This case under the Freedom of Information Act seeks to expose the U.S. government’s practice of depriving unaccompanied immigrant children of legal protections from deportation and imprisonment in adult detention centers by destroying their birth certificates, coercing false confessions of adulthood, and falsifying age records through racially biased, pseudo-scientific forensic tests.

Unaccompanied children who arrive to the United States are entitled to certain legal protections by virtue of the fact that they are children. Under the Trafficking Victims Protection Reauthorization Act, they must be placed in the care of the Office of Refugee Resettlement where they receive classroom education, mental health and medical health services, case management, and socialization and recreation. They must also be given an opportunity to appear before an immigration judge to seek protection from deportation.

But to receive these legal protections, an unaccompanied child must first be determined to be a child by immigration officials. And between 2015 and 2020, a federal watchdog agency received more than 100 complaints of age determination abuses by immigration officials. In 2023, RFK Human Rights filed suit to free a a child imprisoned in a Louisiana detention center after the government had threatened to put him in jail permanently unless he signed a false confession of adulthood. It claimed that his bone size showed he was over 18, using pseudo-scientific forensics that have long been discredited as racially biased.

This case seeks records from the government that would expose the widespread nature of these abusive practices, giving human rights defenders more tools to push for legislative reform.

What is the legal argument in this case?

The Freedom of Information Act mandates that the government turn over public records to requestors within 20 days of a request. But when those records expose corruption or wrongdoing, the government often refuses to comply with the law, forcing requestors to file suit in federal court to seek production of public records.

What is the status of this case?

Pending before the district court.

May 22, 2025

January 27, 2025