02/04/2025
“Baby Court” sounds like a bad comedy sketch or something from a dystopian sci-fi novel. Yet each year, tens of thousands of immigrant children who arrive to the U.S. alone—some as young as 2—are forced to represent themselves in court, arguing their case before U.S. immigration judges. Instead of getting a court appointed lawyer, they’re given a booster seat.
These cases are described as “hearing a death penalty case in traffic court” because so many of these children face trafficking, abuse, exploitation or worse if they are deported back to their home countries—which are often plagued by war, crime, and violence.
Because immigration court is a civil proceeding—not a criminal one—legal representation is not automatically provided by the court. Our client works to stand up for the rights of these children, protect due process, and provide life-saving legal services.
With a lawyer by their side, these children are much more likely to be allowed to remain in the United States—in recent years, immigration judges were almost 100 times less likely to grant relief to unaccompanied children without counsel than unaccompanied children with counsel.
HelpGood produced a podcast episode with Reb Masel to showcase the work that Acacia does to help these children. We’re proud to announce that this episode of Rebuttal Podcast, “The Children: Alone in America” is recognized as an Honoree for this year’s Webby Awards in the Crime & Justice category! In a category that usually highlights murders and serial killers, we’re proud to highlight the lawyers and advocates that protect these kids.
Since we launched this episode, the landscape has changed drastically. The Trump Administration has pulled nearly all funding for the Unaccompanied Children Program, leaving over 26,000 children without legal representation. This means many more of these children—who have committed no crime—will be sent back to their countries of origin. Some will be killed or trafficked.
But we have not stopped shining a light on this issue. Last week, we released a new video with Reb Masel that has already resulted in 1.4 million views, over 4,000 comments, and 90,000 letters sent to Congress—urging representatives to restore funding for this life-changing program. Contact your reps at tinyurl.com/protect-kids
Thank you to all who contacted their representatives! With your help, we’ll fight to restore funding for the Unaccompanied Children Program. See the comments for links to the podcast, the new video, and how you can get involved.
