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47 Conn. L. Rev. Online 1 (2014)

handle is hein.journals/conntemp47 and id is 1 raw text is: CONNECTICUT LAW REVIEW VOLUME 47 ONuNE SEPTEMBER 2014 Essay Getting Kids Out of Harm's Way: The United States' Obligation to Operationalize the Best Interest of the Child Principle for Unaccompanied Minors ERIN B. CORCORAN The government estimates that by the end of the fiscal year over 70,000 unaccompanied children will enter the United States. According to the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees fifty-eight percent of these children will have been forcibly displaced and will be potentially in need of international protection. The only protections for these children are discrete and narrow forms of immigration relief Such relief depends on whether someone such as an attorney identifies the available relief and assists the child with the application process. Yet, children are not entitled to government-funded counsel and must proceed before an immigration judge alone. For other children there is no available immigration relief- but they have witnessed unspeakable horrors and have been the victims of violence and abuse, yet there is no answer to their calls for help. They are not simply migrants crossing international borders; they are emblematic of an international humanitarian crisis rapidly unfolding in Central America. The current crisis on the border has underscored the profound structural deficiencies in our federal agencies that cause them to fail to meet the needs of unaccompanied immigrant children-as children. This Essay contributes to the ongoing discussion on how to best handle the surge of unaccompanied minors crossing the southern border this summer. Specifically, this Essay argues that the United States must provide a solution that both keeps the children in need of international protection out of harm's way, and is grounded in international human rights law and practice. The best interest of the child principle must be operationalized in all U.S. government responses for children through a congressionally created interagency Child Protection Corps. Further, U.S. immigration protections need to be flexible enough to create an avenue for a child to remain in this country, if it is not in the best interest for the child to return to his or her home country. Specifically, the Department of Homeland Security should consider exercising its administrative prerogatives such as prosecutorial discretion and humanitarian parole to provide children in need of protection with a safe haven.

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