Young Center Releases “Framework for Considering the Best Interests of Unaccompanied Children”

On Thursday, May 26, 2016, the Young Center for Immigrant Children’s Rights at the University of Chicago Law School released the Framework for Considering the Best Interests of Unaccompanied Children, the result of a multi-year dialogue between federal agencies and nongovernmental organizations. This year the government projects more than 70,000 unaccompanied children will arrive at our borders. These are children who come from all over the world. When they are apprehended at the border or present themselves to authorities, they are taken into federal custody, charged with violating immigration laws and placed in deportation proceedings. But unlike other systems for protecting and adjudicating the rights of children, where judges and other decision makers must consider the best interests of each child, there is no such mandate in our immigration law. Instead, children appear in adversarial proceedings, most often without their own attorney, before judges who are not obligated to consider whether there is a parent available to care for the child in home country or whether the child will be safe as a result of decisions made by immigration authorities.

This was the challenge tackled by the Interagency Working Group on Unaccompanied and Separated children—to develop a framework that would allow decision makers to consider the best interests of every child, in a manner consistent with all other immigration laws. The Young Center, with the support of the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation, facilitated the work of NGOs, expert practitioners, and federal agencies including the Department of Homeland Security, Department of Justice, and the Department of Health & Human Services as they set forth criteria for evaluating children’s best interests and recommendations for integrating best interests considerations into all decisions about unaccompanied children. “This report goes far beyond a general call to ensure fair proceedings for children and instead sets forth agency-specific recommendations for both policy makers and individual decision makers, to ensure that every decision about a child accounts for the impact of that decision on the child’s safety and well-being,” commented Professor Andrew Schoenholtz of Georgetown University Law Center. Professor Schoenholtz continued, “The strength of these recommendations is a direct result of the unique, collaborative dialogue between federal agencies and advocates in immigration and child welfare.”

The Framework recognizes that any decision involving an unaccompanied child, from the moment of apprehension through the completion of immigration proceedings, should address the child’s best interests: the child’s safety and well-being, expressed interests, health, family integrity, liberty, development and identity. Consistent with federal and international law, the Framework also recognizes children’s special vulnerabilities and the necessity of considering and giving due weight to children’s views in determining their best interests. Young Center Policy Director Jennifer Nagda observed, “Everyone involved in this effort recognized that proceedings involving children must be different than those involving adults, and that it is possible to protect children’s safety in a principled manner that respects the fundamental rights of children as well as the obligations of the federal government.” Maria Woltjen, Director of the Young Center at the University of Chicago said, “Wherever you stand on the immigration debate, we need to recognize that unaccompanied children are among the most vulnerable, and we need to make sure that wherever they land, whether here in the U.S. or in home country, they will be safe.”

The Framework was prepared by the Young Center for Immigrant Children’s Rights at the University of Chicago Law School, with support from the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation. The University of Chicago Law School the Georgetown Law Human Rights Institute both supported the publication of the Framework. Copies of the report can be found at www.theyoungcenter.org and at the Georgetown University Law Center’s Perspectives on Human Rights series. For more information, please contact Jennifer Nagda at 773-844-2368.

Immigration