3/21/2018 0 Comments Wednesday, March 21, 2018Young Center for Immigrant Children’s RightsOnce again another early wake up call to meet our first community partner. The Young Center's main goal is to is to promote the bests interests of unaccompanied immigrant children. An unaccompanied immigrant child is a child who arrived on to the US on their own. Up until 2008 US immigration law did not differentiate between children and adults. Although they advocate for change in the immigration system so that children in immigration proceedings are recognized as children, one of their more essential roles is as child advocates. They work with the children's bests interests in mind. After learning the child's story, child advocates partner with Young Center attorneys and social workers to make a recommendation for the child's placement. Immigration CourtOur next stop was at the Phoenix Immigration Court. The Phoenix Immigration Court falls under the jurisdiction of the Office of the Chief Immigration Judge. The hearings we saw were master calendar hearings; each individual case hearing lasted about 15 minutes or less. This hearing is your chance to address any initial issues with your case, ranging from asking for additional time, to something much more serious, like challenging the initial accusations against you. If no issues are brought up, then the immigration judge will schedule your individual hearing. The backlog was so large that hearings were being scheduled for 2020. Another issue we witnessed was the subject of lawyers. Oftentimes this would be the first time lawyers interacted with their clients; we even witnessed two cases where individuals showed up to court without a lawyer, and had to navigate the legal system without them. AuthorSebastian Guzman
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