This note attempts to highlight some of the deficiencies of current asylum practice as it pertains to children, describe how U.S. asylum policy may be moving towards greater recognition of the enormous procedural hardships faced by children in the U.S. asylum system, and propose some concrete solutions. Part I describes the historical foundations of U.S. asylum law, the substance of the law itself, and its application in practice. Part II highlights the international measures that have been taken to recognize the special status of child refugees. Part III examines the ways in which U.S. asylum policy currently responds to child refugees, including recent legislative proposals to afford children in the asylum system greater procedural protections, and suggests ways in which certain procedural protections should be expanded. Finally, Part IV discusses the failure of current U.S. asylum law to account properly for the forms of persecution unique to children and suggests ways to increase substantive protections for children.
