At its most recent meeting on Tuesday, June 19, 2018,
the Council of the Boston Bar Association (BBA) voted unanimously to endorse a
June 12, 2018, letter from Hilarie Bass, President of the American Bar
Association (ABA), to U.S. Attorney General Jeff Sessions and U.S. Secretary of
Homeland Security Kirstjen Nielsen expressing strong opposition to recent
actions taken by the U.S. Department of Justice and U.S. Department of Homeland
Security resulting in “a drastic increase in the separation of children from
their parents when arriving at the southern border.”
BBA President Mark
D. Smith said, “What’s happening right now on our border is difficult for us to
witness—not only as lawyers who care about due process and access to justice,
but also as human beings. As we learn more about how we as lawyers can
offer assistance in addressing what has become a humanitarian crisis, we will
pass information on to our members.”
The letter notes that existing law
suggests that the intentional practice of family separation “violates rights to
family integrity and due process,” and that the Trump Administration’s “zero
tolerance” policy appears “particularly unfair, inhumane, and, in the end,
ineffective.” The letter goes on to highlight legal precedents whose
findings run counter to the practice of family and child separation.
Further, citing case law and medical expertise, the letter establishes that
“enforcement actions cannot be used as justification to affect intentional
family separation,” and that “separating families is detrimental to children’s
well-being, burdens the immigration court process, and increases costs to the
government.”
The letter concludes that “the systemic practice of
separating parents and children is antithetical to our values as a country,
appears to violate longstanding precedent protecting rights to family integrity,
burdens the federal criminal justice and immigration adjudication systems, and
increases costs to the government,” before urging these federal departments to
rescind its “zero tolerance” policy and refrain from criminally prosecuting
those who are seeking asylum in the United States.
The full ABA letter can be read online here.
In February 2017, the BBA Council voted to endorse ABA Resolution 301 and
its accompanying report. This resolution expressed ABA support for “the
preservation and development of laws, regulations, policies, and procedures that
protect or increase due process and other safeguards for immigrant and
asylum-seeking children.” The resolution also specifically urged Congress
and the Administration to take a number of actions, such as maintaining the
current statutory definition of “unaccompanied alien child,” ensuring children
are held in custody for the shortest period possible, and increasing the annual
number of Special Immigrant Juvenile (SIJ) visas allotted, among other
things. Lastly, the ABA urged governments at all levels to “expand efforts
to provide legal information and legal representation for unaccompanied
immigrant and asylum-seeking children in removal proceedings.”
The BBA also expressed concern to
Congress in December 2015 about proposals to target inhabitants of Iraq and
Syria for disparate treatment as part of the federal refugee-admission
process. Further, we have for years contributed to efforts at the
state-level, through both legislation and litigation, to assist SIJ’s in
applying for protected status, based on abuse, abandonment, and
neglect.