More than 26,000 unaccompanied children have come from other countries and are now in the U.S. These kids count on lawyers, like those who work for the International Rescue Committee, or IRC, to help them make their lives here. But as the Trump Administration has cut off funding for the IRC’s ability to represent those children, leaving the future of those who are currently in Florida in question.
John Barry, staff attorney at the Orlando Center for Justice, represents 150 children who fled to the United States. He says their stories are harrowing -- but adds that those kids are also brave and resourceful.
“...a life of exploitation, toil, abuse, rape, trafficking in home country," Barry says. "And then [the] child says, ‘This is enough.’ and through their own volition and will power, their own steam, you know what I mean? They say, ‘I’m just taking off and I’m going to go find a better life.”
Karen Woodall is the executive director of the Florida People’s Advocacy Center. She works with immigrant families and says many unaccompanied children were brought here by the U.S. government.
“They are sponsored by the government, our government -- they were -- they were brought in," she says. "And there were resettlement agencies that focused specifically on unaccompanied minors that they were placed with.”
Woodall says she understands the new administration’s policy changes but that the children already here shouldn’t be affected.
“It’s one thing to say we’re not going to bring anyone else in, we’re not going to resettle any more refugees for now," says Woodall. "It’s another to pull the rug out from under the folks who are already here that need support.”
Policies toward immigrants are stiffening on both the state and federal levels. Besides the federal move to cut IRC funding for unaccompanied minors, a bill moving in the state Senate would prevent courts from declaring that children who immigrated alone had been abused before their arrival.
Leon County Undersheriff Ron Cave says his agency hasn’t seen many unaccompanied minors, but that they’re prepared to comply with state and federal requirements when they do. He says LCSO’s policy is to prevent abuse.
“...whether it be a college student, whether it be a homeless individual, whether it be an unaccompanied minor, whatever the capacity, victims and victim services we take very serious," he says. "And we’re going to ensure that we address and ensure that people are not victimized, irrespective of what the status of the person is.”
To John Barry at the Orlando Center for Justice, the focus should be on the children -- not the politics.
“And so all we’ve been trying to do is cut through all the anti-immigrant hostility to be able to say, ‘Look. You’re going to have children in your care who were born in other countries,'" he said. "'Let’s not let politics highjack their best interests. Let’s make sure all these children get the tools they need to survive and thrive.’ And that’s all we want to do. We don’t want to use children as political pawns.”
Woodall says without the IRC’s ability to represent children, others will have to step up.
