Last year, RAICES carried out more than 2,400 legal intakes for unaccompanied minors in need of lawyers. The group found that 63 percent of these minors were “obvious winners” for claims of asylum or other relief because their circumstances closely paralleled those seen in other, earlier cases in which asylum had been awarded. Even among the rest of the minors, Ryan said the vast majority still had a fighting chance to move forward with a claim for humanitarian relief.

Those assessments are playing out in court. RAICES has won 98 percent of the cases for unaccompanied minors its lawyers have taken on, Ryan says.

“Last summer, when politicians from both parties were making statements that these children were not refugees, that these children all needed to be sent home, my agency was busy speaking with these children,” Ryan told HuffPost. “The same statements that Clinton made last summer are the same statements being made to legitimize the family detention that she is now apparently against. Whether it’s [Republican presidential candidate] Mr. [Donald] Trump or Mrs. Clinton, these knee-jerk statements don’t do anything to protect children, and they certainly don’t do anything to protect vulnerable refugees.”

Ashley Feasley, the advocacy director for Catholic Legal Immigration Network, said her group has had a similar experience.

“We at CLINIC know from representing immigrant children that when they have access to legal representation, they’re usually able to obtain protection under U.S. law -- and that’s because in many cases, these children are fleeing persecution, targeted violence and gang recruitment,” Feasley told HuffPost. “The emergency for unaccompanied minor children is not over now that it’s moved away from the border. It’s now in our courtrooms. We have vulnerable children who cannot access justice in our legal system today. And that’s an emergency.”