On Thursday, May 13, 2021, Young Center supporters, staff, volunteers, and ambassadors gathered online to celebrate the courage and resilience of immigrant children. We honored our very first Waymaker: Founder and Executive Director Maria Woltjen, who will be retiring at the end of June after 18 years of passionately fighting for unaccompanied immigrant children and changing the system to integrate child protection principles into practice, policy, and the law. We are so thankful to everyone who participated in the event and made it a success. In case you missed this inspiring evening, you can watch the highlights in the video below.

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Today, the Young Center’s Board of Directors announced that it has selected Gladis Molina Alt as organization’s next executive director. Our Founder and Executive Director Maria Woltjen is retiring at the end of June after 18 years at the helm of the organization.

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Thursday, April 29, marks the 100th day of the Biden-Harris administration. During this time, the administration has taken significant steps towards welcoming unaccompanied immigrant children to the United States, but there is still no federal law requiring every agency to consider children’s best interests in every decision.

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The COVID-19 pandemic laid bare a reality abundantly clear to unaccompanied children: prolonged detention in congregate settings endangers their health. No child should spend more than a few days, or at most a week, in congregate care when they have family with whom they can live or quality foster care homes.

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The prevailing narrative is that there’s a new crisis taking place at our borders. But the recent arrival of children seeking safety at our borders is neither new nor unexpected.

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On Tuesday, March 23, 2021, the Young Center for Immigrant Children’s Rights convened a group of experts to highlight the unique strengths of and challenges faced by LGBTQIA children who come to our borders seeking protection. The Young Center serves many of the most vulnerable immigrant children who come to the United States, including LGBTQIA children who are escaping violence and persecution based on their sexual orientation or gender identity. Young Center staff from across the country joined the webinar to discuss our work with LGBTQIA immigrant children and how we tailor our advocacy to meet children where they are and ensure they land somewhere safe.

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The bill prohibits officials from separating children from their parents for the purpose of deterring immigration and tasks the Department of Homeland Security with using “the best interests of the child” as its guiding principle in decisions about immigrant children.

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The Biden-Harris administration must take concrete and meaningful steps to rectify this harm and ensure that each family subjected to this particular harm—one with lasting consequences for the health of children and their parents—has an opportunity to return safely and receive permanent protection in the United States. Additionally, the administration and Congress must enact legislation that will prevent family separation in the future.

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Last week, a coalition of immigrant and children’s rights organizations filed an amicus brief with the Supreme Court in opposition to the Trump administration’s so-called Migrant Protection Protocols (MPP), also known as the Remain in Mexico policy, focusing on the harm to children caused by MPP.

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If not for Elizabeth Frankel, there would be no Young Center. As we continue our work, we will endeavor to uphold her legacy, her commitment to young people, to the truth, to collaborative but zealous advocacy, and her attention to detail in each case we undertake, in each protocol we develop, in each paper we write. We are so deeply grateful for and honored to have had the opportunity to work at her side.

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“From family separation to the public charge rule to deportations during a global pandemic, the past four years have been a nightmare for immigrant children,” said Young Center Executive Director Maria Woltjen. “We hope that the new administration will not just right the wrongs of the past four years but begin to build an immigration system that treats children as children, recognizing their unique status.”

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If our immigration system put the consideration of children’s best interests at the center of decision-making, it would look very different than it does now.

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We are horrified and sickened, though not surprised, at the insurrection launched at our democracy yesterday. It was the fruit of a long, sustained campaign of lies and sabotage grounded in racism and hate. In response, we will continue our work of fighting for a democracy where the rights of all people—and especially all children—are honored, valued, and respected.

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In September, we were appointed as Child Advocate for Kacee*, a teenager full of kindness and warmth for the other children in custody. Just two months earlier, Kacee was forced to flee Nicaragua to escape violence

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If implemented, the regulations would jeopardize the safety and well-being of immigrant children by decreasing the ability of children and families to have a fair opportunity to be heard and to seek relief from deportation, as they are permitted to do under U.S. law.

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As the organization tasked with defending the rights and best interests of vulnerable children in immigration proceedings, we urge DOJ to withdraw the rule in its entirely and to restore immigration judges’ ability to manage their dockets and protect due process rights for each of the individuals appearing before them through the use of continuances, administrative closure, and termination.

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There is no denying that 2020 has been a difficult year. Despite the immense challenges we've faced and the ones ahead of us, at the Young Center, we're making space and time to celebrate the wins we had this year.

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Young Center staff and volunteers built rapport with Evelin, Cindy, M, and Andrea so they’d share their stories without fear and talk about their wishes and dreams. They were able to find safety in the United States because a Young Center Child Advocate was by their side throughout their immigration proceedings and advocated for their rights and best interests.

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“The rule is an affront to both U.S. and international law which codifies the right of children to seek asylum and for decision-makers to act in children’s best interests. It also breaches U.S. treaty obligations, creating sweeping categories of mandatory denials and weakening due process protections for children.”

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