Birdsong’s student Mara Snyder did some interesting research last semester in the Refugee Law seminar and wrote a wonderful paper on refugee children. It is very informative and well written. The paper includes all you ever wanted to know about refugee children in the U.S., but were afraid to ask. Take a gander at it below.
Unaccompanied Minor Refugee Children in the United States:
Their Difficult Search for Legal Identity, Safety, and Family
by: Mara Snyder
Introduction
“Unaccompanied refugee and migrant children are among the most vulnerable people on earth.”[1]
By the time children become refugees, they have often experienced the devastating effects of war and extreme violence, and are suffering severe emotional, physical and psychological trauma.[2] Upon entry into the United States, that devastation is further compounded by the aggressive approach the Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency (ICE) often takes to resolving their legal status; they are often detained with children who are actual criminals, in a setting for criminals[3]. This is an example of one young girl’s difficult journey through the United States’ juvenile system; her only ‘crime’ was being an unaccompanied refugee child, alone and unrepresented:
She was detained at age 15. Though charged with no crime, she was sent to a secure detention facility in Pennsylvania, where she was housed with children accused of murder, rape, and drug trafficking. She was assigned to a small concrete cell, bare except for bedding and a Bible in a language she could not read. She was forbidden to wear her own clothes or keep any personal possessions – jewelry, hair tires, perfume, deodorant – in her cell. She was forbidden to laugh or speak in her native language.[4]
