New Bill Proposed to Help Immigrant Children attain Legal Aid

Over 52,000 immigrant children have entered the United States without documentation and most times without parents this year alone. Since the U.S. law does not allow the federal government to simply deport all of these children immediately upon arrival, they are taken to federal shelters where they await to be seen by and immigration judge to plead there case.Sadly, most of these children are poorly educated and do not understand our complex immigration system without the help of an attorney but have no money or means to be able to attain one.

A group of House Democrats has taken issue with this and proposed a new bill that would help these children receive legal guidance. The bill is called the Vulnerable Immigrant Voice Act or VIVA for short and is designed to provide legal representation to children and the disabled who cross into the US without documentation.While it remains to be seen if the bill will gin any traction in Congress, the cost is why some Democrats are pushing passage of the VIVA act, claiming it will get immigrant kids out of shelters quicker and save taxpayers money in the long run.

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