The Legal Rights of Separated Children

The family separation crisis is far from over. Hundreds of families remain torn apart with no clear plan for their reunification. Parents and children face lasting trauma as a result of their sudden, and in many cases, ongoing separation. Limited access to counsel, frequent facility transfers, deportation, and coercion have impeded the ability of thousands of parents and children to learn about their legal rights and to have their claims for humanitarian protection fully and fairly heard.

This due process emergency poses profound consequences for separated children. The federal government must not only promptly facilitate physical reunification but must do so in a way that does not limit the children’s legal rights or their access to due process.

Here we outline a list of recommendations to the government to respect children’s legal rights and best process their immigration cases.

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