{"id":51,"date":"2018-02-01T18:05:13","date_gmt":"2018-02-01T23:05:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.law.georgetown.edu\/immigration-law-journal\/?page_id=51"},"modified":"2025-05-12T11:10:21","modified_gmt":"2025-05-12T15:10:21","slug":"current-developments-in-the-legislative-branch-the-fair-day-in-court-for-kids-act-a-necessary-but-unlikely-step-to-increase-representation-in-immigration-proceedings","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/www.law.georgetown.edu\/immigration-law-journal\/in-print\/volume-31-issue-3-spring-2017\/current-developments-in-the-legislative-branch-the-fair-day-in-court-for-kids-act-a-necessary-but-unlikely-step-to-increase-representation-in-immigration-proceedings\/","title":{"rendered":"Current Developments in the Legislative Branch: The Fair Day in Court for Kids Act: A Necessary but Unlikely Step to Increase Representation in Immigration Proceedings"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>In both the 114th and 115th Congresses, Representatives and Senators have introduced versions of the \u201cFair Day in Court for Kids Act\u201d<sup>1<\/sup> to address the shortfalls in immigrant representation during removal proceedings. These shortfalls are exacerbated by the influx of unaccompanied alien children (\u201cunaccompanied children\u201d) from Honduras, El Salvador, and Guatemala (\u201cNorthern Triangle countries\u201d).<sup>2<\/sup> Federal law does not currently recognize a right to counsel in immigration proceedings. Therefore, unaccompanied children who cannot find or afford an attorney have to plead their own case in immigration court.<sup>3<\/sup> Senate Bill 2540 \u201cThe Fair Day in Court for Kids Act\u201d seeks to address the barriers to understanding and presenting possible defenses to removal caused by the complexity,<sup>4<\/sup> and the frequent presence of a language barrier during those proceedings.<\/p>\n<p>The Act seeks to address these barriers by granting a right to an attorney for unaccompanied children, who often face significant challenges retaining one.<sup>5<\/sup> The Act requires representation in immigration proceedings for unaccompanied children by mandating the Attorney General to appoint counsel to these children at the government\u2019s expense, if necessary.<sup>6<\/sup> Research indicates having an attorney increases the chances of staying in the U.S. dramatically.<sup>7<\/sup> Congresswoman Zoe Lofgren introduced the most recent version of the bill in the House of Representatives on April 6th, 2017.<sup>8<\/sup><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>In both the 114th and 115th Congresses, Representatives and Senators have introduced versions of the \u201cFair Day in Court for Kids Act\u201d1 to address the shortfalls in immigrant representation during [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":28,"featured_media":0,"parent":61,"menu_order":8,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"abstract.php","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_price":"","_stock":"","_tribe_ticket_header":"","_tribe_default_ticket_provider":"","_tribe_ticket_capacity":"0","_ticket_start_date":"","_ticket_end_date":"","_tribe_ticket_show_description":"","_tribe_ticket_show_not_going":false,"_tribe_ticket_use_global_stock":"","_tribe_ticket_global_stock_level":"","_global_stock_mode":"","_global_stock_cap":"","_tribe_rsvp_for_event":"","_tribe_ticket_going_count":"","_tribe_ticket_not_going_count":"","_tribe_tickets_list":"[]","_tribe_ticket_has_attendee_info_fields":false,"footnotes":"","_tec_slr_enabled":"","_tec_slr_layout":""},"class_list":["post-51","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"acf":[],"ticketed":false,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.law.georgetown.edu\/immigration-law-journal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/51","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.law.georgetown.edu\/immigration-law-journal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.law.georgetown.edu\/immigration-law-journal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.law.georgetown.edu\/immigration-law-journal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/28"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.law.georgetown.edu\/immigration-law-journal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=51"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.law.georgetown.edu\/immigration-law-journal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/51\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1177,"href":"https:\/\/www.law.georgetown.edu\/immigration-law-journal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/51\/revisions\/1177"}],"up":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.law.georgetown.edu\/immigration-law-journal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/61"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.law.georgetown.edu\/immigration-law-journal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=51"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}