Attorneys worry for asylum-seeking kids at last-minute hearing in Kansas City immigration court

KANSAS CITY, Mo. — A young boy with autism played with brightly colored sensory toys Thursday morning in the Kansas City Immigration Court, his wide grin standing out in a room full of grim expressions. 

The boy sat shoulder-to-shoulder with attorneys and other unaccompanied minors called unexpectedly into court by a Chicago judge with little time to understand what was happening. 

Attorney Kirby Tyrrell, an associate professor at Washburn Law School who represents clients pro bono, sat with the 13-year-old boy she represents, apprehensive about what the hearing might mean. 

“We were in court a few weeks ago, and everything went normal, and we were scheduled out for an appearance in March,” she said before the hearing. “Then last Thursday, I received a notice that the case had suddenly been transferred to an immigration judge based out of Chicago, and that we had a new hearing a week later.”

Tyrrell spoke to other immigration attorneys in the area and found out others had received the same notice, fast-tracking client dates to appear. The departure from typical processes concerned the attorneys and their young clients.

Immigration attorney Aly Englander, with Asylum Clinic Kansas City, said there has been an “indisputable” targeted effort to increase child deportations recently across the country. 

“The reason, in my opinion, is children are easier to deport,” she said. “They need to keep up their numbers.”

Englander referred to quotas set on U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents regarding how many immigrants must be arrested. CNN reported earlier this month that the ICE quota for daily arrests had ramped up to 9,000. 

“These kids need time to access the benefits that Congress established for them,” Englander said.

A lawsuit filed Oct. 15 challenges the Trump administration on denying due process to unaccompanied minors. 

“A coalition of immigration advocates and legal aid providers say the administration has ignored federal law to create a ‘deportation assembly line’ for unaccompanied children and undocumented minors,” The Appeal reported. 

Chicago Judge

Their apprehension turned out to be unnecessary in the short term, as Chicago Judge Shawn Abraham mostly delayed the morning’s cases for another hearing in two weeks. He apologized to the attorneys several times throughout the proceeding that he couldn’t sign any orders or access the Kansas City docket to look at the files. 

Abraham, a former ICE attorney, was appointed as an immigration judge and began hearing cases in May, according to the Executive Office for Immigration Review.  

The unexpected reassignment of cases to Abraham’s docket led Englander to search online for more information. She found numerous articles about Abraham deporting six children who had pending immigration cases in Chicago, adding to her concerns that the Thursday hearing might end or delay her clients’ hopes to stay in the United States.

Tyrrell, Englander and other attorneys were worried ICE agents might be waiting for their clients outside the courtroom, as they can’t arrest immigrants at their court hearings. 

One young girl in a bright red sweater had been told she might be deported and came prepared to leave her family, Englander said. 

“It has been nonstop chaos,” she said. “Kids’ hearings have been advanced and then canceled and then advanced again.”

It makes it difficult for attorneys to prepare cases and represent them “in the way they deserve,” Englander said. 

“The emotional roller coaster that this puts them on is so unfair, especially when we don’t know why these specific kids were just pulled out of the Kansas City docket and put with this judge in Chicago,” she added. 

The uncertainty in the system is frustrating and adds to the trauma of children who are in the country through no fault of their own, she said after the hearing. Englander’s been working in the immigration system for five years, and many of the processes once considered “normal” have been changed. 

Englander represented five cases Thursday, including two girls she told the judge were “despondent” and scheduled for their asylum interviews, which would be “very, very difficult” because of the traumas they had to relive to make their case for asylum. 

She asked if they could appear next time virtually, as it was less stressful for them. Abraham agreed, as he did for most cases. Englander said they were told they had to be in court in person on Thursday, so she was relieved the judge was allowing virtual interviews in two weeks.  

The process

Unaccompanied minors can apply to stay in the United States through the Special Immigrant Juvenile Status program, and most of the children at the Thursday hearing have pending applications. 

“Congress created Special Immigrant Juvenile Status for the purpose of these kids who have been abused, abandoned, and neglected getting a green card,” Englander said. “In the past, judges have understood that and given them the time that they need to be able to apply for this green card that they are entitled to.”

In April, the Trump administration rescinded the policy that let judges defer children for deportation based on pending applications for Special Immigrant Juvenile Status.

The problem is that the United States approves only a certain number of green cards, so there’s a wait list for approval for those cards, Englander said. With deferred status off the table, the children are approved for the program but not able to actually get their green cards. That means they can be deported, she said. 

If the child is deported and not in the United States when the opportunity comes for them to get their green card — which is determined by a priority date that holds their place in line — then they no longer qualify for the green card, Englander said. 

Madelyn Cox-Guerra, attorney at Asylum Project Kansas City, said the child she represented Thursday was just a single judicial decision away from getting his green card. 

He needed the judge to terminate deportation proceedings because he has appropriately completed everything regarding the case and his place in line is ready for him to apply for a green card, she said. That can’t happen until the judge terminates the case, Cox-Guerra said. 

But Abraham continued the case for another two weeks. 

“I could apply for my client as soon as today, just getting all the documents ready,” she said. “And we’re not able to move forward until our hearing in November, and we could only hope that it’s going to get terminated, and we’ll have enough time (to apply for the green card).”

Englander wasn’t surprised. 

“There’s a lot of pressure from the top down to not give kids more time, not to terminate cases, not to administratively close cases,” Englander said.