Yuma Rep. Fernandez: ‘It’s not right’
Lawmaker sits in on court proceedings for border crossing children
Rep. Charlene Fernandez, a Democratic state representative from Yuma, had a seat at the legal front lines at the current national crisis over the fate of children who were detained after they were suspected of crossing the southern border into the U.S. illegally.
Friday morning, she sat in a courtroom in Phoenix, which was jammed with about 25 children and teens, some attorneys and child advocates, and almost no room for anyone else.
Fernandez said it appeared many of the children had arrived in the U.S. without a parent or guardian, but some could have been separated from their parents by authorities at the border, as part of a “zero-tolerance” immigration policy announced by the Trump administration May 7.
The family separations were ended by President Trump’s executive order Wednesday, June 20 following a tidal wave of criticism, leaving the question of how to reunify children separated from their guardians and in federal custody.
According to a fact sheet issued by the U.S. Department of Homeland Security on Saturday, there are currently 2,053 minors in federally-funded shelters after being placed in the custody of the U.S. Office of Refugee Resettlement. It did not say how many, if any, are being housed at other facilities or foster homes.
Seventeen percent, or about 350, of them were separated from their parents under the zero-tolerance Trump policy, while the rest were apprehended without a parent or guardian, the press release said.
DHS stated 522 children “separated from adults” by the zero-tolerance policy had been reunited.
Fernandez said the courtroom on Friday was silent, aside from testimony being given in the current case.
And it was being given by the children themselves, some as young as 7.
They were asked by a judge where they were from, and most answered “Guatemala,” she said. Then they were asked where their parents are and whether they would be harmed if they went back to their home country. Many had already pleaded guilty to “charges 1-4,” Fernandez said. She wasn’t told which charges those were, but they appeared to be related to crossing the border illegally.
“One of them sat in the chair, and his feet didn’t even touch the floor. And he was saying that he agreed to that, and saying no one would do him any harm once he returned to Guatemala,” she said. The adultsize headphones he wore to listen to the Spanish interpreter didn’t really fit him, either.
Fernandez and fellow Rep. Isela Blanc, D-Tempe, had been told shortly beforehand that the proceedings would be taking place at the Social Security Administration building in Phoenix, so they rushed over with their chief of staff.
Once they got there, court staff “asked if we were from the House of Representatives. I don’t know how they recognized that, but they asked, and we said yes, and they let us right in,” she said. She wasn’t certain if the hearing was open to members of the public.
None of the children were crying, which seemed almost worse to Fernandez than the alternative, and none of them spoke, except to reply “si” (or “yes”) or “no” to the judge’s questions.
“I just felt so bad for those little kids that there was no one for them to cling on to. And thinking more like a mother at this point than a legislator, that there was no one to hold their hand. They walked in alone, and they walked out alone,” she said.
All of them were staying at the same Phoenix shelter, and appeared to be healthy and cared-for, she said. The boys and older girls wore blue-collared shirts and blue pants, while the younger girls wore nicer dresses and had ribbons in their hair.
“They were very respectful, very quiet, they looked very scared, to me,” she said.
Every child except for one was represented by an attorney from The Florence Project, a nonprofit legal aid group which assists adults and children who are in federal immigration custody.
Fernandez said she spoke to the director of the Florence Project, which has been overloaded with unaccompanied child cases. “He’s asked me and several other legislators for help in seeing if we can get some attorneys that are bilingual; even if they’re not bilingual, they’re that desperate.” she said. Interpreters and other volunteers are also needed, she said.
The federal government does not provide lawyers for defendants in immigration removal hearings, and the other child did not have any legal representation. That child was requesting not to be deported, Fernandez said.
In most of the cases she watched, the children said their parents are in Guatemala or whatever their country of origin was, and agreed to be sent back there. The judge would tell them arrangements would be made in less than three weeks to put them on a plane flight home.
Fernandez said she was worried about how well the young defendants understand the situation they are in, and whether there had been enough discussion of the potential risks they face in their homeland.
“It needs to be a conversation, not in such a sterile environment with a lot of adults around and lights, just a conversation to ascertain what these kids were running from, what their parents were shielding them from, and to describe what harm is, to find out if they will be hurt if they are returned,” she said.
A few 17-year-olds were going to turn 18 within a few weeks, so the judge advised court staff to resolve those quickly. “They didn’t want them to age out, and then they would be moved to another facility, which would be very sad,” Fernandez said.
For some other children, no solution to the puzzle of where they would go was apparent, and it could be six months before their cases were even looked at again. “They had to go back to the shelter, and they would be returning in January 2019,” Fernandez said.
She said she left the court after about three hours, feeling drained and helpless about the situation, regardless of whether the children had been whisked away from their parents by federal border authorities.
“I’m assuming if these kids came unaccompanied or their mom sent them, there’s a reason she did that. It must be a very desperate situation wherever she’s at. If these kids came with their parents to the border and were separated, that’s just unconscionable that we’re doing that.
“And I’m not going to point fingers and say that’s what we’re doing, because I haven’t seen it. What I’ve seen is kids in a courtroom, being processed. And it’s not right,” she said.
She said some in the Legislature have been trying to take some action; the Democratic House caucus has asked to tour the Phoenix shelter where the children are staying, but haven’t been given permission to yet.
But she said the policy needs to be stopped, and the American people will make sure that it does. “It’s causing harm, this will live with the kids forever. And we’re part of it. But we’re not going to be complacent,” she said.