Professor Cooper speaks to AP about new rules for parents of detained migrant children

Professor Holly Cooper spoke to the Associated Press about new, more stringent Trump administration rules that are delaying or preventing some parents from retrieving detained migrant children from government custody.

The children to whom the story refers were not separated from their families at the border, but entered the United States without a parent and were deemed unaccompanied minors. Parents living in the United States are allowed to take custody only after they and all members of the household where the child will reside are fingerprinted. Those fingerprints are shared with Immigration and Customs Enforcement.

Deportation fears among parents and other family members are preventing some reunions, the AP reported. Cooper told the new service that the sharing of all fingerprints with immigration authorities in such cases is new. Previously, fingerprints would be shared with ICE only if a fingerprint match showed a potential sponsor had a serious criminal record.

Holly S. Cooper ’98, co-director of the Immigration Law Clinic, has extensive litigation experience defending the rights of immigrants and is a nationally recognized expert on immigration detention issues and on the immigration consequences of criminal convictions.