Fourteenth International Conference on Interdisciplinary Social Sciences

Abstract

For decades, immigrants’ rights groups and lawyers-turned-activists have advocated in both the judicial and legislative arenas to protect the best interests of children in detention. Despite their efforts to halt unnecessary child detention, the rates continue to increase. Through examining the role of lawyers as advocates, I plan to answer the following: why have policy protections for the best interests of unaccompanied minors increased the scope and forms of child detention practices? To answer this question, I conduct an analysis of three key policies intended to protect children—Flores Settlement (1997), Homeland Security Act (2002), and Trafficking Victims Protection Reauthorization Act (2008)—and compare it to data on child detention, illustrating the unintended relationship between increasing policy protections and intensifying detention.