Oakland approves $577,000 to help Central American child migrants

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1 Contra Costa Times Oakland approves $577,000 to help Central American child migrants By Matt O'Brien POSTED: 10/22/ :24:38 AM PDT0 COMMENTS UPDATED: 8 DAYS AGO 1/5 Erick, 5, left, and his sister Ashlin, 3, no last names given, are photographed at the Oakland City Hall after the City Council held a meeting to provide free legal aid to Central American child migrants in Oakland,

2 Calif., on Tuesday, Oct. 14, (Ray Chavez/Bay Area News Group) A girl among a couple dozens of Central American child migrants who fled their country's violence last summer, look around during an Oakland City Council meeting at the City Hall in Oakland, Calif., on Tuesday, Oct. 14, (Ray Chavez/Bay Area News Group)

3 East Bay Sanctuary Covenant staff attorney Jean Yamasaki, on podium, speaks on behalf of Suyapa, second from right, her niece Ashlin, 3, and nephew Erick, 5, no last names given, as councilman Noel Gallo, left, and Oakland Mayor Jean Quan look on during a City Council meeting to provide free legal...

4 Central American child migrants who fled their country's violence last summer, look around during an Oakland City Council meeting at the City Hall in Oakland, Calif., on Tuesday, Oct. 14, (Ray Chavez/Bay Area News Group) See additional gallery images here.

5 Oakland City Councilmembers Rebecca Kaplan, left, Patricia Kernighan and Libby Schaaf listen to staff of East Bay Sanctuary Covenant during a council meeting at the City Hall in Oakland, Calif., on Tuesday, Oct. 14, (Ray Chavez/Bay Area News Group) OAKLAND -- Child migrants seeking refuge in the Bay Area after fleeing Central American violence got a boost from the Oakland City Council on Tuesday night when it voted unanimously to offer them $577,000 in legal aid. The money will pay for lawyers to defend hundreds of children and teenagers from being deported to Guatemala, El Salvador and Honduras. They include a 3-year-old Honduran girl and her 5-year-old brother who crossed into the United States in June and appeared at a crowded and emotionally charged City Hall hearing last week.

6 "It really is a life-and-death situation," Mayor Jean Quan told City Council members at last week's Finance Committee meeting, where the measure also passed unanimously. Central American child migrants who fled their country's violence last summer, look around during an Oakland City Council meeting at the City Hall in Oakland, Calif., on Tuesday, Oct. 14, The City Council's $577,000 plan will provide free legal aid to recently arrived teen and children. (Ray Chavez/Bay Area News Group) ( RAY CHAVEZ ) Quan co-sponsored the legal aid ordinance with Councilmen Noel Gallo and Larry Reid after a coalition of community organizations asked the city and Alameda County for help. Oakland is the third U.S. city after San Francisco and New York City to pay for lawyers to defend the children. California has also committed $3 million statewide and the federal government is paying $9 million to subsidize legal defense in the cities with the largest concentrations of child migrants, including Los Angeles. Unlike in criminal courts, immigrants facing deportation have no right to a lawyer, and studies have shown that they are far more likely to be deported without an attorney representing them. Oakland's $577,000 award will go to one fiscal sponsor, Centro Legal de la Raza, a nonprofit organization based in East Oakland that has been inundated in recent months with recently arrived children and their families seeking political asylum or other forms of permanent U.S. protection. Centro Legal will use some of the money for its own lawyers and distribute the rest to other legal aid groups helping the children. More than 300 unaccompanied teenagers and children from El Salvador, Honduras and Guatemala have landed in Alameda County since January, most of them in Oakland, according to federal statistics that show the group as the largest in California after the more than 2,400 who came to Los Angeles County this year. Most have been placed with immediate and distant family members in Oakland and Hayward, which already have large Central American immigrant communities. The surge in

7 child migrants corresponds with rising gang violence and extortion in their home cities in Central America. "I just came from Guatemala to save my life," said a 16-year-old named Johan, who was among many teenagers who testified at last week's meeting that they were threatened by gangs. "If I return to my country, death awaits me." He did not identify his last name for safety reasons. "They've suffered abuse, they've suffered rape, torture," said Bianca Sierra Wolff, executive director of Centro Legal de la Raza. If they are not defended by lawyers, "they will be deported and they will die." Three-year-old Ashlin and brother Erick, 5, whose last names also were not divulged for safety reasons, crossed the border into Texas in June with their father, who was immediately deported back to Honduras. The federal government released the siblings in August to their aunt in San Leandro. "Without an attorney, how could these children possibly fare" before an immigration judge, asked Jean Yamasaki, an attorney at the Berkeley-based East Bay Sanctuary Covenant. Part of their case will involve showing a local probate court that their parents are not caring for them, allowing them to qualify for Special Immigrant Juveniles Status, which grants permanent residency to abandoned or abused children, Yamasaki said. One federal immigration judge who has hundreds of deportation cases on her San Francisco docket said the moves by Oakland and San Francisco are a big help. Having an attorney represent an immigrant makes a "tremendous difference" in navigating a case through the overburdened legal system and reaching a timely and fair conclusion on whether someone deserves political asylum or other forms of U.S. protection, Judge Dana Leigh Marks said. At the San Francisco federal immigration court where Bay Area cases are decided, the influx of children has led administrators to transform a courtroom into a waiting room with donated toys and books for kids who must appear before a judge. "There has never been funding from the government, certainly not in such large amounts, to provide legal services, or even subsidize programs," said Marks, who is also president of the National Association of Immigration Judges. "It's an outstanding first step. It's historic; it's never happened before."

8 Alameda County is also contemplating awarding as much as $2.5 million over two years to provide mental health counseling and other social services to the children who have experienced trauma and isolation.