"Do You Know What A Lawyer Is?"

[kpete]

Children are being made to represent themselves in immigration court

Happy birthday, America











http://corpsrpeople.com/post/175559624068/children-are-being-made-to-represent-themselves-in

[Achilleaze]

1. The KGOP Gilead State, Inc. arises from the freaking darkside

[Amaryllis]

32. I watched Rogue One a few days ago and kept being struck by the parallels.

[spanone]

2. god damn trump

[3Hotdogs]

16. Unfortunately, there ain't no god and ain't no hell.

[soryang]

3. they haven't had enough lawyers for many years. nt

[Wounded Bear]

8. The real money is in corporate law...

can't make money defending/representing immigrant children. There are plenty enough lawyers, they're just busy making money at the corporate trough.

[treestar]

10. There are many lawyers who do not make huge amounts

the average is a lot less than you would think.

[soryang]

21. There were announcements from time to time of hiring at ICE

of numerous job opportunities for lawyers to serve this very purpose at administrative hearings. I don' t think those announcements were filled in the numbers initially proposed.

[ehrnst]

4. This is what the Democratic Party should be messaging on...

rather than "abolish ICE."

No one could misrepresent calling out this travesty as wanting to "let criminals to come into this country."

[Gothmog]

5. This is not the America that I love

[ChiTownDenny]

6. OMG!

Nothing left to say.

[DetlefK]

7. These two definitely look like dangerous gang-members.

[pazzyanne]

9. This increases my anger quotient X 10

and I thought I had reached my maximum rage limit. Who puts children into this situation, where they have zero chance of gaining anything. If they deport the child, do they send them back to their country on their own? God I hate this administration.

[treestar]

13. And who takes the child upon deportation?

Are they just going to drop the child off at the airport? This is beyond absurd. That court should have procedures for this like every other court does, administrative or judicial.

[pazzyanne]

14. At the very least.

Better yet, lets get rid of the policy and the policy maker that perpetuated this problem.

Give the kids back to their parents, and get the parents the lawyers they need to establish their claim for asylum. What is so hard about that? Oh, that's right, you need to be a human being to do the right thing. Karma can't come soon enough for the POS that thought separating children was a good idea.

[Delmette2.0]

11. Every day this administration leaves me speechless.

Well except for an endless string of profanities that would get me told to be more civil.

and

[47of74]

18. Fuck people calling for civility.

Fuck them in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ.

[Delmette2.0]

19. LOL. Thank you for that. I needed a fellow !@#$%&&*/+. nt

[treestar]

12. This is the most ridiculous thing that ever happened

There has to be a guardian ad litem, which exists for kids in any other type of law. Usually the parent. If the parent has a case, the kid's case should be consolidated with the parents'.

[colorado_ufo]

15. I'm going to throw up now.

Time to contact the Congresscritters. Again.

How is this LEGAL?

[Kurt V.]

17. This is staged.

i imagine the real thing is so terrifying for these kids, they don't dare let cameras in.

[former9thward]

20. This is not an immigration judge.

"Judge" William Snouffer is not a judge at all. He is a retired Oregon judge who had nothing to do with immigration. The scenes with the children are not real -- they are staged. If you are going to be against something -- don't stage it.

The lack of immigration lawyers is not new. It has always been this way.

http://www.newsweek.com/unaccompanied-minors-immigration-court-children-william-snouffer-judge-1008472

[treestar]

22. OK but what does happen in reality?

IOW are they staging something that happens that they are not allowed in in order to tape, or just making it up wholesale? What in fact does an immigration court do with children who appear there with no parents?

[former9thward]

23. Parents are not lawyers either.

The courts do the exact same things they do with any matter where a party is not represented by a lawyer. The judge attempts to find out the facts and gives a decision the law allows her to.

Go into any eviction court in any major city and see how many lawyers are there representing tenants. The answer is close to zero. How come people aren't raising hell about that? More families get broken up in eviction proceedings that ever have got broken by the immigration courts. Why the double standard? And why the attention now? This has been going on forever at the border.

[treestar]

24. It's not so much their not having a lawyer

as their being children - they need a guardian ad litem as well as a lawyer. They can't speak for themselves (like those who are not of sound mind).

[soryang]

25. Right

It would be best if they had both.

[Amaryllis]

33. STaged by whom for what purpose?

[former9thward]

34. I gave the link.

For what purpose? Ask them.

[lapucelle]

26. Just for clarity, this is a film dramatization using real court transcripts.

A new film by the nonprofit Immigration Counseling Service and filmmaker Linda Freedman shows the real-life court experiences of immigrant children separated from their parents, using actual court transcripts.

Unaccompanied: Alone in America shows former Oregon Judge William C. Snouffer portraying the stern-faced immigration trial judge who asks several Latino children if they are even aware who or what a lawyer is or does. Several respond to the U.S. government's charges, in Spanish, that they don't know the definition of a lawyer and are clearly not represented by one. The court proceedings in the four-minute film take quotations directly from transcripts from immigration trials in which migrant toddlers often appear alone and frightened.

http://www.newsweek.com/unaccompanied-minors-immigration-court-children-william-snouffer-judge-1008472

Here's the 4 minute film.

vimeo.com/268812608

[smirkymonkey]

28. This is just insanity!

What an outrage! What kind of nation are we? This is cruel and inhumane. Those poor children must be terrified and they are not being allowed due process. It's so horrible and unfair. Are they even reunited with their parents before they are deported?

[lapucelle]

29. I just posted a thread with a link to the organization that sponsored the film

if anybody would like to donate or help.

[smirkymonkey]

31. Thank you! I will!

[lapucelle]

27. From the 2016 Democratic Party Platform:

We should ensure due process for those fleeing violence in Central America and work with our regional partners to address the root causes of violence. We must take particular care with children, which is why we should guarantee government-funded counsel for unaccompanied children in immigration courts. We should consider all available means of protecting these individuals from the threats to their lives and safety—including strengthening in-country and third-country processing, expanding the use of humanitarian parole, and granting Temporary Protected Status.

https://www.democrats.org/party-platform#broken-immigration

[defacto7]

30. Insane, just insane.