Alone and Afraid: Immigration Through the Eyes of a Child
On Monday, 09/28/2026, a 13-year-old boy from Honduras named Angel stood in front of an immigration judge in Harlingen, Texas. He had no lawyer.
The judge asked whether anything kept him from going home. Angel answered: “My mom and almost my entire family are here.” The judge told him he did not qualify for asylum, ordered him removed, and gave him until the end of the month to appeal. (CNN, via Latin Times)
Twenty-five children sat on the benches that morning. Some were 3 years old. A 3-year-old named Mateo played with the microphone. A 6-year-old pretended to fly an airplane. (CNN, NewsOne)
This is happening in our country, this week. I want you to know what it looks like.
What this court is
Most people picture a federal courthouse. It isn’t one. Immigration courts belong to the Justice Department, so the judge works for the same executive branch that is trying to deport the child. And because these are civil cases, not criminal, the government does not have to give anyone a lawyer, not even a toddler. (Latin Times)
Here is how a child gets there:
- Border agents pick up a child traveling without a parent. Federal law says the child goes within 72 hours to the Office of Refugee Resettlement, which houses the child while it looks for a sponsor, usually a relative.
- The child gets a Notice to Appear in immigration court.
- Children still in shelters are driven in. In Harlingen, white vans outside the courthouse mean children have hearings that day. (Global Sisters Report)
- A caseworker, not a parent, sits with the child and explains who everyone is: the interpreter, the clerk, the judge in the black robe.
- At the first hearing the judge explains the charges and asks if the child wants time to find a lawyer.
- Across the room sits a trained government attorney from ICE, arguing for removal.
At some point the child is asked the question the whole case turns on: is there a reason you can’t go home? A child with a lawyer is screened for that ahead of time. A child alone has to know, on the spot, that the answer is everything. Immigration court is the only place where the government brings a case against a child, seeks a life-changing order, and the child gets no appointed help of any kind.
No one would call it a fair fight if a 5-year-old faced a lawyer in a game of chess, yet we call it justice when the stakes are his life.
What the children said
Reporters have been sitting in these courtrooms this summer. Here is some of what they heard.
New York, 08/05/2026. A Guatemalan boy named Diego appeared by video from a shelter. He speaks K’iche’, so his words passed through two interpreters, K’iche’ to Spanish to English. He had said over and over that he was afraid to go back. The judge told him to fill out his asylum application, in English. “I don’t know how to do it,” he said, looking away from the camera. He asked if someone could help him. The judge said she could not, and gave him about two and a half weeks or face deportation. (Documented)
That same morning, two sisters in crisp blue collared shirts leaned toward the camera. Asked if they had a lawyer, one explained in Haitian Creole that their father kept looking and couldn’t find one. The judge gave them 13 days. (Documented)
Hours later a young girl named Zoila, camera off, tried to explain why her application wasn’t in. A lawyer was supposed to call her two days before, she said, and never did. The judge noted it was her third chance and gave her one week to do in English what takes experienced lawyers months. (Documented)
New York, July 2026. A boy named Abimal, asked again for his application, told the judge through a Spanish interpreter: “I haven’t done it yet, I wanted to have a lawyer.” (THE CITY Reporter)
El Paso, June 2026. Reporters at El Paso’s fast-tracked children’s court titled their story with one child’s words: “Me quiero ir con mi papá.” I want to go with my dad. (El Paso Matters)
Harlingen, 09/28/2026. The judge asked 15 children without lawyers if it was their first time in immigration court. Every one said yes. (Latin Times, on CNN’s report)
And in South Texas, a 7-year-old appeared without a lawyer in August and was ordered to leave voluntarily within 30 days, according to a court declaration by the legal group ProBar. (Latin Times)
Why it got worse this summer
Children have faced these courts alone before. What changed is that the safety net was pulled out from under them.
Since a 2008 law signed by President George W. Bush, the government has been required to make sure unaccompanied children have lawyers “to the greatest extent practicable.” For years that meant a federal contract with the nonprofit Acacia Center for Justice, which worked through about 100 local legal groups. Under it, every child at least got a legal orientation, a consultation and a referral. (Documented, Latin Times)
In March 2025 the administration tried to end most of that funding. A federal judge ordered it restored. Then on 07/31/2026 the administration simply let the contract expire. Acacia estimates more than 24,000 children lost help. (Latin Times)
What replaced it: up to $20 million to the U.S. Committee for Refugees and Immigrants through 12/31/2026, and a $150 million contract to a 26-person Houston law firm whose co-founder is an energy lawyer. (Latin Times, Documented) At Angel’s hearing in Harlingen, a lawyer from the new provider joined by video and never spoke. (Latin Times)
Meanwhile the courts sped up. Cases that once took months are being heard in days or weeks. (Latin Times) The Justice Department denies it is fast-tracking children. In New York, deportation hearings for detained children passed 1,400 by the end of July, already more than all of 2025. (THE CITY Reporter)
A lawyer is the whole difference
The numbers are not close.
- A 2021 congressional research report found judges were 100 times more likely to grant relief to unaccompanied children with attorneys. (Documented)
- A 2024 congressional report found judges were four times as likely to order a child deported when the child had no lawyer. (Documented)
- Syracuse University researchers found in 2014 that more than 75% of unaccompanied children without a lawyer were deported, against 28% of those with one. (Global Sisters Report)
The government’s position has long been that children can manage. In a 2016 deposition, a senior immigration judge who trained other judges said: “I’ve taught immigration law literally to 3-year-olds and 4-year-olds.” Child development experts pointed out that 3-year-olds are still learning to speak in simple sentences and build towers of blocks. (Sojourners, on The Washington Post)
He was a judge. He had to know better. So does everyone else in that room. We are asking a child who can’t yet tie his shoes or read his own name to argue asylum law against a trained government prosecutor, and when he can’t, we call it due process and send him back to whatever he fled.
What would change it
The fix is not complicated. Every child in immigration court should have a lawyer, paid for if the family can’t pay. We already decided that for children in criminal court. A 3-year-old facing deportation deserves no less.
There is a bill in Congress to do it, the Fair Day in Court for Kids Act. (Rep. Zoe Lofgren) Some places aren’t waiting. New York City has put close to $17 million toward lawyers for unaccompanied children, and New York State is weighing its own funding bill. (Documented)
What you can do this week:
- Call your U.S. Representative and Senators. Ask them to co-sponsor the Fair Day in Court for Kids Act and to restore full legal funding for unaccompanied children.
- Support the local groups still representing these kids without the federal contract. [Add Minnesota or regional legal organization here.]
- If you speak Spanish, K’iche’, Haitian Creole or another language these children speak, ask those groups whether they need volunteer interpreters.
- Share this. Most people have no idea a 3-year-old can stand alone in front of a judge in America.
Contact your elected officials: https://www.usa.gov/elected-officials
Legal help for children – Kids in Need of Defense: https://supportkind.org/
Free immigration legal service providers by court: https://www.justice.gov/eoir/list-pro-bono-legal-service-providers
Fair Day in Court for Kids Act: https://lofgren.house.gov/media/press-releases/lofgren-introduces-bill-ensure-unaccompanied-children-have-legal
For more on children in our systems, visit KARA’s resource library at [KARA website link].
Sources
- CNN, Inside the Texas courtroom where toddlers face immigration judges, 09/28/2026
- Latin Times, Migrant Children Facing Court Alone, 09/29/2026
- NewsOne, on CNN’s Harlingen report
- Documented, 11 Years Old. In Immigration Court. Alone. No Lawyer., 08/06/2026
- THE CITY Reporter, Inside the NYC Courtroom Where Detained Children Face Deportation Without Attorneys, 07/31/2026
- El Paso Matters, Inside El Paso’s fast-tracked immigration court for unaccompanied children, 07/06/2026
- Global Sisters Report, For migrant children facing deportation alone in court, a Catholic nun shows up
- Sojourners, Immigration Judge Testifies That 3-Year-Olds Can Represent Themselves in Court
- Rep. Zoe Lofgren, Fair Day in Court for Kids Act
This piece contributed by Former CASA Guardian ad Litem Mike Tikkanen
KIDS AT RISK ACTION / KARA / INVISIBLE CHILDREN
