I am writing out of deep outrage and heartbreak after learning that toddlers, children as young as three years old, are being forced to appear in U.S. immigration court without an attorney, expected to defend themselves in proceedings that determine whether they will be deported. This is not just a policy failure. It is a moral failure. Children are not the “worst of the worst!”
In a Texas courtroom this week, a 13‑year‑old boy was ordered deported unless he can somehow “prove” his case – alone, without counsel, facing a judge and a system he cannot possibly understand. Children barely old enough to tie their shoes are being asked whether they want “voluntary departure,” as if they grasp the stakes of that question. A three‑year‑old played with the microphone while the judge spoke. How could he do anything else? He is a toddler.
We would never accept this in any other part of our justice system. We do not put children on trial without representation. We do not expect them to navigate complex legal standards. We do not pretend that a caseworker, someone explicitly barred from providing legal advice, is a substitute for counsel. Yet somehow, in immigration court, we suspend our basic principles of fairness and pretend this is acceptable.
It is not.
The hypocrisy is staggering: we claim to protect children, yet we deny them the most fundamental protection of all – due process. Children deserve safety, dignity, and a chance to live – they must have legal representation. Anything less is not justice. It is bureaucratic cruelty dressed up as procedure.
These are children. They deserve better from us.
Karen Turner
Tillamook
