LAST WEEK, AMERICAN news outlets broadcast an image of a three-year-old boy, identified only as Mateo, sitting alone at a giant wooden desk as he looked upwards, presumably at the judge addressing him. His expression was one of bewilderment, and no wonder.

Mateo was one of 25 unaccompanied children who appeared before an immigration judge in a Harlingen, Texas courtroom that day. He wasn’t even the youngest.

The judge was asking Mateo whether he would agree to voluntarily self-deport or whether he should issue an order authorising ICE officials to deport the three-year-old.

The same scene played out more than two dozen times that day in a courtroom in Texas as children aged between two and 13 years appeared before the same judge and were asked the same question before he perfunctorily rubber-stamped their ongoing journey of terror.

Mateo was one of the luckier ones. He, at least, had a lawyer (who appeared via Zoom for about one and a half minutes), and a caseworker, both of whom were attempting to make his case for being allowed to remain in the United States.

Alamy Stock Photo Alamy Stock Photo

Because immigration violations are regarded as civil not criminal matters, there is no obligation to provide legal assistance to adults or children who find themselves in immigration court. Each of step in the asylum process generates a maze of legal documents for children and adults, whether they are seeking asylum status, challenging a deportation order or filing an appeal. All of them must be completed in English.

Angel, a 13-year-old boy who had fled violence and almost certain gang conscription in Honduras was not so lucky. He told the judge it was ‘too dangerous’ to go back. His response was to immediately rule that Angel didn’t qualify for asylum. “Would you like to request voluntary departure, or should I issue a removal order?” he asked the child, in a grim reminder of the old joke about whether you’d rather die by bullet or poison.

Angel replied he didn’t know and told the court through tears; “I have no one. I have nothing.”

The judge, whose........

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