Kids Treated as Adults in Immigration Court

In 1961, my parents made the heart-wrenching decision to send my brother and me from Cuba to the US without them. We were lucky to eventually reunite, but the trauma of that time has never left me. That's why I joined the Kids in Need of Defense (KIND) Leadership Council, and recently visited the Houston immigration court to see the system from a child's perspective.

The experience immediately transported me back to the fear, confusion, and longing of my ten-year-old self.

The current system is not child-friendly. In court, children struggled to understand the judge, and those with parents looked to them for reassurance. As an adult, even I found the proceedings overwhelming.

We need a bipartisan approach to immigration that puts children's safety first. A bipartisan bill, the Immigration Court Efficiency and Children's Court Act, aims to do this by establishing a Children's Court, with specially trained judges and procedures that ensure children understand and participate in their proceedings. It would also ease the burden on an already overstretched system, with its backlog of over three million cases.

Immigration policy and politics are complicated and difficult. However, recognizing our shared value of protecting children is simple.

My journey to the US gave me the opportunity to live the American dream. All children deserve that chance, and we can help make it a reality by reforming the system.

Jorge Bermudez is president and CEO of the Byebrook Group and the former Chief Risk Officer of Citigroup/Citibank. He migrated to the US without his parents from Cuba as a child and lives in Austin.