In shelters across New York, migrant children sit in front of computer and TV screens, appearing virtually in real court proceedings. They swivel in chairs, walk in circles and play with their hair — while immigration judges address them on the screens in front of them.
“The reason we’re here is because the government of the United States wants you to leave the United States,” Judge Ubaid ul-Haq, presiding from a courtroom on Varick Street, told a group of about a dozen children on a recent morning on Webex.
“It’s my job to figure out if you have to leave,” ul-Haq continued. “It’s also my job to figure out if you should stay.”
The parties included a 7-year-old boy, wearing a shirt emblazoned with a pizza cartoon, who spun a toy windmill while the judge spoke. There was an 8-year-old girl and her 4-year-old sister, in a tie-dye shirt, who squeezed a pink plushy toy and stuffed it into her sleeve. None of the children were accompanied by parents or attorneys, only shelter workers who helped them log on to the hearing.
If you are any part of this, of running very young children through legal proceedings without them having the benefit of an attorney, then know this: You are not only helping to run a machine of evil, you are not ony participaing in evil, you are evil.
And if you can sleep at night, know this: Your soul is damned.
Were they even represented?
ReplyDeleteEck!
The kids? No, they weren’t. A four-year old, appearing in court, alone.
DeleteThat is not due process.
ReplyDeleteEck!