Process Right: Children and Government

process right: The plaintiffs said many of the thousands of children the government seeks to deport each year appear before judges without a lawyer because they can't afford one or find one to take their cases for free, according to Metro News. The result is an unfair process that pits children with no ability to navigate complex legal issues against seasoned government attorneys, the groups say. The judges rejected a claim by the American Civil Liberties Union and immigrant groups that children have a constitutional due process right to a free attorney.A system already exists to give the children a fair hearing, and requiring the government to provide free attorneys would be an expense that would strain an already overextended immigration system, a three-judge panel of the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals said. Ahilan Arulanantham, legal director at the ACLU of Southern California, said the group had not decided its next step. The 9th Circuit considered a case filed by a 13-year-old boy identified only as C.J. who fled Honduras with his mother after facing death threats, including a gun to his head, when he refused to join a gang. The statistical evidence, which the court acknowledged, is that children are many, many times more likely to win their cases if they have legal representation, he said. (www.immigrantscanada.com). As reported in the news.