Stepping Up to Represent Children Affected by the Border Crisis
There’s a humanitarian crisis unfolding at the U.S.-Mexican border. Some progress has been made to halt the practice of separating children from their parents, but there’s so much more work to be done.
Immigrants seeking asylum are still being detained for long periods, families remain separated, and in many cases, there’s no timetable for returning children to their parents.
This problem is nothing new. People have been trying to escape from horrifying conditions in Central America for years, with nearly 70,000 unaccompanied minors and almost 70,000 parents with children arriving at the U.S. southern border to claim asylum in 2014 alone.
Over 300,000 asylum cases are still waiting to be heard, and these people - especially children - require legal representation if they’re going to have any chance at permanent residency.
Several LegalServer clients are stepping up to help, including the South Texas Pro Bono Asylum Representation Project (ProBAR). For the past 15 years, the ProBAR Children’s project has fought for the rights of detained, unaccompanied children at shelters in South Texas.
Many of these kids are eligible for protection under U.S. law, but they cannot tap resources like the special Immigrant Juvenile visa, U-visa, T-visa, or asylum on their own. A combination of language barriers, the complexities of the U.S. immigration system, and their sheer youth puts them at risk for long detention times, separation from their families, and ultimately, deportation back to the high-risk areas they’re attempting to flee.
Each day, the ProBAR Children’s project fights for the safety, protection, family reunification, and economic opportunity of over 1,000 children at the border. We’re incredibly proud to have them as a LegalServer client, and invite you to make a donation or volunteer your services to this legal aid organization, during this critical period that they need help the most.
I just want to say thank you to ProBAR’s staff for doing the great work that they do every day to help families at the border. I know that there are thousands of lawyers in our community working tirelessly to make a difference in the lives of their clients, but the work they are doing is especially important right now. Please do not stop fighting for those families!
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