Senior US immigration judge says 3 and 4 year olds can represent themselves in court

[Papasan]

He has a higher reading level than all the KKK-GOP 2016 candidates put together.

[Trent_Baker]

Save money?! How about you just not force children to front the damn court in the first place and everyone wins!

[Max_Blancke]

I have been trying to understand the complex issues of immigration, and have one particular question- I have been hearing that kids younger than 10 have been traveling unaccompanied to the US from Central and South America. My wife says that “unaccompanied” in this situation means that they are not traveling with a parent, but could be traveling with siblings or extended family members. I do not know if she is correct, but her explanation makes more sense than the idea of a four year old girl catching trains and hiking through the deserts and jungles from Guatemala or wherever completely on their own initiative. Does anyone have a good explanation?

[FunkDaddy]

3-4 year olds caught in the system have generally been separated from whatever caregiver they had if any. 3-4 year olds are not common. But otherwise, yes, children younger than ten have been migrating, of their own volition, fleeing dire situations in Central America.

[anon47741163]

The thing to understand about immigration and money, is that this function of government is the very first thing to get cut whenever there’s a budget shortfall. Unlike any other department, Immigration doesn’t have a voting constituency to complain when services are cut, so it’s a “safe” way to save money. Decades of neglect have left the department a hollow shell, but John Q Public hasn’t noticed.

[leehb9]

Ok, it’s time to put this guy ‘out to pasture’…get him the hell away from anything having to do with kids!!!

[kupfernigk]

Well, at least we have the answer to excessive legal costs. If three year olds can understand immigration law, we have an untapped resource of preschool children who can be used to provide counsel and judges, and who will work for peanuts. Or ice cream.
But it is nice to have a judge admit what many of us have long suspected, that the expensive tuition fees and bar membership and the big book collections are there to conceal the fact that law is simple. I await the deregulation of the profession with interest.

[jerwin]

i’m led to understand that immigration hearings are assembly line processes designed to give legal credence to deportation orders. And there’s a largish, loud constituency that would prefer that the veneer of due process remain as thin as possible so that the machinery can expidite removal, not hinder it.