Precarious Protections

Unaccompanied Minors Seeking Asylum in the United States

Chiara Galli

• Publisher: University of California Press
• Year: 2023
• Print ISBN:
  9780520391918
• Edition: 1
• eBook ISBN:
  9780520391925
• Topic: Social Sciences
• Subtopic: Immigration Law
• Index: Social Sciences

More children than ever are crossing international borders alone to seek asylum worldwide. In the past decade, over a half million children have fled from Central America to the United States, seeking safety and a chance to continue lives halted by violence. Yet upon their arrival, they fail to find the protection that our laws promise, based on the broadly shared belief that children should be safeguarded. A meticulously researched ethnography, Precarious Protections chronicles the experiences and perspectives of Central American unaccompanied minors and their immigration attorneys as they pursue applications for refugee status in the US asylum process. Chiara Galli debunks assumptions about asylum, including the idea that people are being denied protection because they file bogus claims. In practice, the United States interprets asylum law far more narrowly than what is necessary to recognize real-world experiences of escape from life-threatening violence. This is especially true for children from Central America. Galli reveals the formidable challenges of lawyering with children and exposes the human toll of the US immigration bureaucracy.

Table of contents

• Subvention
• Title Page
• Copyright
• Contents
• List of Illustrations
• Acknowledgments
• 1. Exclusion and Protection in US Immigration Law and Policy
• 2. Central American Youths Escape from Violence
• 3. Enter the Bureaucratic Maze: The Legal Socialization of Unaccompanied Minors Begins
• 4. Access to Legal Representation: Representing Eligible Youths or Choosing the “Compelling” Case
• 5. Lawyering with Unaccompanied Minors: Helping Youths Apply for Asylum and Protections for Abandoned, Abused, or Neglected Children
• 6. Coming of Age under the Gaze of the State
• 7. Beyond Precarious Protections: Lessons for Humane Immigration Reform
• Methods Appendix
• Notes
• References
• Index