L.A. Times Quotes Professor Cooper on Children Facing Deportation Without Counsel

Professor Holly Cooper spoke to the Los Angeles Times for a March 31 story that went inside a West Los Angeles immigration courtroom to explore the struggles of unaccompanied children who lack the right to court-appointed attorneys for deportation proceedings.

“People are always shocked to see what it looks like for children to navigate a labyrinthine legal system by themselves,” Cooper told the Times. Co-director of the Immigration Law Clinic, Cooper has represented unaccompanied children for 27 years.

The children often have no idea what is happening in the courtroom, Cooper said. Only about 56% of children in pending cases have representation, the Times noted. Their prospects dimmed further in March, when the Trump administration ended a contract that funded lawyers representing roughly 26,000 children (a federal judge later temporarily restored the contract).

Professor Holly S. Cooper has extensive litigation experience defending the rights of immigrants and is a nationally recognized expert on immigration detention issues and on the immigration consequences of criminal convictions.