Criminal Defense of Immigrants

(B)  Representation.  It has been estimated that 90% of unaccompanied juveniles in removal proceedings are unrepresented by counsel.[547]  Immigration Judges do no have the power to appoint counsel.[548]  However, a number of projects have been started with the goal of locating and training counsel willing to represent these juveniles pro bono, or of assisting attorneys who are already representing juvenile respondents.[549]

[547] Amanda Levinson, Alone in America (Aug. 23, 2005), available at http://www.alternet.org/story/24309 (last visited Apr. 16, 2007).

[548] Memo 04/07, Creppy, Chief IJ, Guidelines for Immigration Court Cases Involving Unaccompanied Alien Children, EOIR (Sept. 16, 2004), supra.

[549] See, e.g., National Center for Refugee Immigrants and Children, www.refugees.org; Vera Institute of Justice, www.vera.org; ABA Children’s Rights Litigation Committee, www.abanet.org/litigation/committees/childrights.  See also Christopher Nugent, Steven Schulman, Giving Voice to the Vulnerable: On Representing Detained Immigrant and Refugee Children, 78 No. 39 Interpreter Releases 1569 (2001).