An immigration judge recently testified under oath that 3 and 4-year-old migrant children can learn immigration law well enough to represent themselves in deportation proceedings, thereby saving citizens the costs of assuring that they are assigned taxpayer-funded attorneys.

Senior Justice Department official Jack H. Weil, who as part of his responsibilities is also entrusted with training other judges, recently made the assertion during federal court proceedings in Seattle.

"I've taught immigration law literally to 3-year-olds and 4-year-olds," Weil said. "It takes a lot of time. It takes a lot of patience. They get it. It's not the most efficient, but it can be done."

Testimony Blasted by Other Authorities

Legal and child psychology experts immediately ridiculed Weil's assertions as preposterous, arguing that children that age typically find the task of simply learning to cooperate with other children daunting enough.

"I nearly fell off my chair when I read that deposition," said Laurence Steinberg, a psychology professor at Temple University, who is a witness for the plaintiffs in the Seattle case. "Three- and 4-year-olds do not yet have logical reasoning abilities. It's preposterous, frankly, to think they could be taught enough about immigration law to be able to represent themselves in court."

Weil's testimony came in a case where the American Civil Liberties Union and immigrant rights groups are both demanding that the government be required to provide legal representation for every indigent child who cannot afford a lawyer in immigration court proceedings.

The Justice Department is contesting suit, and Weil has since insisted the statements attributed to him don't "present an accurate assessment of my views on this topic" and were being "taken out of context."

ACLU officials don't appear moved. "This is the person in charge of training immigration judges about how to treat children? And this is the witness the government puts forward to present their views as to how this is supposed to happen?" said ACLU deputy legal director of Southern California Ahilan Arulanantham, the attorney who questioned Weil under oath. "That is horrifying."

Justice Department figures reveal of the more than 20,000 unaccompanied children involved in deportation proceedings over an 18-month period beginning in July of 2014, 42 percent of them had no attorney.

Harry Reid Proposes new Legislation Mandating Legal Representation for Children

Senate Minority Leader Harry M. Reid (D-Nev.) and other Democrats recently introduced legislation stipulating that government-appointed counsel be afforded to all children in immigration court who had crossed the border alone or are victims of other duress such as abuse, torture or violence.

In many of the cases, the children facing the charges can't speak English and are left to rely on the assistance of government-provided interpreters for the proceedings to even move forward.

Related