By Deb Searfoss, Legal Assistant for the Detained Children’s Program, CAIR Coalition
Artwork by Amar Nair, CAIR Coalition Staff Attorney
After about an hour of touch and go traffic, we pull up to the beautiful campus on which the shelter facility sits. We are about to embark on our weekly visit to a local detention center for undocumented immigrant children who crossed into the United States by themselves. Many of these children do not have a parent to care for them in the United States and have come hoping to live with a family member, either an uncle, aunt, or cousin. Others have come with hopes of seeing their parent for the first time since they were a baby.
I have been with CAIR Coalition for a year as the legal assistant for our Detained Children’s Program. Our goal is to regularly visit the three detention centers in Virginia to help detained immigrant juveniles in their legal cases. We provide these children with educational presentations about their legal rights now that they are in the United States, and we interview each child to see if they have a potential case that would allow them to stay in the United States and provide them with legal assistance. Every week my colleague and I visit with these children at the detention center in Bristow, Virginia. This is just one of my many visits there, and every week it feels like a new adventure.
This state-of-the art facility is a welcoming site for any visitor. There is a school in the center of the campus with two cul-de-sacs on each side, one which leads to the boys’ house and the other to the girls’. There, you will also find a separate house for young mothers and their babies or expectant mothers. Behind the school there are several basketball courts and fields in which the kids can play soccer. Next to the houses are little gardens filled with blooming flowers and vegetables that the children planted to remember their home countries. For many of the children that we will see today, it is probably the first time in their lives that they have been driven up the street to school. Sadly, it is probably also the first time any of these children have been to school in recent years. As we park the car, we walk up to the main school building with a coffee in one hand and our “Know Your Rights” materials in the other and proceed to enter the building and sign in.
We place our things down in the library, excited to meet with the young “new arrivals,” which may include children who arrived at the shelter as early as the night before. The number of new arrivals per week can fluctuate anywhere between 1 to 20 children at a time, and their ages can range anywhere from 9 to 17 years old, and they come from all over Latin America. Some of these kids have been brought to us straight from the border towns where they were apprehended by immigration authorities; others have already been in the U.S. for several years. Today, we have a large group of children; we are in for a long day, a good day, but long nonetheless. As we go in search of all the children, the first place we look is the classrooms. Even though it is summertime, these children attend summer school so as to not fall behind when they go to school after they have been reunited with a family member or friend. We walk into each classroom – English, math, social studies, P.E., and music. As we gather all the children and bring them to the library, they all look confused, but relaxed and big smiles emerge on their faces as they hear us greeting them in Spanish.
We start by introducing ourselves, and we try to learn each child’s name and country of origin as best we can. Most of our children come from El Salvador, Honduras, Guatemala and Mexico. Today we have an exception – we have a couple from Ecuador. We proceed to give our “Know your Rights” presentation: “We are here with a non-profit called CAIR Coalition, and we are here to help you in your immigration case…” After our presentation, we sit down with each child individually to ask them very personal questions. These questions will help us determine if these kids may be eligible for any type of defenses to deportation and ultimately allow these children to stay in the U.S.
Many of these children have traveled for weeks and months. Some were left abandoned in the desert by the coyotes, guides who take them from the border to their final destination in the United States. Some of the girls have traveled from Central America with babies as young as 2 weeks old, and some with babies as old as 2 years old. Every week, I listen to these children, how some are here in the U.S. trying to escape gang violence, and how some were brave enough to resist recruitment, and for that, their lives are in danger. We hear stories of children escaping the drug cartels, or those who weren’t so lucky and were kidnapped by them. Others may be fleeing a life of abuse and neglect by their own parents or other family members. Some of these stories are heart wrenching and difficult to hear.
Halfway through the day we take a break and have lunch with all the children in cafeteria. This half hour lunch break is our chance to take off our legal hats and sit with the children, not as their attorneys, but as their friends. Many we have come to know well, and talk to them freely about their weekends: did they go swimming, go to the skating rink, or did they go catch a movie? Did they catch the weekend soccer game? Did El Salvador beat the U.S., and who did Honduras play against?
After completing all the interviews with the new arrivals, we proceed with “follow-ups” with the children we have already met with in past weeks and whose cases we have evaluated. We explain to them what legal options are available to them to help them fight their case and that when they are reunified with a family member; they need to go find an attorney to help them start their legal cases there. For those who will be reunifying locally, we may spend upwards of two hours just preparing a detailed declaration of their personal story to help find them a pro-bono, or free, attorney.
The school day has come to an end, and with that, so has our visit. As we return to D.C., my co-worker Mari Dorn-Lopez and I discuss our day and the many lessons the kids have taught us. We listen to heart breaking stories, but what we really hear in these stories is how brave and strong these children are. Many have suffered and endured so much in their short lives that we are often left in awe of them. After having gone through so many negative experiences in their lives, these children have kept their chins up. Even though they are up against great odds, these kids work hard at having a positive outlook on life. Meeting them has become a privilege for us. They not only brighten our day but they teach us so much. One can only be left filled with hope that wherever these children may end up, they will be able to achieve their goals. For some, that may be a life of the “American Dream.”
Are you an attorney? Interested in helping children like those described here? Check out our pro bono opportunities.
