Advertisement

Thousands Of Child Migrants Facing Deportation Lack Lawyers

05:30
Download Audio
Resume
Legal assistant Javier Hernandez and lawyer Sara Van Hofwegen of Public Counsel meet with a teenage client from Guatemala who is applying for asylum. (Jude Joffe-Block/Fronteras)
Legal assistant Javier Hernandez and lawyer Sara Van Hofwegen of Public Counsel meet with a teenage client from Guatemala who is applying for asylum. (Jude Joffe-Block/Fronteras)

After more than 68,000 child migrants came to the U.S. from Central America in 2014, there was a scramble to find lawyers to represent these children in deportation hearings. Two years later, federal immigration records show that immigration judges have ruled on 27,500 cases involving these unaccompanied children. But some 40 percent of those child defendants never found a lawyer to represent them in immigration court.

A lawsuit moving through the courts in Washington State aims to change that. Jude Joffe-Block from the Fronteras Desk at KJZZ in Phoenix reports.

Read more on this story via the Fronteras Desk

Guest

Jude Joffe-Block, reporter at the Fronteras Desk at KJZZ in Phoenix. She tweets @judejoffeblock.

This segment aired on June 23, 2016.

Advertisement

More from Here & Now

Listen Live
Close