A MESSAGE FROM THE EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR
June 2022
About a year ago, I stepped into the Executive Director role at the Young Center. The journey since has been challenging, full of learning, and inspiring. Growing up in El Salvador without my parents, who’d fled to seek refuge in the U.S., and then reuniting with them at the age of ten, I’d have never imagined that one day I would be leading one of the foremost organizations serving immigrant children. To have been an undocumented child in this country and then become a leader in service of children in whose shoes I once walked is surreal to me. To give back to the vibrant and brilliant immigrant community I come from—resilient change-makers from all over the world who are not only building their own lives again, but also strengthening our country with their stories, skills, and voices—is an honor and a journey of growth for me.
We started 2021 with hope that the Biden-Harris administration would turn the tide on anti-immigrant policies and restore our asylum system. A year later, we find ourselves grappling with the same Trump-era policies of immigration deterrence. Families and asylum-seekers are still turned away at our border without an opportunity to seek protection. More than a million people seeking refuge have been turned away under the pretense that they pose a public health risk that business travelers or tourists don’t. Families are still separated and traumatized by these unlawful policies that deny people their legal and human right to seek legal protection from violence and persecution.
In the face of inhumane immigration policies, the Young Center community has banded together to say, “This is not what we want our country to be. We can be better than this.” Last year, hundreds of you volunteered as Child Advocates, making sure children who are separated from their families have someone by their side as they navigate our complex immigration system. You baked cookies, ran marathons, and held dance classes to raise funds for the Young Center. You created spaces for Young Center staff to share the mission of our organization with your classrooms, book groups, and communities. You donated to help continue our work and strengthen our staff. You helped raise more than $1 million during our end of year and Giving Tuesday fundraising campaigns!
Your solidarity is inspiring, especially given how difficult 2021 was for all of us. From losing loved ones and community members to COVID to the continued isolation, we all experienced forms of grief. We had to juggle new responsibilities and adjust to new, painful realities. What has helped me get through the year is our Young Center community and standing for humane reception policies and processes for immigrants in a space of no fear. Thank you for continuing to be a part of our push for change. As we continue the fight for immigrant children seeking safety, for families separated by our government’s policies, for a more humane immigration system, we will continue to need you at our side.
With Gratitude,
Gladis Molina Alt
Executive Director
2021 BY THE NUMBERS
With your support, in 2021, we served 1,612 children facing deportation across the country. To advocate for the best interests—the child’s wishes, safety, and well-being—of these children, we submitted 522 Best Interests Determinations (BIDs) to stakeholders including immigration judges, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), attorneys of record or legal services providers, ORR, state courts, and other service providers such as medical or mental healthcare organizations. Of the BIDs we submitted, 91.5% were accepted by immigration officials.
We continue to find creative ways to fight. In our BIDs in 2021, we advocated for children to be reunited with their families and gain permanency and protection from deportation. We fought for them to be placed in family or community homes instead of large facilities and shelters and got them released from custody instead of being transferred to adult immigration detention. For children whose safety, wishes, and best interests depended on returning to their home countries, we advocated for their safe and timely repatriation.
OUR IMPACT*
Carlos, who grew up in an Indigenous community in Central America, arrived at our border with his older brother to seek safety from violence in their community. Immigration officials separated the brothers, placing Carlos in a children’s facility and his adult brother in immigration jail. According to our immigration laws, the government separates children who arrive at the border with a non-parent or non-guardian family member.
Carlos was devastated by this unexpected separation and was placed at a treatment facility where they attempted to provide him with psychosocial support. The attempts did not bear fruit because the facility could not find a provider who would be able to communicate in Carlos’s language. Meanwhile, the government released his brother to their older sister, who lives in the United States. Young Center Child Advocates quickly went to work. We advocated that because the facility he was at could not provide Carlos with the appropriate mental health services he needed, he would be safer and healthier with his family and community. Our advocacy resulted in the government approving his release from custody and reunification with family where he could begin to recover from multiple traumas.
Cristina, a 17 year-old transgender teen, lost her mother when she was a small child and was raised by her doting grandmother. After her grandmother’s passing, Cristina lived in an orphanage on the U.S.-Mexico border. She worked several restaurant jobs and earned enough to buy herself clothes and cosmetics that affirmed her gender. Living without a supportive family and community, Cristina was sexually trafficked in exchange for hormonal treatment, shelter, and food. When she realized the trafficking put her life in danger, Cristina fled to the United States. Upon entering the country, she was taken into government custody and appointed a Young Center Child Advocate. During their weekly meetings, Cristina quickly showed how much of an advocate she was for herself. Early on, Cristina shared with her Child Advocate that she was gay and trans. This demonstrated the level of trust our Child Advocate was able to build with Cristina in such a short amount of time; Cristina had not shared this information with anyone else.
The Young Center Child Advocate successfully advocated for Cristina’s acceptance in the Unaccompanied Refugee Minors (URM) program because she did not have family here in the United States who could sponsor her release from government custody. Through the URM program, she was placed in a home with another trans teen girl and today she is thriving. Through URM, Cristina also has access to support services, including indirect financial support for housing, food, medical care, and other necessities, until her 21st birthday.
*Children’s names have been changed to protect their privacy.
2021 PROGRAM ACHIEVEMENTS
CHILD ADVOCACY PROGRAM
The Young Center’s Child Advocacy Program is the only program in the United States through which independent Child Advocates are appointed to immigrant children who arrive at our borders alone or are separated from their families by government officials. Independent Child Advocates are tasked with protecting the best interests—safety, wishes, well-being—of children as they face the U.S. immigration system. We work with each individual child to accompany and support them, learn their stories, identify their wishes and best interests, and advocate for them by submitting Best Interests Determinations to government agencies, facilities where children are placed, and all other stakeholders who make decisions about them.
In 2021, we worked with more unaccompanied and separated immigrant children than any prior year. 1 in 4 children we served was under the age of 12, navigating our complex and at times inhumane immigration system in the United States by themselves. 27 percent of the children served were 17 years or older, making them vulnerable to adult immigration detention with ICE upon their 18th birthday. Among the 1,108 children whose cases we were appointed to in 2021, 119 were pregnant or parenting teens, 66 had a disability, and 58 were separated from a family member or caretaker at our borders by immigration officials. As always, in 2021, we took on the hardest cases and fought for children’s every right: the right to their identity, to be with their families, to be free of detention, to access the services they need, to have counsel, and more. Young Center attorneys, social workers, and volunteer Child Advocates left no stone unturned to ensure every child we’re appointed to is heard and their best interests are protected.
POLICY PROGRAM
The Young Center’s policy team worked on a wide range of issues impacting children in 2021.
We created a bilingual practice advisory on supporting Afghan children arriving in the United States for Afghan-American communities.
We worked with the newly appointed administration to bring about the end of Trump-era policies that closed our borders and regulations that would have ended vital protections for children in government custody.
We fought to end the administration’s unlawful use of the Title 42 policy in direct advocacy with the White House and filed an amicus (friend of the court) brief in the Supreme Court arguing for an end to the Remain in Mexico policy.
We won increasing support from federal agencies to end the practice of separating all children who arrive at the border with trusted family members, and we are now leading a coalition of organizations working with government officials to design a new procedure for reunifying some families at the border.
We endorsed the Fair Day in Court for Kids Act of 2021 to ensure all children in immigration proceedings have an attorney. We built alliances on Capitol Hill, in the racial and social justice equity spaces, in the disability rights movements, among children’s rights organizations, and with members of the press.
The Young Center’s work for unaccompanied and separated immigrant children is made possible largely by the contributions of tens of thousands of passionate supporters. Thank you for supporting us in this urgent work.
Report cover: “Always Come Home to Me” by Belle Yang. Artist-author Belle Yang makes her home in Carmel, California with her mother Laning. Her father Joseph, who walked out of war-torn China as a young man and is the hero of much of her work, died in 2019. Her website is belleyang.com, and her art is represented by Hauk Fine Arts in Pacific Grove, California (haukfinearts.com). Amy Tan writes that Belle Yang has “created a world we can lose ourselves in.” Maxine Hong Kingston calls her “our Isaac Bashevis Singer and Marc Chagall.” Gifted as an artist and writer, she has written and illustrated two highly praised literary works, “Baba: A Return to China Upon My Father’s Shoulders” and “The Odyssey of a Manchurian.” She followed with the powerful graphic novel “Forget Sorrow.” She is also the author-artist of a dozen children’s books, including an autobiographical immigrant story told from a child’s point of view, “My Name Is Hannah.” See more of Belle’s work here.