[Media Note: Vanderbilt has a 24/7 TV and radio studio. The studio is free for Vanderbilt experts, other than reserving fiber time. More information »]

Proposed child migrant policy would overturn 31-year-old rule for humane treatment of immigrant children, says Vanderbilt immigration law professor

Watch a video interview with Prof. McKanders 

Immigration law expert Karla McKanders, clinical professor of law at Vanderbilt Law School, is available to explain changes to immigration and border enforcement policy recently proposed by the Trump administration, particularly as they relate to child migrants.

The administration’s family separation policy proposal in its proposed  regulations would overturn the standards for detaining child migrants set forth in the 1997 Flores Settlement Agreement, says McKanders. The terms of that agreement require that children be held no longer than 20 days while their claim is adjudicated—after that, they must be released to a parent, guardian or other caregiver.

Additionally, McKanders says, it’s important to recognize that most families in detention are asylum seekers, not so-called “criminal aliens.” She can explain the legal process families and children go through once they cross the borders, such as the “credible fear” interview that all asylum seekers must undergo.

McKanders has spent her professional life focused on researching and practicing immigrant and refugee law, and she is the director of Vanderbilt’s Immigration Practice Clinic, where students do pro bono work with refugees. Her scholarship focuses on immigration federalism and international systems for processing refugees.