Non-citizen Youth in the Juvenile Justice System: Analytical Essay

The topic that I chose for my final paper is Non-citizen Youth in the Juvenile Justice System. The reason why I chose this topic is because we are currently in a generation where racism and hate is still very much alive and we live in a generation that is tackling the issue with un-documentation in a very bad way. Splitting families up, losing undocumented youth and keeping them in detention facilities with unbearable in humane conditions. The primary goals of the juvenile justice system, is to maintain public safety, increase skill development in the youth, habilitation and rehabilitation, addressing treatment needs, and successful reintegration of youth into the community. The Juvenile Justice System recognizes that youth possess different needs than adults. Due to an unresolved tension between federal and state law, there is no guarantee that the values of the juvenile justice system will apply to the one million undocumented youths currently living in the country in the same way they apply to citizen juveniles.

Research shows that juveniles have underdeveloped brains and their brain will continue developing usually until the age of twenty five, because of this youth at times have difficulty rationalizing decisions and weighing out consequences. It is important that these issues are addressed because of the implications this has on not only the juveniles but the community around them. We want the best for our youth because they are our future but what about the youth that weren’t born on US soil. How about the youth who are DREAMERS and are full of ambitious and goals in life but ended up on the short end of the stick.

Non-Citizen youths who at many times have been in the country since infant face everyday fears different from youths who are citizens. In fact non-citizen youths who are in the Juvenile Justice system are at an increased risk of arrest, detention and deportation by ICE (Immigration customs enforcement). Around eleven million people are living in the United States without proper documentation and more than five million children in the United States currently live with at least one parent living in the country without legal documents. The everyday threat of deportation of noncitizen parents or other family members of both noncitizen and U.S. citizen youth alike causes high levels of anxiety in young people and threatens the stability of their families.

Even though it is not required, many jurisdictions report suspected noncitizen juveniles to ICE, the way they go through making this report is juvenile justice facilities obtain immigration information during intake or booking and share it with ICE. Notifying ICE at this stage of the process violates the youth s due process rights since the youth may be innocent of the crime they’re being charged with. Once the report is made it doesn’t matter if the youth is innocent or not. What Immigration Customs Enforcement only see’s is another uncommented youth and opportunity to deport another “Illegal Alien”, so they’ll go after the youth and his family. This can have a great impact on the future of that youth leading him/her to a possible life of crime. With a mentality of “If the system wants to get rid of me then why obey the system”.

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ICE agents are allowed access to youth in facilities, in person or by phone. If ICE identifies a youth as being removable from the United States they will put an immigration hold or detainer a notice generated by the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) on the youth. An immigration hold or detainer requires that the youth be turned over to ICE if the youth is granted release by the juvenile court. ICE has 48 hours to take the child into custody upon release. Some juvenile justice personnel report youth whom they suspect of not having legal immigration status to immigration authorities and permit ICE officials to enter juvenile facilities to interview suspect youth. Even departments and staff that would prefer to stay out of immigration enforcement sometimes believe they are legally obligated to cooperate with federal immigration officials to facilitate apprehension of juveniles suspected of violating immigration laws.

A juvenile’s record includes all paper and electronic records from the outset of the case through all proceedings. The record can include charging documents and police reports victim statements and also witnesses, fingerprints DNA samples court-ordered evaluation and personal information about the child’s family, education, social history, and behavioral/mental health history and information about any prior history with the law. An example of an individual youth who was affected by this is the story of Alex. Alex was a fourteen year old boy who had his life immeasurably altered. Alex lived in Orange County California, but was born in Mexico to an adolescent seventeen year old mother who fled to the United States to escape her physically abusive boyfriend whose abuse nearly made her miscarry.

The American Dream is the ideal image that everyone wants to live in the United States but for Alex and his mother they endured two more abusive relationships, and they ultimately found themselves in a homeless shelter. As a consequence of this traumatizing and abusive childhood, Alex began being a delinquent out in school. In 2012, he was placed in a juvenile detention facility for taking a pocket knife to school, although he said he never threatened anyone with the knife it didn’t matter. The knife was tucked into Alex’s waistband, and was spotted by another student only as they were undressing for their Physical Education class. He was charged with felony possession of a weapon on school grounds and misdemeanor brandishing of a deadly weapon.

Although the felony was reduced to a misdemeanor, he was ordered to serve sixty days of electronic home confinement and community service. When Alex violated the terms of his probation, he was sent back to juvenile detention. For a U.S. citizen, violation of probation presumably would result in either receiving a contempt charge, having probation revoked, or being placed in a secure facility. Alex, on the other hand, was reported directly to the federal immigration authorities by the Orange County Probation Department per the department’s long standing practice of notifying ICE of suspected illegal juveniles. Two ICE officials arrived at the Orange County detention center and interrogated Alex, asking him where he was born and whether he was a U.S. citizen. Alex handcuffed and alone without his mother or an attorney present answered the questions, not realizing his right to remain silent. He was then taken into federal custody. His mother had no idea where he had been taken, could not find him, and was hesitant to try since any contact with immigration authorities could lead to her own deportation. Juvenile delinquency court systems often rely on evidence of family support before diverting youth from further court processing and receiving an adjudication of delinquency. However, families of immigrant youth may fear involvement with court matters because of problems with their status.