UN experts flag child rights violations in US immigration procedures
United Nations-appointed independent human rights experts have raised serious concerns over violations of children’s rights in United States immigration procedures, nearly a year after federal funding for legal representation for unaccompanied migrant children was terminated.
The concerns were raised by experts appointed by the UN Human Rights Council, including Siobhán Mullally, Special Rapporteur on trafficking in persons, especially women and children; Gehad Madi, Special Rapporteur on the human rights of migrants; and Margaret Satterthwaite, Special Rapporteur on the independence of judges and lawyers.
Thousands of unaccompanied children remain in federal custody without access to legal counsel, a situation experts warn is forcing minors to navigate complex immigration proceedings alone and undermining their fundamental rights.
Under the 2008 Trafficking Victims Protection Reauthorization Act (TVPRA), the US Office of Refugee Resettlement (ORR) is responsible for the care and custody of unaccompanied children.
The law requires the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) to protect children from mistreatment, exploitation and trafficking in persons. It also guarantees that unaccompanied children in federal custody have access to legal counsel and should not be subjected to expedited removal, or deportation without a court hearing.
However, the experts noted that on 18 February 2025, the US Department of the Interior ordered nonprofit legal service providers to halt work and ended federal funding for attorneys representing unaccompanied children, effectively suspending the Unaccompanied Children Program.
Although the decision has been challenged in US courts, many of the 26,000 affected children lost access to legal representation and remain at risk of forced removal, despite being eligible for legal relief.
“Denying children their rights to legal representation and forcing them to navigate complex immigration proceedings without legal counsel is a serious violation of the rights of children,” the experts said.
Reports received by the experts indicate that children are being held in windowless cells, denied adequate medical care and separated from parents or caregivers for extended periods.
Between January and August 2025, the average duration of custody increased from approximately one month to six months, while releases to family caregivers dropped sharply from around 95 per cent to 45 per cent.
“There have been consistent accounts of unlawful deportations of unaccompanied children, in breach of the obligation of non-refoulement, including for child victims of trafficking, and children at risk of trafficking in persons,” the experts said.
According to the experts, children have reportedly been pressured to either accept a $2,500 cash payment to self-deport, thereby relinquishing protections guaranteed under the TVPRA, or face indefinite detention and transfer to US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) custody upon turning 18.
“Child-sensitive justice procedures should be guaranteed in all immigration and asylum proceedings affecting children,” the experts noted, stressing that children must have access to administrative and judicial remedies against decisions affecting their own situation or that of their parents or caregivers.
They also demanded that measures be taken to avoid undue procedural delays that could negatively affect children’s rights.
“Expedited proceedings should only be pursued when they are consistent with the child’s best interests and without restricting any due process guarantees,” they emphasised.
Notably, the report comes on the same day that videos showed dozens of immigrant families protesting outside a detention facility in the US state of Texas, where a five-year-old Ecuadorian boy was reportedly taken along with his father after their detention in Minnesota last week.
Aerial photographs published by the Associated Press showed children and parents at the South Texas Family Residential Center in Dilley wearing jackets and sweaters, some holding signs reading ‘Libertad para los niños’ (‘Freedom for the children’).
Families were also heard chanting "Libertad" and "Let us go," according to immigration attorney Eric Lee, who was at the facility to visit a client.
he detention of five-year-old Liam Conejo Ramos and his father, Adrian Alexander Conejo Arias, has become a flashpoint in the growing political and social debate over immigration policy in the United States.”
