Chicago Immigration Court: Protecting Children's Due Process Rights
A parent in Chicago opens an envelope and finds a hearing notice for their child at 525 W. Van Buren Street. No lawyer is lined up. The notice is in English, the hearing date is weeks away, and nobody at the courthouse is required to explain what any of it means. That gap — between what a child's case requires and what actually happens in the courtroom — is exactly what U.S. Senator Richard Durbin and U.S. Representative Mike Quigley flagged when they raised concerns about due process failures affecting children at the Chicago Immigration Court, according to a statement from the National Immigrant Justice Center (immigrantjustice.org). If your family has a hearing coming up, the next 30 days matter more than anything else in the case.
U.S. Senator Richard Durbin and Representative Mike Quigley have raised concerns about due process failures affecting children at Chicago's Immigration Court, per a National Immigrant Justice Center statement. Families facing a child's removal hearing should request a legal screening immediately, confirm the hearing date and courtroom, and ask the judge for a continuance to secure counsel.
The Hard Truth
Children do not get a government-paid lawyer in immigration court. Removal proceedings under INA § 240 / 8 U.S.C. § 1229a are civil, not criminal, and federal courts — including the litigation in J.E.F.M. v. Lynch, 837 F.3d 1026 (9th Cir. 2016) — have not forced the government to appoint counsel for minors. TRAC Immigration at Syracuse University, which has tracked representation rates in immigration courts for more than a decade, reports that nationally somewhere between one-third and one-half of unaccompanied children have gone through court without an attorney in recent years, with gaps often worse in high-volume courts (trac.syr.edu). A nine-year-old is expected to answer the same questions as an adult respondent unless an attorney, a relative, or an advocate intervenes before the hearing. That's the system Durbin and Quigley are describing — it is not an isolated complaint about one judge having a bad day.
What Happens If You Wait
Missing a hearing at 525 W. Van Buren doesn't pause the case — it usually ends it against the child. An immigration judge can enter an in absentia removal order the same day, and reopening that order later requires a motion filed within 180 days for "exceptional circumstances," or at any time only if notice was never properly given (INA § 240(b)(5)(C), 8 U.S.C. § 1229a(b)(5)(C)). For children pursuing Special Immigrant Juvenile Status, the clock runs separately and permanently: SIJS petitions must be filed before the child turns 21 under 8 U.S.C. § 1101(a)(27)(J), and a Cook County juvenile or family court predicate order often has to be in place first. Delay a state court filing by a few months during a custody or guardianship backlog, and a sixteen-year-old can age out of eligibility before the federal petition is ever submitted. Appeals carry their own hard stop too — a final order denying relief has to be appealed to the Board of Immigration Appeals within 30 days (8 C.F.R. § 1003.38(b)).
Step-by-Step Process
1. Notice to Appear (NTA) is filed. The case lands on the Chicago Immigration Court's Juvenile (JV) docket, which follows the separate procedures for children set out in the EOIR Immigration Court Practice Manual, Chapter 4. 2. Get a legal screening before the first hearing. Organizations including the National Immigrant Justice Center's Children's Protection Project (224 S. Michigan Avenue), the Illinois Coalition for Immigrant and Refugee Rights (55 E. Jackson Boulevard), and Legal Aid Chicago's Immigrants' Rights Project (120 S. LaSalle Street) screen cases for free; private firms, including our removal defense team, handle screenings on a fee basis with direct control over scheduling. 3. Master calendar hearing. The judge confirms whether the child has counsel and can grant a continuance to find an attorney — request this on the record, don't assume it's automatic. 4. File any underlying petitions early. For SIJS cases, that means a predicate order from a Cook County juvenile or family court before the Form I-360 goes to the USCIS Chicago Field Office (101 W. Congress Parkway). 5. Individual (merits) hearing. Testimony and evidence are presented; this is usually scheduled months out given the Chicago docket's backlog. 6. Decision and appeal window. A denial starts a 30-day clock to appeal to the BIA. 7. If a hearing was missed. File a motion to reopen immediately — don't wait to see if ICE acts on the order first.
A Real-World Example
Consider a composite, anonymized example based on patterns common to the Chicago JV docket: a 15-year-old from Guatemala, released to an aunt in Cook County after crossing the border, is placed on the juvenile docket with a first master calendar hearing set about six weeks out. At intake, a legal screening through a nonprofit referral flags possible eligibility for Special Immigrant Juvenile Status because of abandonment by one parent. At the first hearing, the judge confirms she has no attorney yet and grants a continuance; a second continuance follows two months later while the family works through Cook County family court to get a guardianship order — the required predicate finding before any SIJS petition can go to USCIS. By the time the individual hearing is finally scheduled, the family has filed the I-360 petition and is waiting on a receipt notice. The case is still open at that point, moving through the ordinary sequence of filings and court dates — this illustrates the process, not a result, and no particular outcome should be assumed from it.
William J. Vasquez is the founder of Vasquez Law Firm, PLLC, and has focused his practice on immigration and removal defense matters for more than 20 years. He is admitted to practice law in North Carolina and, under 8 C.F.R. § 1292.1, can represent clients before the Board of Immigration Appeals nationwide regardless of state bar location, since BIA practice does not require circuit-specific admission. He is a member of the American Immigration Lawyers Association (AILA). Our firm's federal circuit court appellate work is limited to the circuits where our attorneys hold confirmed bar admission; we do not currently file petitions for review in circuits outside that list, though we are working to expand that admission over time.
Key Terms Explained
JV Docket — the Juvenile docket track at EOIR courts, including Chicago's, that applies modified scheduling and screening procedures to children's removal cases (EOIR Practice Manual, Ch. 4). Notice to Appear (NTA) — the charging document that starts removal proceedings under INA § 239. Master Calendar Hearing — a short, preliminary hearing where the judge sets scheduling, confirms representation status, and takes pleadings. Individual (Merits) Hearing — the full hearing where evidence and testimony are presented before a decision. In Absentia Order — a removal order entered when a respondent fails to appear, per 8 U.S.C. § 1229a(b)(5). Motion to Reopen — a filing asking the court to reverse an in absentia order, generally due within 180 days absent a notice defect. Special Immigrant Juvenile Status (SIJS) — a path to a green card for certain children who cannot reunify with one or both parents, under 8 U.S.C. § 1101(a)(27)(J). Continuance — a postponement of a scheduled hearing, often requested to locate counsel. BIA — the Board of Immigration Appeals, the administrative appellate body for EOIR decisions (bia appeals). EOIR — the Executive Office for Immigration Review, the Department of Justice agency that runs immigration courts, including the one at 525 W. Van Buren Street.
Frequently Asked Questions
Q: Can a child get a free attorney for Chicago Immigration Court? A: There's no court-appointed attorney right in immigration proceedings, but unaccompanied children in Chicago can request a free screening through the National Immigrant Justice Center's Children's Protection Project, the Illinois Coalition for Immigrant and Refugee Rights, or Legal Aid Chicago's Immigrants' Rights Project; availability depends on case volume and funding at the time of the request.
Q: What happens if a child misses their Chicago Immigration Court hearing? A: The judge can issue an in absentia removal order the same day under 8 U.S.C. § 1229a(b)(5); reopening it requires a motion filed within 180 days for exceptional circumstances, or at any time if the required notice was never properly served.
Q: How much does it cost to hire an attorney for a child's removal case instead of using a nonprofit? A: Nonprofits like NIJC handle qualifying cases at no cost through grant funding, while private firms charge flat or hourly fees set case-by-case depending on whether the matter involves SIJS, asylum, or BIA appellate work; ask for a written fee agreement before signing anything.
Q: Can a motion to reopen be filed after an in absentia removal order in a child's case? A: Yes — file it as soon as possible with evidence addressing why the hearing was missed or why notice was defective; waiting until ICE takes enforcement action on the order makes the motion harder to win and can limit available relief.
Q: Does a Chicago Immigration Court continuance guarantee the child will get a lawyer in time? A: No. A continuance only buys time; the family still has to use that window to complete a legal screening and retain counsel, because judges on the JV docket are not required to grant repeated continuances indefinitely.
Clients who have worked with our firm on removal defense and juvenile immigration matters consistently point to direct, plain-language communication about where a case stands and what filing is due next — reflected in reviews aggregated on Google and Avvo. We don't publish outcome statistics or win rates; immigration cases turn on facts specific to each child, each judge, and each docket, and any firm quoting a success percentage is quoting a number that doesn't predict your case.
If your family has a hearing date on the Chicago Immigration Court's JV docket, or if a notice already went unanswered, the filing windows above — 30 days for an appeal, 180 days for most motions to reopen, age 21 for SIJS eligibility — don't pause for anyone to catch up later.
Vasquez Law Firm, PLLC handles removal defense, Special Immigrant Juvenile Status petitions, and Board of Immigration Appeals filings for families with cases in the Chicago Immigration Court and beyond. Schedule a consultation with our team to review your child's hearing date, confirm what's already been filed, and map out the next deadline before it passes.
- /practice-areas/removal-defense
- /practice-areas/special-immigrant-juvenile-status
- /practice-areas/bia-appeals
- /resources/nonprofit-legal-aid-directory
- /contact/schedule-consultation