Children Facing Deportation in Court

CNN granted access inside an immigration court hearing where dozens of children

facing deportation appealed to stay in the United States.

These courtroom sketches showing a child holding a stuffed animal, another

so short you can barely see their head over the chair.

But these are the first look from inside the proceedings.

Uh, children as young as three appeared in the

courtroom, and many of them faced

the judge without an attorney representing them. Priscilla Alvarez is out front.

And Priscilla, what more can you tell us about what

happened inside the

hearing?

Well, Erin, what we found is that migrant children

are increasingly facing

immigration judges without attorneys.

And of course, that is the person who will decide whether they

stay in the United

States or they're removed. And in Texas today, there were

25 children who appeared at an immigration court in Harlingen, where our colleague

Norma Galliana, as well as a sketch artist, attended.

Sketch artist, of course, because there are no cameras allowed in

the courtroom.

So you are seeing there the first look at what is happening behind

closed doors. Young children who are presenting before an

immigration judge to make their case to stay in the United States.

There, three children. I wanted to call y- to your attention to w- the child on the

right. That was a 13-year-old from Honduras.

The immigration judge ordered him removed from the United States.

That boy burst into tears when he heard that.

He did not have an attorney, and he said, quote, "I have no one, I

have nothing," reflecting on Honduras, because his mother and his family

are in the United States. An eight-year-old

and a nine-year-old similarly

without attorneys. The nine-year-old resting her head on the

table, not

saying a word. A three-year-old playing with the mic.

He did have an attorney who was beaming in remotely, but he was just

singing and playing. He did not understand the gravity of what

was happening

in that room. Now, in some of these pictures,

you will see an adult that

is sitting with them. That is a caseworker.

That is someone who is supervising the children.

It is not someone-

Hmm

... who is providing them legal representation

because these children are

detained. They arrived to the US-Mexico border

alone, or

they had family in the United States who were detained by ICE, and so they were

brought into custody. So in these images, that person that is next to them is

someone who is simply there to supervise them while these children

are-

Yeah

... tasked with finding, uh, attorneys.

And this is something, Erin, that is happening nationwide.

Okay. So Priscilla, I'm, I'm curious, you know, when you look at, at these

cases over time, how unusual is it for

children to go into a hearing like this without a lawyer?

And what has the Trump administration said about what you've seen?

What is happening right now, according to multiple sources I've spoken

with, is

unprecedented, and here's why. Over the summer, there was a legal s-

uh, a contract for legal service providers.

That was lapsed.

That was a $200 million annual contract for around 100 legal

service providers. That is no more.

Now, the Trump administration did strike

another contract, but they don't have

enough attorneys, and we're talking about hundreds of

children who are

detained. And that is the problem that advocates and attorneys say

is playing out

now. These kids are showing up without

representation, nor are they learning

about their rights in the shelters, which is something that

used to happen also through puppet shows or

through other paintings to try to explain to them what was happening.

Now, I did ask the Department of Health

and Human Services about this.

That is the federal agency charged with their care, and they told me this.

Quote, "Under the Trump administration, ORR remains committed to

ensuring that every unaccompanied illegal alien child has

legal representation in immigration court." Of course, today, Erin,

that was not the case for all of those 25 children in Texas.