ICS Board Member Wins Due Process Victory for Unaccompanied Children

ICS Board Member Gilbert Paul Carrasco and a team of lawyers from across the country are defending the constitutional due process rights of unaccompanied children against the U.S. Department of Homeland Security.

This vital work began more than 40 years ago. In 1985, a federal court ordered the U.S. Government to provide unaccompanied children with basic procedural safeguards to prevent their unlawful removal from the United States. As a result of this order, unaccompanied children continue to receive written notice of the right to a hearing in immigration court and access to a telephone to call a responsible adult or lawyer. Then serving as the Directing Attorney of what would become the National Immigration Law Center (NILC), Carrasco was the lead counsel in the case, which yielded a permanent injunction known as Perez-Funez v. Immigration and Naturalization Service.

In the decades since, Perez-Funez has remained a fundamental pillar of due process rights for some of the most vulnerable immigrants. Each year, thousands of children fleeing poverty, war, gangs, or abusive family relationships enter the United States unaccompanied by an adult or separated from their parents or legal guardians. Their journeys are hazardous and their youth makes them especially vulnerable to becoming victims of human trafficking, exploitation, and abuse. Without legal representation from organizations like ICS, 9-in-10 unaccompanied children are deported to dangerous or even deadly conditions. Perez-Funez has ensured that the government follows fair legal procedures when determining the future of these children.

In December 2025, the Trump Administration filed a motion asking the federal court to terminate this court order. They argued that new laws make the court order unnecessary and promised to give children a different written notice that, according to them, better explains their legal options. But a notice created by the Trump Administration threatens children with prolonged detention if they seek a hearing with an Immigration Judge or even express fear of returning to their home country.

Carrasco—along with the NILC, Public Counsel, and the law firms Quinn Emanuel Sullivan Urquhart & Sullivan, and Cohen Millstein Sellers & Toll—defended the court order in a hearing in February. On April 6, a U.S. District Court in California ruled in favor of maintaining the Perez-Funez permanent injunction and denied the U.S. Department of Homeland Security’s motion. This judgment underscores the rights of unaccompanied children and upholds the basic protections they have been entitled to for decades.

Unaccompanied: Alone in America by Linda Freedman shares the stories of the thousands of children who flee poverty, war, gangs, or abusive family relationships each year and enter the U.S. separated from their parents or legal guardians.