WASHINGTON (AP) – Attorney General Eric Holder is arguing publicly in favor of legal representation for migrant children arriving unaccompanied at the border – even as his department takes the opposite position in court.
Holder said Friday in a speech to the Hispanic National Bar Association that, “Though these children may not have a constitutional right to a lawyer, we have policy reasons and a moral obligation to insure the presence of counsel.”
Yet last week, Deputy Assistant Attorney General Leon Fresco appeared before a federal judge in Seattle to argue that providing legal representation for immigrant children facing deportation could create open borders and send the message that no one here illegally would be removed.
“It would create a magnet effect,” Fresco said in court.
That argument before U.S. District Judge Thomas S. Zilly came in a lawsuit brought by a coalition of immigrant advocates on behalf of a group of migrant children. A ruling is pending.