Federal courts, already fielding a deluge of requests to free adults from immigration jails, are now hearing pleas from a more vulnerable population: migrant children detained by immigration authorities without their parents.
Unaccompanied kids are experiencing ballooning timelines in Health and Human Services custody while the Trump administration tightens sponsor vetting. That’s prompted an uptick in these court challenges, known as habeas petitions. Previously rare for children, more than a dozen have been filed over the past year, lawyers said.
“They’re already so vulnerable, and now the government is subjecting them to prolonged detention,” Galveston-Houston Immigrant Representation Project managing attorney …