Show Notes
In this episode, Angela, Jim and John discuss the way immigration policies and enforcement are harming children. We reference the following quote by Nelson Mandela as we discuss these issues: "There can be no keener revelation of a society's soul than the way in which it treats its children." As mentioned in the episode, we want to offer a way for you to reach out to members of Congress. Here are two options to locate your Representatives and Senators: Official: https://www.congress.gov/members/find-your-member
More User Friendly: https://democracy.io/#!/
Below is a template you can use to write to members of Congress. It is designed for children’s attorneys, but if you have found this podcast and are in a different field, feel free to adapt it to suit your background. Dear Representative/Senator (insert name)
I am a constituent of yours and a children’s attorney who practices in your district. I am writing concerning the aggressive enforcement of immigration policies and its impact on children. While reasonable people can disagree on immigration policy, I am writing with a very simple request. Whatever we do, can we please take care not to harm or traumatize children? Our government should not harm a single child - whether here through legal means or not.
As a children’s attorney, I am well versed in the adverse impact of trauma on young children. Subjecting thousands of children to an environment where they live in fear of losing one or both parents to detention or sudden deportation, or of being detained themselves in substandard conditions, will have dire consequences for us as a society. Childhood trauma creates lifelong challenges, and we will pay this bill eventually. And to the extent children themselves are detained, I have serious concerns about detention conditions and their negative impact on child health and well-being.
The administration’s aggressive enforcement of immigration policy seems designed to strike fear in the hearts of immigrants whether undocumented or going through the legal process. The problem is it seems as if the administration has forgotten that the children are watching. And it’s not just immigrant children being harmed. American children are also watching this play out in real time, and it is harming them as well.
When children’s attorneys are faced with a domestic violence case, one of the first things we point out to the parents is that the violence occurred while their children were in the room watching. I am asking you to remember that the children are in the room. We need to be the adults in the room and put our children first. Thank you for listening and taking action to protect our children.
More from The Children's Law Podcast
In this episode, Angela talks with Dr. Frank W. Putnam, author of Old Before Their Time: A Scientific Life Investigating How Maltreatment Harms Children and the Adults They Become. Dr. Putnam is a child and adolescent psychiatrist and an authority on the lifetime effects of childhood maltreatment. He is co-founder, with the late Dr. Penelope Trickett, of the Female Growth and Development Study (FGDS), an ongoing 35+ year, multigenerational study of the enduring biopsychosocial effects of childhood sexual abuse on female development. This episode highlights key points from the book and actions children's lawyers can take to help their clients, particularly those who have been sexually abused. For more on Dr. Putnam and the book, visit his website. To learn more about the iCare training, visit https://www.icarecollaborative.org/ For the National Child Traumatic Stress Network, visit https://www.nctsn.org/
In this episode, Angela talks with Tim Keller of the Center for the Rights of Abused Children about asserting constitutional rights on behalf of your clients. You won't want to miss this discussion! For more information about the Center for Abused Children: Center for the Rights of Abused Children We discussed this free resource to jumpstart your practice: A Practice Manual for Lawyers Representing Abused and Neglected Children; Asserting, Arguing, and Appealing the Constitutional Rights of Children in Foster Care
In this episode, John, Jim and Angela discuss the transformative power of filing claims on behalf of your clients. We discuss your duty as a children's lawyer and the specific benefits to your clients. If you have questions or suggested podcast topics, you can reach us by email ([email protected]). If you like the podcast, please share with your colleagues, subscribe and rate the show!
In this episode, John and Angela take on the difficult topic of creating and holding boundaries with child clients. Filled with nuance and contradictions, the topic of boundaries is challenging for many children's lawyers. We hope you enjoy the discussion! Feel free to reach out with comments or episode ideas to Angela, at [email protected].
Preventive and pre-petition advocacy is not in all jurisdictions, but when the Title IV-E rule clarified that this representation was eligible for reimbursement, expansion increased. Angela asks Emilie Cook to explain how it works. Emilie is a Senior Attorney at the Barton Child Law and Policy Center at Emory University School of Law and leads the Preventive Legal Advocacy and Pre-petition Program National Cohort to focus on early intervention and holistic support for at-risk families. The Barton Center has a PLA/PP Cohort that anyone can join to learn more, and here is a link to a fact sheet developed with the National Association of Counsel for Children. We hope you learned something new and valuable, and if you did, please rate and share the podcast!