Washington
Update
December 2003
Kids Can’t
Wait for Justice
By Lynette Engelhardt Stott, LIRS
Director for Government Relations
Malik Jarno fled a conflict in Guinea that
had left much of his family dead. He came to the United States
in January 2001 to seek sanctuary and was immediately arrested.
He was placed in an adult prison where he has been abused by
fellow inmates, held in solitary confinement, sprayed with pepper-spray
and severely beaten by prison guards. Malik is mentally disabled
and was 16 at the time of his arrest.
Lydia (not her real name) fled her African homeland after her
father was killed as a result of the nation’s political
upheaval. The 15-year-old hoped to join her mother in Canada,
but when she tried to change planes in New York, U.S. immigration
officials arrested her. She was shackled and placed in an adult
detention facility for six traumatic months. While in adult
detention, Lydia experienced symptoms of anxiety, depression
and post-traumatic stress disorder.
On any given day there are 500 children held
in immigration detention in the United States. These children
have no right to pro bono legal counsel or to guardians ad litem—adults
who might help them understand what is happening to them. They
are often housed in adult detention facilities, including prisons.
A bicameral, bipartisan bill currently before
Congress would take major steps to prevent the inhumane and
unconscionable treatment of children like Malik and Lydia. The
Unaccompanied Alien Child Protection Act of 2003, S1129/HR3361,
would do the following:
- Provide a structure for pro-bono counsel, or paid counsel
as a last resort, so no child has to navigate through the
immigration judicial system alone.
- Allow the director of the Office of Refugee Resettlement
at the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services to appoint
a guardian ad litem (friend of the child) to ensure that the
child’s best interests are met.
- Ensure that unaccompanied children are housed in shelters
or foster care whenever possible and provide for humane standards
for detention when it is unavoidable.
The Senate may vote on the bill this
month. The House is more likely to take up the bill next year.
Please urge your members of Congress to pass the Unaccompanied
Alien Child Protection Act of 2003, S1129/HR3361, to ensure
that other children do not experience the sort of pain and suffering
that Malik and Lydia have endured.
Fortunately Lydia’s story has
a happy ending. Immigration officials were finally persuaded
to allow Lydia to continue on to Canada to reunite with her
mother. Canadian immigration officials determined that Lydia
was indeed a minor, and she was granted permanent resident status.
But Malik is now approaching the end of his third year in detention
and is facing deportation back to Guinea, where he has no living
relatives.
Read
past Washington Updates.
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