Refugee Status, Pro Bono Lawyers, & Regional Coordination Among Recommendations from Norton Meeting with Latino Leaders

July 8, 2014

WASHINGTON, D.C. – Congresswoman Eleanor Holmes Norton (D-DC) said that the meeting today with her District of Columbia Congressional Latino Council (CLC) and other D.C. Latino leaders produced several important recommendations that the District and the region should take into account, considering the large proportion of residents from Central American countries from which children are fleeing – El Salvador, Guatemala, and Honduras. The District, Rhode Island and Los Angeles have the three largest Central American populations in the United States, including close to 60,000 living in the District. The leaders at today's meeting recommended:

Granting "refugee status" as opposed to "undocumented immigrant status," reinforced by the United Nations (UN) today, allowing certain legal and humanitarian services to be afforded to the children;
No change in current law that would send the children, many under age 10, back to the collapsed states where their safety would be jeopardized;
Providing the children and their relatives with the legal counsel they need to navigate a confusing system, including pro bono counsel; and,
A regional response from D.C. and the surrounding counties, including a statement by chief executives and Members of Congress that they will work collaboratively on this issue.

"We are anticipating that D.C. and the region will be significantly affected in the search for adults who may be related to these children," Norton said. "Because our city's Latino population is primarily Salvadorian, Honduran, and Guatemalan, a fair number of children will have relatives in D.C. We cannot return these children to collapsed states being run by transnational gangs and drug cartels. This is not an immigration crisis; it is a refugee crisis, as the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees made clear today."

The District has a comprehensive network of nonprofit organizations that have long offered services ranging from housing to health care. Present at today's meeting were La Clinica del Pueblo, Latin American Youth Center (LAYC), Central American Resource Center (CARCEN), and Latino Economic Development Center. Representatives from D.C.'s Office of Latino Affairs and Mary House, a community-based organization that provides transitional housing services, shelter and support programs to low-income and homeless families throughout the D.C. area, also attended today's meeting.

The meeting was in response to the growing number of unaccompanied minors from Central America fleeing chaos from transnational street gangs, drug cartels, and other violence. On June 30, President Obama recognized this surge as a humanitarian crisis and urged Congress to pass comprehensive immigration reform. This week, the Administration has called upon Congress for almost $4 billion for immigration judges, detention facilities, and funds to care for the children, but has said that many of these children will be returned to the countries from which they have fled. However, it is doubtful that, after considering the response of the UN today and following the required individual hearings, the children can simply be returned to countries where violent criminals have all but taken control.