Council has prevented the deportation of 13 undocumented children in the five boroughs. There have been 424 cases screened so far, and another 22 applications for asylum are still pending.
The U.S. Constitution is now being applied to alien children, specifically the sixth amendment’s promise to legal counsel for defense and the fifth’s right to due process.
All children receiving counsel under this $1.9 million partnership between the City Council, the Robin Hood Foundation, and New York Community Trust are “unaccompanied and undocumented;” no parents have been found for these children. Young children without legal counsel would not stand a chance in court, and the hope of the initiative is that the number 13 continues to grow, and more children are saved from the trauma of being deported without anyone they know.
The cause is noble: a ten year old undocumented child from Central America wouldn’t win in a US immigration case. These children do not have known family, and likely spent a good portion of their childhood in the United States, illegal or not. To deport a child on his or her own to another country is cruel, and can have a long-lasting and very damaging impact on a child.
Many argue that it is better to forgive the child for the sins of the parents; in other words, despite the fact that their parents brought these children here illegally, the children themselves should not be held at fault. Instead, allow them to seek asylum in the US and remain where they have been living and where they may have grown up. The very prospect of being deported to a foreign land that a government official claims is your true home must be terrifying.
However, granting asylum to these children would not come without greater societal costs. While it is overall much better for the child to be shielded from deportation, it also suggests to parents that if they illegally cross the border, their “unaccompanied” child may remain as long as the parents cannot be located. It provides an incentive for more immigrants to cross the border without visas, bring their children, and know that at least their children will have a promising future in a better country than their homeland even if the rest of the family gets deported. It would likely increase the problem of illegal immigration.
However, parents want to provide a better future for their children, and there’s not really a fair way to blame them for that desire. Legal immigration is so difficult, though, that illegal immigration by either avoiding established points of entry or using fraudulent papers is the only way for a vast majority of foreigners to get their children into the US. What is a worried, loving parent to do?
It is important to remember that despite all of the detriments to society that accompany mass and illegal immigration, it is hard to blame them for wanting a better life for themselves and their families. Addressing the problem of immigration is huge, but one of the major things that we can work towards is an increase in legal immigration to offset the illegal. Instead of hindering the process, let us facilitate it. At the very least, we must figure out a way to protect innocent children who had no choice in the matter, and stop fighting attempts at reform. We can all agree that we need it.
