By C. Austin Reams

Nearly a year ago, unaccompanied children, most immigrating from Central America, began arriving at Fort Sill in Lawton, Oklahoma. By summer’s end, more than 1,800 children had passed through the military base before it was closed in early August of 2014. Many attorneys in Oklahoma, working pro bono, assisted these children who eventually continued on to each of the 50 States. Catholic Charities of the Archdiocese of Oklahoma City, Inc. played a central role.

According to the American Immigration Council, from October of 2013 through September of 2014, more than 60,000 unaccompanied children were detained at the southwest US border. As reported by the Council, most of the children were from Mexico (23%), Guatemala (25%), Honduras (27%) and El Salvador (24%). As learned from interviews conducted by the Refugee and Immigration Center for Education and Legal Services (RAICES) in San Antonio, Texas, many children had been victims of sexual assault, trafficking, domestic abuse, gang intimidation, persecution, and torture.

Unaccompanied children often surrendered to U.S. Customs and Boarder Protection. Because unaccompanied children cannot be placed into expedited removal procedures, they were transferred to the Office of Refugee Resettlement of the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), which subsequently interviewed the children, determining that many of them had family contacts in the United States.

In June of 2014, HHS opened several sites to temporarily house unaccompanied children between the age of 12 and 17, including locations at Lackland Air Force Base in San Antonio, Texas, the Naval Base in Ventura County, California, and Fort Sill Army Base in Lawton, Oklahoma, the latter of which housed approximately 1,200 children.

Recognizing the difficulties facing these unaccompanied children, the Legal Service Department of Catholic Charities obtained permission from HHS to provide pro bono legal services to them at Fort Sill. On July 1, 2014, Richard Klinge, Senior Director of Legal Services and Advocacy of Catholic Charities, assumed management of this legal service project and moved to Lawton to work full time.

According to Mr. Klinge, more than 700 people from Oklahoma, and many immigration lawyers from throughout the US, responded to Catholic Charities’ call for assistance for these unaccompanied children. The law firm of Jones Day also provided four bilingual lawyers at its expense to assist. From July 3, 2014 through August 5, 2014, Catholic Charities and these volunteers provided “Know Your Rights (KSR) Presentations” to groups, and also met individually, assisting more than 600 children.

Initially, many of the children were scared and reluctant to trust. “As the days at Fort Sill passed, we realized that children were talking among themselves and they fully began to understand that the Catholic Charities legal team was not part of the government and we were only there to help them,” said Klinge. “They began to open up to us about why they left, how they got to the US and what they had experienced along their journey.”

Before Catholic Charities began assisting children at Fort Sill, Klinge had travelled to San Antonio, Texas to meet with Jonathan D. Ryan, Executive Director of RAICES to learn from its assistance to unaccompanied children.

Beginning in June 9, 2014, at the Lackland Airforce Base, RAICES had been providing KYR Presentations and legal screenings to nearly 1,200 unaccompanied children. Before Congress on July 29, 2014, Ryan said, “We have carefully peer-reviewed the intakes of 925 children so far, and our assessment is that 63 percent of these 925 children are likely to be found eligible for relief by a U.S. Immigration Judge.”

Many of the unaccompanied children detained had arrived with addresses and contact information for extended relatives in the United States. “Following interviews by HHS, most of the kids who arrived at Fort Sill had already been identified as probably having a family with whom they could potentially be reunited,” said Klinge.

After meeting with pro bono attorneys and volunteers at Fort Sill, being advised of their rights and the legal road ahead of them, most children were processed to families or foster homes, and some without identifiable families were sent to other shelters. “Children knew where they were going when they left Fort Sill,” said Klinge, “and many had a notice to appear before a court. They had instructions in hand as to how to seek legal help once they reached their destination.” According to Klinge, after Fort Sill, unaccompanied children went to all of the 50 States.

Klinge says most of the children have faced removal proceedings in a US immigration court, depending on where they were sent. These children have often been eligible for immigration options, including Special Immigrant Juvenile Status (SIJS) and Asylum, which, if approved, would allow them to remain in the United States.

According to the US Citizenship and Immigration Services of the Department of Homeland Security, the purpose of the SIJS “is to help foreign children in the United States who have been abused, abandoned, or neglected.” A child must be under 21 to be eligible, unmarried, and meet other requirements. A child who cannot be reunited with a parent may be eligible to get a green card and can live and work permanently in the United States.

However, gaining SIJS status is not necessarily easy for eligible unaccompanied children with few resources. “Although Catholic Charities offers free or low cost legal services to some unaccompanied children, they are still required to retain a private attorney who can obtain the necessary guardianship or domestic orders in State Courts and they must pay the State Court filing fees, which can often be difficult for these children,” Klinge says.

Asylum applicants must show a well-founded fear of persecution based on race, religion, nationality, political opinion or social group membership. Obtaining Asylum is one of the most time and fact intensive legal services provided by Catholic Charities, according to Klinge. Although Catholic Charities offers free legal service for some unaccompanied children seeking Asylum status, country condition and/or mental health experts must still be retained to testify, the cost of which can easily exceed $2,000.00. Most unaccompanied children obviously cannot afford such expenses without other assistance.

For Catholic Charities and the volunteer attorneys, paralegals, and other supporters, the personal reward for pro bono assistance provided to children in desperate need is immeasurable. “We knew that we had been privileged to serve the legal needs of hundreds of children who were on their own thousands of miles from home; but we also realized that each of them still faced an unknown future as they left Fort Sill and became enmeshed in out immigration legal system,” said Klinge.

HSS asked several children at Fort Sill, “Que es su meta?” (“What is your dream?”) Klinge said, “One of the best accolades our team received from these children in response to that question was, “Quiero ser un abogado para ayudar a mi familia.” (“I want to be a lawyer so I can help my family.”) “It was an experience that had a profound personal impact on each member of our legal team.”