Suit: Help kids at deportation hearings

OLYMPIA — A coalition of immigrant-rights advocacy groups has asked a federal court to block upcoming deportation proceedings against several minors unless they are provided legal representation.

The motion for a preliminary injunction was filed Thursday night by several groups, including the American Civil Liberties Union, the American Immigration Council and the Northwest Immigrant Rights Project. The groups, which filed a lawsuit on the issue of legal representation last month, say that expedited deportation proceedings sparked the need for immediate action.

“Each of these children desperately fears deportation, and each of them has a colorable defense. But they do not know how to defend themselves under the immigration laws,” the motion reads.

The lawsuit, filed on behalf of eight minors ranging in age from 10 to 17, is seeking to require the government to provide minors with legal representation. Six plaintiffs who have hearings upcoming in September and January are cited in Thursday’s motion, which says they came to the U.S. from El Salvador and Guatemala and either saw family members killed, were threatened and attacked by gang members, or were abandoned and abused. The eight minors currently live in California and Washington.

“That’s extremely difficult for an adult to do, but really beyond anyone’s reasonable expectation of what a child can do,” she said.

Werlin said that whatever the cost is, the alternative is unprepared minors’ representing themselves in court “and potentially returning to countries where they’re facing violence.”

“That’s not a viable option,” she said. “We need to make sure it’s a level playing field.”