Louisiana charity offers aid for influx of child immigrants in legal limbo

SHAUNA SANFORD, LOUISIANA PUBLIC BROADCASTING:

Here in the capitol city of Baton Rouge, Catholic Charities Diocese has mobilized to help a few thousand children who crossed the Southwestern U.S. border and end up in Louisiana.

DAVID AGUILLARD, CATHOLIC CHARIRIES DIOCESE:

I think that the children and their families are just caught in a power struggle between Republicans and Democrats competing over the Hispanic vote. It makes me want to do something about it.

SHAUNA SANFORD:

David Aguillard is the executive director of the diocese.

Is it a moral obligation?

DAVID AGUILLARD:

We have a particular gospel mission to reach out based on our Christian beliefs, our Christian values. And we want to do that within the confines of the law.

SHAUNA SANFORD:

In response, the diocese has established the Louisiana Esperanza project.

DAVID AGUILLARD:

Unlike other court systems and legal processes in our country when a person's life is at stake like in criminal court there is a right to a public defender. For these children there is a right to access the system but there is not a right of being supplied legal representation.

SHAUNA SANFORD:

The program, funded to the tune of about $1 million per year, provides attorneys and other legal assistance to the children and their families for free or at a reduced cost.

But it's very slow going. There aren't enough attorneys to represent all of the children whose cases have to be heard in federal immigration court. And that court has been without a judge for months now, so the only time cases can be heard is when an immigration judge comes to Louisiana from another state. But some prominent politicians don't believe the children should be in Louisiana in the first place.

Louisiana's Republican governor Bobby Jindal has blasted the Obama Administration for the recent influx calling it a failure to secure the U.S. border. Like Jindal, some Louisiana lawmakers also believe that the children should be sent back to their home countries.

VALERIE HODGES, LOUISIANA REPRESENTATIVE:

We have our own problems to deal with here with poverty and these kinds of issues. It's incumbent on those governments to take care of their citizens.

DAVID AGUILLARD:

Our country has recognized and has passed laws to protect children from Central America who flee here because of the violence and because of the situations in their home countries.

SHAUNA SANFORD:

In keeping with its gospel mission, the diocese says it will keep working to resolve the children's cases.