Unaccompanied Children in the United States: Refugees in Need of Protection

In July of 2014, an urgent humanitarian crisis emerged as a 90% spike in unaccompanied children arrivals occurred at the U.S.-Mexico border. The dramatic surge of unaccompanied minors came from Mexico and the Central American Northern Triangle. These children are fleeing from what is currently the most violent region in the world, and are seeking safety and protection in the United States. The presentation will focus on why the large numbers of recent childhood arrivals in the U.S. should be treated as refugees entitled to protection under international and domestic laws. It will further discuss how and why Constitutional protections, such as right to counsel and procedural due process rights, are more important than ever, in dealing with the influx of children arriving alone at the border. The presentation will put the child migration crisis in historical, political, and legal perspective. About the Lecturer: Aruna Sury is the Supervising Attorney of KIND’s Seattle office. Aruna has exclusively practiced immigration law since 2001, and has extensive experience representing clients before the Immigration Courts, the Department of Homeland Security, the Board of Immigration Appeals, and Federal Circuit Courts. She has successfully briefed and argued numerous cases before the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals, and has secured published decisions relating to procedural due process rights of immigrants in removal proceedings and expanding immigrants’ rights to judicial review. Aruna was raised in Dallas, Texas and is an honors graduate of the University of Texas at Dallas, and the University of Texas School of Law. She has a keen interest in the political and economic causes and results of global migration, and is passionate about access to counsel and Constitutional protections for immigrants and other vulnerable populations in the United States. Melody Young graduated from the University of Washington School of Law, receiving a J.D. in 2014 and an LL.M. in Sustainable International Development in 2015. In 2014, she was awarded the Jack McDonald Merit Award at the UW School of Law, recognizing her commitment to public service. While in law school, Melody co-founded the Immigrant Application Assistance Project (“App Help”) with Erin Apte in partnership with the Northwest Immigrant Rights Project. The student-led pro bono project connected pro se detainees with volunteer legal assistance. She is excited to continue her work in immigrant advocacy with unaccompanied minors and assist them in accessing justice and navigating cross-systems. Melody is now the Pro Bono Coordinating Attorney for KIND’s Seattle office, and works to connect released and detained unaccompanied minors with pro bono attorneys for legal representation