Immigration Law Facts

Immigration Law: Children as Applicants and Coercive Family Planning

In immigration law, the Asylum Office Director must tell the headquarters if there are cases of a child under the age of 18 applying for asylum as a principal. The child has not received consent from a parent or a legal guardian to do s. The HQSAM and the USCIS Office of Chief Counsel then provides specific guidance on how this case will proceed. This is based, however, on the circumstances of every child.

Special guidelines have been developed by the INS Office of International Affairs that accommodates specifically these minors with asylum claim who wish to gain the status independently, instead of being dependents.

Asylum Office Personnel must also familiarize themselves with the guidelines in connection to the guidance of the AO Conducts Asylum Interview on raining materials included in the Guidelines for Children’s Asylum Claims. This allows the interviewer to follow the certain protocol, as dictated by the immigration law, when it involves cases such as these.

As for cases of coercive family planning, it is stated in the immigration law since September 1996 that the Illegal Immigration Reform and Responsibility Act or the IIRIRA has been amended for the clear definition that includes people who were persecuted and have well-founded fear on the persecution of forced abortion or involuntary sterilization.

To remedy this, IIRIRA placed a cap on the number of individuals who were admitted as refugees. These include those who were survivors of refugee camps. Therefore, the cases wherein the applicant’s basis of claim if the Coercive Family Planning, the same manner is done to those with the asylum cases.

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