The Obama administration is turning to a community service program to try to provide legal help to children who have crossed the border without a parent or guardian and later face deportation proceedings.
On Friday, the administration said it would try to enroll 100 lawyers and paralegals into AmeriCorps to provide the legal services. They also would help to identify children who have been abused or victims of human trafficking and assist in prosecuting perpetrators, the Department of Justice said in a statement.
Tens of thousands of children have been crossing the nation’s southern border without a parent or adult, swamping select Border Patrol processing stations on the U.S.-Mexico border. Their numbers have forced the administration to open at least two emergency shelters and the president declared the situation a “humanitarian crisis.”
