Ahilan T. Arulanantham

Arulanantham is in the thick of the current move by the Obama administration to rush juvenile migrants through the immigration system as he litigates a class action seeking a right to counsel for kids at risk of expulsion.

"The government pays for trained prosecutors to advocate for the deportation of every child and it's patently unfair to the children to have to defend themselves without represenatation," he said.

The case, J.E.F.M. v. Holder, 14-1026, was filed July 9 in the Western District of Washington in the name of eight children aged 10 to 17 and others similarly situated. Arulanantham said there are thousands of kids in the class. A hearing over a preliminary injunction and class certification is set for Sept. 3 in Seattle.

Arulanantham is coming off recent success in a somewhat similar effort. In 2013 he helped persuade U.S. District Judge Dolly M. Gee of Los Angeles to rule that immigrant detainees with mental disabilities must be appointed legal representation by the government.

That case, Franco-Gonzalez v. Holder, 10-2211 (C.D. Cal., filed March 2010), is still active but Gee's permanent injunction remains in place. It led federal officials to announce they would supply lawyers to detainees with mental disabilities nationwide.

Arulanantham said the immigrant rights cases reinforce his view that in a post-9/11 world the government has unfairly linked migrants to national security.

"The government has taken the position that it can't release women with small children from the detention center in Texas because their connection to the smugglers they paid to bring them here poses a national security threat," he said. "That notion is pretextual and absurd."

<< JOHN ROEMER