All by themselves.

• Author: Nazario, Sonia
• Position: OPINION

The number of minors entering the U.S. illegally--and alone--is surging. Pulitzer prize-winning journalist Sonia Nazario argues that more needs to be done to help them after they're caught.

When Belkis Rivera was 6, her mom and brothers fled Honduras to the United States to escape a street gang that had killed her grandmother and her uncle. She was left behind with other family members. But at 13, threatened by the same gang, Belkis decided to follow, making a terrifying six-month journey across Mexico by herself. When she tried to cross the border into the U.S. in September 2012, she was caught by the Border Patrol.

Now she faces one more trauma: America's judicial system.

In the U.S., anyone accused of a crime has the right to a lawyer. But under U.S. immigration law, undocumented immigrants aren't entitled to a public defender, even when they're minors. Some children are represented by pro bono (volunteer) lawyers or by private lawyers, for the few whose families can afford them. But it's estimated that more than half such children go to court alone, with no one to help them make the case that they shouldn't be deported.

The overall number of arrests of immigrants unlawfully entering the U.S. has, for the most part, been on a steady decline for the past 40 years. But the number of children coming illegally and alone is soaring, largely as a result of drug-fueled violence in Central America, particularly Guatemala, Honduras, and El Salvador.

U.S. authorities expect 60,000 unaccompanied minors to come this year, 10 times the number three years ago. Most of these children come to the U.S. alone to reunite with family members, and those detained are released to their families while their hearings proceed.

A recent study by the Vera Institute of Justice, a nonprofit group, shows that 40 percent of unaccompanied children potentially qualify for asylum or some other special juvenile-immigrant status because they fear persecution in their home country, or because they were abused or abandoned by a parent.

Yet only a tiny fraction ends up winning their cases. Not surprisingly, those with legal representation, the study says, are nearly nine times more likely to win.

In court, these children are up against trained government lawyers. They must testify under oath, file documents, and navigate the complexities of immigration law with no knowledge of English and American customs. Many have only a translator to help.

Take the case of Ana Suruy. In...