Immigration Legislation
ABA’s ProBAR ‘jumped into motion’ to cease deportation of unaccompanied youngsters from Guatemala
September 5, 2025, 12:05 pm CDT
A Guatemalan migrant, in white, is embraced by an emotional relative after being deported from america, exterior La Aurora Worldwide Airport, in Guatemala Metropolis, Sunday, Aug. 31, 2025. (AP Photograph/Moises Castillo)
Because the scenario involving unaccompanied Guatemalan youngsters unfolded final week, the ABA’s South Texas Professional Bono Asylum Illustration Undertaking stepped in. Chief Laura Peña supplied this account of occasions:
It was simply earlier than midnight on Saturday when the calls to the ABA’s South Texas Professional Bono Asylum Illustration Undertaking workers started. Guatemalan youngsters have been being pulled from their beds in shelters throughout the state, rushed onto buses and pushed underneath the duvet of darkness to a small border city airport in Harlingen, Texas. Deep into the Labor Day weekend, the U.S. authorities had launched a brand new effort to expeditiously return immigrant youngsters—alone and terrified—again to Guatemala.
With out hesitation, ProBAR attorneys jumped into motion, speeding to shelters throughout the area and to the airport from which the kids have been anticipated to depart. It was a race towards time however our staff was prepared. For the following 24 hours, our staff labored across the clock to defend the rights of frightened youngsters. We intervened for younger women susceptible to trafficking, and we stood agency towards a coverage designed to strip youngsters of their rights and procedures to make sure security and due course of.
Because of ProBAR’s advocacy efforts, two of these youngsters at the moment are named plaintiffs in a nationwide lawsuit difficult this coverage—together with our 10-year-old shopper, a motherless little one who fears being compelled again to hazard in Guatemala. ProBAR’s work resulted in proof that was essential in difficult the federal government’s actions.
ProBAR attorneys speak extra about these occasions and their work to defend the kids’s rights right here:
The ABA mentioned in a press release Thursday that federal regulation requires that unaccompanied youngsters be positioned in removing proceedings in immigration court docket. The Homeland Safety Act and Trafficking Victims Safety Reauthorization Act acknowledge that unaccompanied youngsters—i.e., youngsters with out authorized standing who arrive at america border and not using a mother or father or authorized guardian—face distinctive challenges within the immigration system. All respondents in removing proceedings have a proper to be represented by counsel. Particular protections for unaccompanied youngsters transcend this by requiring the federal government to supply authorized illustration “to the best extent practicable.”
Many of those youngsters affected by the weekend’s occasions have been represented by counsel and had already filed functions for reduction in immigration court docket; these deportation efforts would have subverted due course of to effectuate their speedy return to Guatemala.
“The security of those at-risk youngsters ought to stay the first focus as issues develop and an orderly court-reviewed course of, which is now ongoing, is the easiest way to make sure this,” mentioned ABA President Michelle A. Behnke. “Ensuring youngsters are protected is likely one of the most necessary roles {that a} lawyer can play.”
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