This Note focuses on an Advisory Opinion issued by the InterAmerican Court of Human Rights (“the Court”) regarding the rights and guarantees of migrant children and their need for international protection. The Advisory Opinion provides a framework of analysis for judging the effectiveness of the United States’ approach to the 2014 humanitarian crisis, when the United States apprehended over 56,000 unaccompanied minors from Mexico and Central America. This Note compares the Court’s findings regarding the basic conditions for places to accommodate migrant children and the children’s guarantees of due process to the United States’ actual response to the crisis.
This comparison demonstrates that the United States has failed to adapt its immigration laws and policies to comply with standards for the international rights of children according to the Advisory Opinion. Though the United States has not ratified the American Convention nor accepted the Court’s contentious jurisdiction, the Court’s Advisory Opinion on this matter is useful for creating a proper framework for addressing the unaccompanied migrant children crisis because there is no current legal framework in the United States, and a great number of children from the Northern Triangle, a region in Central America encompassing El Salvador, Guatemala and Honduras, are migrating to the United States.
