The surge of unaccompanied minors entering the United States this year has propelled law professors Hiroko Kusuda and Ramona Fernandez to take action.

Kusuda and Fernandez, head of the Immigration Clinic and Children’s Rights Clinic at Loyola’s College of Law, have teamed up to provide these young newcomers with legal services.

“My youngest client is two,” Kusuda said.

Under current U.S. immigration law, these children have no legal right to a lawyer.

“Children are treated the same as adult people, so we thought it was a very difficult journey ahead because they don’t speak the language. They don’t know immigration law,” Kusuda said.

Kusuda and Fernandez, have about 25 law students working under their supervision. They are able to serve about 40 clients, but the need is far greater.

Unaccompanied minors are five times as likely to be allowed to stay in the US if they have a lawyer than if they do not, according to data from the transactional records clearing house of Syracuse University.

Louisiana is one of the most affected states, due to an increase in unaccompanied minors coming into the United States. In New Orleans, there are an estimated 1,400 unaccompanied minors who have entered the city this year.

The majority of unaccompanied minors in New Orleans are teenagers from Honduras, Guatemala and El Salvador.

Kathleen Gaseperion, A’95 and immigration lawyer at the Metairie law firm Ware-Gasperion, said that these children are coming into the United States because they need refuge.

“They’re the most vulnerable of our population, and they’re the most vulnerable of the populations of where they’re coming from,” Gasperion said.

Gasperion is a part of the community response to the recent influx of unaccompanied minors that includes the Loyola Law Clinics, Loyola’s interpretation program and Tulane University’s Global Social Work program.

“I think about what it would take for either me to leave my child behind or for me to send my child away and how bad things must be to get to that kind of place,” Gasperion said. “I would hope that somebody would be there on the other end to catch her, and I think that’s our responsibility.”

Sabrina Hernandez, biology senior and project leader for Loyola Immigration Advocacy, said the journey ahead for these children is long and marked by legal processes, learning a new language and integrating into a new society.

“We have an obligation to advocate for their rights and make them feel welcome in a community that immigrants rebuilt,” Hernandez said.