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 The move comes amid escalating political tension in the United
States over how to deal with the thousands of children fleeing
violence in their Central American homelands.
"We've convened a group of law firms to make sure these children,
some of them as young as 8 years old, have access to due process,"
California Attorney General Kamala Harris said on Thursday.
Central American children began flooding the border at crossing
points in Texas earlier this year, overwhelming local officials and
leading the federal government to send thousands to other states for
processing.
By the end of June, about 3,000 of the children had been sent to
California, and more have come since.
In meetings in Los Angeles last week, Harris asked lawyers for some
of the state's most prestigious firms to donate 500 hours of pro
bono work to the children this year, spokesman Nicholas Pacilio
said.
 She asked corporate lawyers for entertainment giants including the
Walt Disney Co. and Warner Bros. Entertainment to do the same, he
said, adding that most had agreed to help.
Harris' remarks came a day after California Governor Jerry Brown
said California would "do its part" in the crisis, despite calls by
anti-illegal immigration activists to speed up deportation
proceedings.
Brown said California viewed the flood of children as a humanitarian
crisis, rather than a political issue.
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The influx of children at the border, mostly fleeing violence and
poverty in El Salvador, Guatemala and Honduras, has intensified the
debate over immigration reform and overwhelmed U.S. authorities, who
have been hard-pressed to find temporary housing for the young
migrants as they await deportation proceedings.
On Tuesday, planning commissioners in the San Diego suburb of
Escondido rejected a proposal to open a temporary shelter for some
of the children.
Harris said there was much the state could do to help the children
sent here, but that ultimately, immigration issues should be dealt
with at the federal level.
She criticized Congress for failing to act on a stalled package of
immigration reforms that would have included a path to citizenship
for millions of undocumented immigrants in the United States.
"They've fallen short," Harris said.
(Reporting by Sharon Bernstein; Editing by Sandra Maler)
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