As the crackdown on immigration by the Trump administration continues, unaccompanied migrant kids are now facing a reduction in services.
What are the consequences for these kids after a legal contract cancellation by the Trump administration?
Alvaro de la Cruz-Correa, a Spokane-based immigration attorney who works with minors, talked about the difference legal representation can make for children trying to seek asylum in the United States.
"A lot of the times these children here do have a path to legal status. They do have a way of becoming a legal permanent resident. They do have a way of becoming a citizen," de la Cruz-Correa told SPR News. "But if they don't know how to state their case, if they don't know how to present their case, they're going to go in front of a judge and they're going to say things that they're not really sure what they mean."
In a statement to SPR, the Office of Refugee Resettlement said, "While they remain in ORR care, all children have access to healthcare, legal services, translation services, and mental and behavioral health counselors. They can communicate daily with their family and meet with a case manager at least once a week."
A conflict over a councilman’s conduct in Spokane Valley has some public records advocates concerned.
Daniel Walters, the democracy and extremism reporter for InvestigateWest, broke down his reporting about how strife in Spokane Valley City Hall could lead to a further erosion of the Public Records Act in Washington.
"People have said basically, if there's another investigation into this kind of thing, they're not going to participate because of how bad the experience was the first time," Walters said. "[There's] also the argument that if people aren't willing to come forward, then there's not going to really be an investigation effectively, and so then the public won't even know."
This week, more than a hundred college debaters are in Spokane for the National Debate Tournament at Gonzaga University and the Centennial Hotel. We caught up with Glen Frappier, Gonzaga's debate team director, in the middle of planning for the event.
"While the most physical thing we do is walk between the buildings, going to the different rounds and all that, I'll tell you to keep yourself mentally on and mentally sharp for 12 hours is one of the most difficult things anybody will ever do," he said. "And so at the end of a weekend, even if it is just a two or three day tournament, people are just absolutely spent."