On Friday, August 28, 2020, the National Association of Counsel for Children (NACC) awarded the Young Center their President’s Award, which “recognizes excellence in advocacy organizations working to advance the legal rights of children and families.” The NACC is a professional membership and advocacy organization dedicated to advancing justice for children, youth, and families. This is the inaugural year for the President’s Award, founded by the NACC’s current President Candi Mayes and we are so proud to be its recipient. 

This is a tremendous honor for the Young Center and it's all due to the advocacy of our staff on behalf of immigrant children across the country. The Young Center was founded with the goal of bringing child welfare principles to immigration law. It has been a battle, but we’ve made real progress. The term “best interests” now appears in immigration law. Immigration judges, asylum officers, and custodial officials now ask that Child Advocates be appointed, they ask for Best Interests Recommendations, and they consider that information in making their decisions. We also know there is so much more to be done, especially now when children's rights are under constant attack. This award—from the preeminent organization of lawyers and advocates for children in all fields—acknowledges the importance of the role of Child Advocates. 

Young Center Founder and Executive Director Maria Woltjen’s Speech at the Award Ceremony

Thank you so, so much, President Mayes, for that wonderful, wonderful introduction. We really appreciate it. On behalf of the Young Center, our staff across the country, and our Board of Directors, thank you so much, President Mayes, and the National Association of Children’s Counsel for this award. I really want to also thank Kim Dvorchak; we have treasured our partnership with NACC, and we look forward to collaborating in the years ahead.

Just a few words about what we do. We are lawyers, social workers, volunteer coordinators and paralegals. We’re appointed by the federal government to serve as Child Advocate—like guardian ad litem—for unaccompanied and separated immigrant children in deportation proceedings, and our role is to advocate for their best interests.

As most of you know, the unaccompanied kids are apprehended at the border; they are charged with violating immigration law. They are placed in deportation proceedings and appear in front of an immigration judge where they face off against attorneys from the Department of Homeland Security, even the youngest kids.  

I think there are three important things to know:

1. The child has the burden to prove they should not be deported. It’s not the government’s burden.

2. Children are not provided with attorneys at government expense. It’s up to nonprofits around the country to represent these kids, and all of those organizations are under resourced, so a lot of kids go unrepresented.

3. Lastly, there is no best interests of the child standard when it comes to immigrant children. This is what we’ve set out to change over the last 16 years.

Our goal all along has been to incorporate child welfare principles into the immigration system. I know that our child welfare systems are imperfect, but in the immigration system, children are, for the most part, treated like adults, like the pre-Jane Addams world.

When we started, in 2004, no one in the immigration system understood the meaning of best interests. They’d never heard of a Child Advocate. But we acted as if we had official authority, and everyone went along—the detention facilities allowed us in to meet with the kids. The immigration judge here in Chicago recognized us and allowed us to speak. So, we just kept going.

And then four years later, in 2008, in the waning days of the Bush presidency, he signed into law a paragraph providing that HHS had the authority to appoint independent child advocates to advocate for the best interests of unaccompanied immigrant children.

Back then we had one office in Chicago. We had just hired our second attorney, Jennifer Nagda, who is now our policy director. A year later, in 2009, our third attorney, Elizabeth Frankel, opened an office on the border, in Harlingen, Texas. Liz is now our Associate Director. And today we have 70 incredible staff in eight offices across the country. They argue across the spectrum to get kids released from custody, to get kids reunified with family, to make sure kids don’t go into adult immigration jail, to get them into the least restrictive setting, and they advocate on the ultimate decision about whether a child can remain in the United States and present arguments about why it’s not in the child’s best interest to be sent back to their home countries.

Because of the work of our child advocate team, today, immigration judges ask for Child Advocates. Asylum officers ask for best interests recommendations. Custodial officials refer children for the appointment of Child Advocates. Occasionally even an ICE official asks for Child Advocates. After 16 years of receiving best interests recommendations, they’ve realized that they want information about whether the child will be safe.

We also do policy work, taking the issues we see in the field to our policy team which advocates on the Hill and with federal agencies, where we partner with NACC and we learn from our colleagues in child welfare and juvenile justice.

I want to acknowledge our senior team who are on the front lines because they make all this possible: Gladis Molina, Olivia Peña, Marisa Chumil, Mari Dorn-Lopez, Marcy Phillips, Mary Miller Flowers, Vanessa Pineda, Carrie Vanderhoek, Juan Gonzalez, Kelly Kribs, Maria Barbosa Groszek, Pam Nickell, Priscilla Monico Marín, Shaina Simenas, and Mariana Alvarez.

And the senior staff behind the scenes who make it possible for us to do what we do every day: Sarah Waxman and AJ Albinak.

Today, we face challenges we never anticipated. The government is violating federal law, the anti-trafficking law, which allows children to be released to family when they arrive at the border on their own, to go before a judge and ask for protection. But today, under this administration, these kids are being turned away, with no one asking them before they get sent back: Who will you return to? Where are your parents? Do you have anyone to take care of you? Will you be safe?

The kids are either immediately turned around or they are kept in hotels, where they are being minded by a private company, we have no idea their credentials, to wait until they can be flown back to their home countries. Or they are walked right back across the border to Mexico. All under cover of the false pretext of COVID. But the truth is this administration has wanted to do this since day 1.

But our staff do not give up. They fight for these kids every day, no matter the obstacles. They cajole, they argue. Like all of you in the child welfare and juvenile justice worlds, they get creative. My colleague, Olivia Peña, put it better than anyone I know: “If the door closes, we’re going to figure out how to get around it and find another door, or we make our own door.”

On behalf of all of my colleagues and the Board of the Young Center, thank you once again to President Mayes, to Kim, and the NACC for this honor. It really means so much. Thank you very much.