Professor Cooper Comments on Teen Migrant Detention for NPR

In a story for NPR’s Morning Edition, Professor Holly Cooper ‘98 discusses how the U.S. government detains teen migrants fleeing severe gang violence in their home countries. Professor Cooper is co-director of the UC Davis School of Law Immigration Law Clinic and an expert in immigrant detention policies.

According to the story, almost 32,000 minors fled north last year from El Salvador, Honduras and Guatemala without their parents and were picked up at the U.S.-Mexico border. The story goes on to say that the U.S. Office of Refugee Resettlement releases most of these minors to family or shelters across the country while they wait for their cases to be heard in immigration court. But about 200 per year are deemed dangerous and put into detention, sometimes for years.

“Children don't see an end to the detention in sight,” Cooper said. “So just retelling your story is traumatic. Then being in a cell is traumatic. Not knowing the end date of when you're going to be released I think really weighs heavy on the children.”

Holly Cooper is a Lecturer and serves as staff attorney at the UC Davis Immigration Law Clinic. Her areas of specialty include immigration law and detained immigrants' rights.