The Refugee Influx - Unaccompanied Minor Childrenas Refugees

Each year thousands of children enter the United States illegally and unaccompanied by a parent or guardian; some of them were sent away by parents who feared for their safety in war-torn regions of the world. Beginning in 1984 the INS refused to release these children to anyone other than a parent or legal guardian. As a result, children whose parents were not in the United States were detained for months or years while immigration authorities decided what to do with them. In 1985 the National Center for Youth Law filed a class action lawsuit in which it challenged INS policies governing the release of children and the conditions of confinement of those who were not released.

Following the 1997 U.S. Supreme Court ruling in Flores v. Reno (507 U.S. 292), the INS pledged to improve conditions for children in its custody. A June 2003 report from Amnesty International (Why Am I Here? Children in Immigration Detention, New York: Amnesty International) charged, however, that more than 5,000 children who entered the country illegally and alone were being locked up each year, and some of them were "shackled, strip-searched, or subject to physical or verbal abuse." As of March 1, 2003, the Homeland Security Act transferred responsibility for the care and custody of these children to the Office of Refugee Resettlement (ORR) in the Department of Health and Human Services.

Support for Unaccompanied Children Seeking Asylum

On January 24, 2005, Senator Diane Feinstein (a Democrat from California) introduced the Unaccompanied Alien Child Protection Act of 2005 (S.1129). Similar legislation was introduced in both 2001 and 2003 without success. Among other things, the 2005 bill would prohibit placing such children in adult detention facilities or facilities housing delinquent children; prohibit the unreasonable use of restraints, solitary confinement, and strip searches; provide for appointing qualified and trained guardians for such children; and require guidelines be developed to ensure the children received appropriate legal counsel.

Actress Angelina Jolie, UNHCR Goodwill Ambassador and advocate for protection of unaccompanied alien children, launched the National Center for Refugee and Immigrant Children on March 8, 2005, in Washington, D.C. The center would provide better access to free legal counsel for children who arrived alone in the United States and were fleeing persecution. The center recruited major law firms willing to provide pro bono (free) assistance to unaccompanied alien children who requested asylum.