Best Interests of the Child
Interagency Working Group on Unaccompanied and Separated Children, Framework for Considering the Best Interests of Unaccompanied Children (2016).
UNHCR Safe & Sound, http://www.refworld.org/pdfid/5423da264.pdf (2014).
United Nations Committee on the Rights of the Child, General Comment No. 14 on the right of the child to have his or her best interests taken as a primary consideration (art. 3, para. 1), http://www2.ohchr.org/English/bodies/crc/docs/GC/CRC_C_GC_14_ENG.pdf (2013)
Unaccompanied Immigrant Children
American Immigration Council, A Guide to Children Arriving at the Border: Laws, Policies and Responses (2015).
Vera Institute of Justice, The Flow of Unaccompanied Children through the Immigration System (2012).
United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), Children on the Run: Unaccompanied Children Leaving Central America and Mexico and the Need for International Protection (2016).
Child Advocates
Trafficking Victims Protection Reauthorization Act (TVPRA) § 235 (2008).
The Young Center, Briefing paper on Young Center’s Child Advocate Program.
Recommendations for Court Proceedings Involving Unaccompanied Immigrant Children
Center for Gender & Refugee Studies and Kids in Need of Defense, A Treacherous Journey: Child Migrants Navigating the U.S. Immigration System (2014).
U.S. Department of Justice, Operating Policies and Procedures Memorandum 07-01: Guidelines for Immigration Court Cases Involving Unaccompanied Alien Children (May 22, 2007).
Michael F. Rahill, Office of the Chief Immigration Judge, What Child Is This? How Immigration Courts Respond to Unaccompanied Minors (2000).
Right of Each Unaccompanied Immigrant Child to a Government-Appointed Lawyer
American Immigration Council, Children in Immigration Court: Over 95 Percent Represented by an Attorney Appear in Court (2016).
American Civil Liberties Union, Update on J.E.F.M. v. Lynch (June 27, 2016).
Benjamin Good, A Child’s Right to Counsel in Removal Proceedings, 10 Stanford Journal of Civil Rights and Civil Liberties 109 (2014).
Best Practices for Legal Representation of Unaccompanied Immigrant Children
American Bar Association, Child Clients Are Different: Best Practices for Representing Unaccompanied Minors (2007).
American Bar Association, Standards for the Custody, Placement and Care; Legal Representation; and Adjudication of Unaccompanied Alien Children in the United States (2004).
American Bar Association, Standards of Practice for Lawyers Who Represent Children in Abuse and Neglect Cases (1996).
Migration Policy Institute, Revisiting the Need for Appointed Counsel (2005).
Conference on Ethical Issues in the Legal Representation of Children, Recommendations of the Conference, 64 Fordham Law Review 1301 (1996).
The Young Center, Immigration Hearings by Video: A Threat to Children’s Right to Fair Proceedings (2019).
The Young Center, Recommendations for Customs and Border Protection Standards While Detaining Children (2019).
Asylum
U.S. Department of Justice, Guidelines for Child Asylum Claims (1998).
UNHCR, Guidelines on International Protection: Child Asylum Claims (2009).
Rachel Roubein, Here’s How Hard It Is for Unaccompanied Minors to Get Asylum, THE ATLANTIC (July 15, 2014).
Kids in Need of Defense, Representing Unaccompanied Children: Training Manual for KIND Pro Bono Attorneys, Chapter 5: Asylum and Related Relief (2015).
Young Center for Immigrant Children’s Rights, Kids in Need of Defense, The Tahirih Justice Center, and Public Counsel Law Center, Amicus Brief to the Attorney General in Matter of L-E-A (2019).
Special Immigrant Juvenile Status
U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services, Memorandum re: TVPRA of 2008: Special Immigrant Juvenile Status Provisions (March 24, 2009).
Kids in Need of Defense, Representing Unaccompanied Children: Training Manual for KIND Pro Bono Attorneys, Chapter 4: Special Immigrant Juvenile Status (2015).
Prosecutorial Discretion
U.S. Department of Homeland Security, Memorandum re: Exercising Prosecutorial Discretion with Respect to Individuals Who Came to the United States as Children (June 5, 2012).
Immigration Policy Center, Falling through the Cracks: How Gaps in ICE’s Prosecutorial Discretion Policies Affect Immigrants without Legal Representation (2012).
International Sources of Authority
United Nations General Assembly, Convention on the Rights of the Child (1989).
UNHCR, Committee on the Rights of the Child, General Comment No. 6, Treatment of Unaccompanied and Separated Children Outside Their Country of Origin (2005).
UNHCR, Refugee Children: Guidelines on Protection and Care (1994).
Capacity and Mental Competency
Matter of M-A-M, 25 I & N Dec. 474 (BIA 2011).
Aryah Somers, Children in Immigration Proceedings: Concepts of Capacity and Mental Competency (2014).
U.S. Department of Justice, Memorandum re: Elian Gonzalez (Jan. 3, 2000).
Conference on Ethical Issues in the Legal Representation of Children, Report of the Working Group on Determining the Child’s Capacity to Make Decisions, 64 Fordham Law Review 1339 (1996).
Parental Rights
Polovchak v. Meese, 774 F.2d 731 (7th 1985).
Brief for the Young Center for Immigrant Children’s Rights, et al, as Amici Curiae, In re the Adoption of C.M.B.R., Case No. SD32228 (Mo. Ct. App. S.D. 2013).
Immigration Consequences of Criminal Convictions and Delinquency Adjudications
U.S. Department of Justice, Immigration Consequences of Criminal Convictions: Padilla v. Kentucky (2010).
Kids in Need of Defense, Representing Unaccompanied Children: Training Manual for KIND Pro Bono Attorneys, Chapter 10: Immigration Consequences of Delinquency and Crimes (2015).
Elizabeth M. Frankel, Detention and Deportation with Inadequate Due Process: The Devastating Consequences of Juvenile Involvement with Law Enforcement for Immigrant Youth, 64 Duke Forum for Law & Social Change 63 (2011).
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