Thread: NC: Court may aid young immigrants

Did a search and couldn't find this so I don't think it's a duplicate.

Court may aid young immigrants
Illegal immigrants in the most dire straits may receive more help in staying in the U.S

Kristin Collins, Staff Writer

An immigration court set to open in Charlotte this spring could help hundreds of illegal immigrant children each year win the right to remain in North Carolina.

The court, much closer than the current venue in Atlanta, will provide youngsters in North Carolina better access to immigration lawyers. As a result, scores of children who arrive here without their families, often fleeing gang violence or sexual abuse, may no longer face deportation simply because they can't find a North Carolina lawyer willing to take up their cause in Atlanta.

Advocates say many children end up being shipped back to countries where they face dangerous conditions even though many have legitimate claims to stay in the United States.

"We're hoping we can save some lives," said Tricia Swartz, head of the National Center for Refugee and Immigrant Children, a Washington-based group that provides social services to unaccompanied immigrant children. "Some of these children have been stalked by gangs; their parents have been killed. If they're deported, when they get off the plane, they might be murdered."

North Carolina has become one of the nation's biggest magnets for unaccompanied immigrant children, most from Mexico and Central America, Swartz said. Each year, about 200 unaccompanied children who are picked up by immigration officials are placed with relatives or guardians in North Carolina and given orders to appear later in immigration court.

Swartz said North Carolina now takes in about as many children as places such as Miami, Los Angeles, New York and Texas. But unlike those areas, North Carolina has few resources, including lawyers experienced in immigration law, to help them.

Many immigrant children can remain in the United States under laws that provide shelter to parentless children, crime victims and those targeted for political or religious persecution -- but without lawyers, they have little chance of proving their right to stay.

The government does not provide them lawyers because their violations are civil, not criminal. That leaves them in need of volunteer lawyers, because the children almost invariably cannot afford to pay.

All immigration cases are handled in a special federal court; the Atlanta court now serves North Carolina, South Carolina, Alabama and Georgia. North Carolina lawmakers fought for the Charlotte court to serve the Carolinas, saying it was needed to ease a backlog of deportations.

But Sarah Buffett, a Charlotte lawyer who tries to find volunteer lawyers for immigrant children, said she hopes the new court will inspire more North Carolina lawyers to learn immigration law and take up the cases of neglected children. Now, she says she finds few lawyers willing to travel to Atlanta for clients who can't pay.

"They're going to court by themselves, and some of them are 11 and speak no English," Buffett said.

Stand firm, some say

Those who want a crackdown on illegal immigration say most of those children should be sent home.

Mark Krikorian, head of the Center for Immigration Studies in Washington, D.C., which advocates tougher immigration laws, said that asylum should be allowed only in extreme cases and that making exceptions for children encourages lawless immigration. And, Krikorian said, many children falsely claim that their parents are dead or their lives are threatened.

Krikorian acknowledged that many foreign children come from terrible circumstances, but he said that doesn't justify their sneaking into the country.

"Coming to the United States is not the solution for backwardness around the world," he said.

Immigrant advocates say the United States should shelter the world's most desperate children.

Attracta Kelly, head of the N.C. Justice Center's Immigrants Legal Assistance Project, said she gets frequent requests to represent children who have been singled out by gangs in their home countries that want them to join. The penalty for not joining can be death, she said.

The center, which provides free legal services to the poor, is representing a 17-year-old boy from Honduras, Kelly said. Gang members stalked him, threatened his family and beat him so badly that he still has scars.

His grandmother, who was his guardian, tried moving to a different neighborhood. When that failed, she paid a smuggler to take him to North Carolina to find his mother, whom he hadn't heard from in years, Kelly said.

Kelly said she will try for asylum, on the grounds that gang members might kill him if he returns. But she faces long odds.

Immigration lawyers estimate that less than 10 percent of all immigrants who appear in the Atlanta court win asylum requests. Without lawyers, they have no chance.

Lawyers are central

While asylum is difficult to get, many children have rights to legal status under different laws that protect crime victims and parentless children. But without lawyers to request that status, they are unlikely to receive it.

Brett Loftis, director of the Council for Children's Rights in Charlotte, which provides free legal services, said he discovered a mentally handicapped girl from Honduras who had been trafficked into North Carolina and forced to work in a sweatshop and to prostitute herself.

She had been placed in foster care and was eligible for a special immigration status available only to children. She was on the verge of aging out, but no one had applied for her, he said.

Buffett said many children face deadlines.

"There are kids just languishing," Buffett said. "They have no one to handle their case, and they could lose their legal right to stay here forever."

kristin.collins@newsobserver.com or (919) 829-4881

HOW IMMIGRANT CHILDREN MAY STAY
A number of federal laws provide shelter to unaccompanied immigrant children. Here are some of the main provisions that allow children to remain in the United States legally:

ASYLUM
Those who get asylum may remain in the United States permanently and receive some public benefits, such as food stamps. It is available to those who are likely to be harmed because of their race, religion, nationality, political opinion or membership in a social group.

TEMPORARY PROTECTED STATUS
People from certain federally designated countries, including El Salvador and Honduras, can stay as long as their country remains on the list. But they must prove that they've been here since a required date, which is different for each country, so this may not be an option for new immigrants.

SPECIAL IMMIGRANT JUVENILE STATUS
This status allows immigrants to permanently remain in the United States, as long as they receive it before they turn 21. It is available only to unmarried children who cannot be reunited with their parents and can prove that it is not in their best interests to return to their country.

TRAFFICKING VISA
This permanent visa is granted to people who can prove they are victims of severe human trafficking. Trafficking victims are brought to the United States under false pretenses and forced to work under conditions to which they did not agree.



http://www.newsobserver.com/news/story/923896.html

The neediest children are in Darfur and Iraq, not Mexico!