You can participate in this One-Hour Briefing and learn how to volunteer as pro bono counsel for an immigrant child. In the past 8 months, the Customs and Border Protection announced that more than 47,000 children have been apprehended at the Southern border and placed in deportation proceedings. In some of the immigration courts, 12 to 15% of the dockets are unaccompanied minor children. Sadly, there is no right to free counsel for children in immigration proceedings. The children are primarily arriving on the Southern border and come from Guatemala, Honduras, and El Salvador but children are also sent, sometimes against their will from many countries including China, South Asia and the Caribbean. The median age of the children being apprehended in 2014 is approximately 14 but even toddlers have been arrested and placed into removal proceedings. The Safe Passage Project is a pro bono clearinghouse that covers the juvenile docket once a month at the New York Immigration Court. We train and mentor attorneys who take on the representation of these children. Sanctuary for Families is a leading non-profit serving victims of domestic violence and aiding immigrants.

Please join Professor Lenni B. Benson, Director of the Safe Passage Project, Deborah Lee, Senior Staff Attorney, Immigration Intervention Project, Sanctuary for Families and Lisa Frydman, Associate Director and Managing Attorney, Center for Gender and Refugee Studies, for a free One-Hour briefing on Representing Unaccompanied Children Who Need Immigration and Family Court Assistance, and learn how you, too, can help.

Topics to be addressed include:

• Forms of immigration relief available for unaccompanied children:
  • Special Immigrant Juvenile Status - juvenile protection for abused, neglected or abandoned children
  • U and T visas for victims of crime and/or trafficking
  • Asylum protection
• Practice tips for representing children
• The federal immigration laws and some of the intersection with state family laws

Register for free with PLI.

Attorneys of all backgrounds, expertise, and experience are welcome. No prior immigration experience is needed.