A document signed by a five year old, agreeing to be deported

This is illegal and unconstitutional. It is so bad that this is state sponsored child kidnapping.

A child can not consent to anything in a legal document. Perhaps they are taking advantage of people not knowing this.

It seems pretty unavoidably brutal, to be an unaccompanied minor who might not have a right to be in the country. It's obviously terrible to have 5 year olds make these kind of decisions, but would it be better if the government made them without asking?

Other direction - in 1997 Bill Clinton was deporting people without process which is where this body of law came from. The standard practice was that children with adults would get a bond hearing (because adults could represent themselves and their children) but unaccompanied children were being deported OR they pretty much became permanent residents of the detention system.

Then in 2017, they left limbo and have the right to be heard in a court: https://www.ilrc.org/sites/default/files/resources/flores_v....

So... is a five year old expected to deal with their legal process? Yes, and they're appointed council to help with that, which is way better than where we were 20 years ago.

Sorry for the confusion; I agree deportation policies are brutal, but I didn't see a reason why this particular item was just now mentioned on the site, since this has been going on for a while.

At the time of my comment this was on page 2 from the home page, there were no comments, and no background info. I was hoping for a link to a news story on what made this relevant. As it was, there was no reason the title was accurate. Given disinformation campaigns, I thought it was valid to ask.

Based upon another comment I understand why someone decided to share this.

America: like a tacky Los Angeles club where rich people and celebrities waltz in with half-naked women without reservations, while families dodging American-made cluster bombs and drone strikes huddle at the back of the line 10,000 miles away for years only to be told their paperwork isn't good enough and they're from a country that's now banned because of new religious purity tests, but here's a coloring book as a consolation prize. England turning away a boat of Jews in 1939 was an act of cowardice and evil, but diffusely, there are many more instances of this recently that pale in comparison. All I hope is that history looks down on the savagery, unkindness and inhumanity perpetrated on poor people all over the world with equal disdain, shame and disrespect for the pain, death and misery corporate-led military-industrial complex adventurism hath wrought. Solidarity now and forever, or divided we fall.

Thank you! I pulled up the site again and am still not sure where the link to that is, so I appreciate the link. :)