Move Afoot to Change INS Handling of Children Who Are Illegal Immigrants
By Marc Levy
Originally published by The Associated Press, February 15, 2002
HARRISBURG, Pa. (AP) — Back in July, four teen-agers from the impoverished African country of Tanzania walked away from an international Boy Scout jamboree in Virginia in hopes of staying in the United States and getting an education.
When they saw reports of their disappearance on television, they turned themselves in.
More than six months later, the boys remain in an Immigration and Naturalization Service detention center in Pennsylvania while their lawyers and the INS argue over whether they can stay in the country. A decision could be months away.
Advocates of quicker, more humane treatment of unaccompanied youngsters who are in the United States illegally say the case is not uncommon.
"Our immigration system treats children as aliens first, and then children as an afterthought, to a certain degree," said Chris Nugent, who runs the American Bar Association's immigration pro bono project.
Such cases have prompted an internal review of INS policies, a push by legal organizations and nonprofit groups to establish a lawyer-referral system, and legislation in Congress to change the duties of the INS.
The legislation would break off the role of custodian and caregiver from the INS, which is also the chief law enforcer dealing with juveniles who are in this country illegally.
Supporters of the bills introduced over a year ago, but delayed by the Sept. 11 attacks argue that the INS is not equipped to look out for children, and that caring for youngsters while prosecuting them represents a conflict of interest. A Senate Judiciary Committee hearing is set for Feb. 28.
Andrew Morton, a Washington lobbyist who is serving without compensation as the Tanzanian boys' attorney, said the youngsters, ages 16 and 17, do not want to go back to their homeland for fear of reprisals for embarrassing their government. He said their parents want the boys to be released to a foster family and allowed to remain in the United States.
The reasons for the Tanzanian boys' extended detention are in dispute.
Morton said that he found a foster family last August willing to take the boys in while their case wends it way through the courts. However, he said the INS believes the boys have relatives living illegally in the Washington area, and the agency may be holding the youngsters in an attempt to get the family members to turn themselves in.
Children's advocates call the practice "baiting" and say it is widely used by the INS.
The INS denied it engages in baiting. The agency says it does not discuss specific cases. But a government source speaking on condition of anonymity said the INS would release the boys to a foster family if it received a statement from their parents asking the agency to do so.
Generally, the INS works with nonprofit organizations to try to find homes for juveniles while their cases proceed. That is what was done with Elian Gonzalez, the 6-year-old Cuban boy who lived with relatives in Miami. The INS also works with nonprofit organizations to find lawyers willing to represent illegal immigrants for free.
However, it can be difficult to find attorneys for each of the more than 20,000 immigrants in INS custody at any one time, INS spokeswoman Karen Kraushaar said. And while illegal aliens have the right to retain an attorney, the government is under no obligation to appoint one for them at taxpayer expense.
In general, about 65 percent of the unaccompanied alien juveniles scooped up by the INS a total of 4,500 to 5,000 a year, most of them 14 to 16 years old get placed with immediate blood relatives in the United States within days or weeks.
With appeals, asylum cases can drag on for months or years.
Critics of the INS cite the cases of a 16-year-old Guatemalan boy and an 8-year-old Nigerian girl.
The boy, who was badly abused by his parents, has been held for eight months in adult jails and detention centers while the INS waits for the boy's brother, an illegal immigrant living in the United States, to turn himself in, according to advocates. The Nigerian girl, who was abandoned by her parents, was in custody for eight months before being placed with an aunt in Connecticut, advocates said.
Under the legislation in Congress, the Justice Department's Office of Children's Services would take custody of the children and find someone to take care of them, while the INS would prosecute them. The legislation would also require that each child be provided with a pro bono attorney.
Advocates are also pushing for the establishment of a separate immigration court docket to speed up juvenile cases.
