RRD Immigration Attorney, Mandi Bucceroni, Interviewed for Special Report on Migrant Children

Mandi Bucceroni, Of Counsel in Reger Rizzo & Darnall’s Immigration Practice Group, was featured in a PBS special report focusing on one of Ms. Bucceroni’s cases, which involves two minors who were separated from their mother. 

The report, entitled How Schools Are Responding to Migrant Children, focuses on the tens of thousands of child migrants from Central America and how they are faring in public schools across the United States as they await their final fates in immigration proceedings. 

The report states that many educators are working to support them, but the intensity of their needs can be a strain on a class and school's resources. Many feel a mix of emotions - worry, empathy, and frustration – when thinking of the negative, sometimes hateful, rhetoric surrounding the unprecedented flow of immigrant families across the southern border.

Meanwhile, lawyers and advocates assisting children and teens are fiercely protective, including Ms. Bucceroni. The children themselves are often terrified of talking, while the educators who are teaching and supporting them do not track their numbers formally because federal law requires public schools to enroll and educate children regardless of their immigration status.

Ms. Bucceroni said even though her clients know she is trying to help, they are guarded. "They don't trust people because they've been hurt in the past. Family members have turned on them back in their home countries, they befriend someone who becomes a gang member, who now wants to take their life if they don't want to join. It takes a very long time and lots of meetings to gain their trust, because their stories are supposed to be buried."

You can read the full report, and watch the video interview with Ms. Bucceroni, online here.