Young Center Projects

Child Advocates in Chicago. The Young Center recruits, trains and supervises bilingual and bicultural law students, social work students and lay volunteers who are assigned to serve as Child Advocates for individual children in federal custody in Chicago.

Development of National Plan to Provide Child Advocate Services.  In partnership with the Vera Institute of Justice, the Young Center is developing a plan for the rollout of a national Child Advocate program. In 2010, after conducting site visits and meeting with other stakeholders, the Young Center recommended the expansion of Child Advocate Services in three additional sites around the country where the Young Center could tailor its program and procedures to the unique needs of those locations. The Young Center continues to advocate for the immediate development of three new pilot sites, and the roll-out of fully-staffed programs around the country beginning in 2012.

Interim National Child Advocate Services. Until the new Child Advocate programs are launched, the Young Center is training a small number of individual volunteers from specific cities around the United States, who will be assigned as Child Advocates in particularly complex cases. As with all Young Center assignments, Child Advocates are supervised by attorneys with expertise in immigration law and child welfare, who direct all advocacy on behalf of individual children.

International Home Studies Project.  This past year, the Young Center worked with a number of children for whom there were significant concerns about the child's safety upon repatriation. In the most challenging cases, the Young Center contracted with a social worker in the child's home country to conduct a home study on the family to determine whether it would be safe for the child to return. In short, the home study reports provide a factual basis for the best interests recommendations submitted by Child Advocates to attorneys as well as federal immigration authorities, including the Department of Homeland Security, immigration judges and the Asylum Office. Through this work, the Young Center hopes to ensure the safety of children who either choose to or are forced to repatriate. In addition, the Young Center seeks to reform the immigration system by making the case that decision-makers should consider whether a child has a safe home to return to before ordering a child deported.

Ensuring Children's Safety Upon Removal/Deportation.  The Young Center is developing protocols to be followed in cases in which children return to their home country either because they want to go home, or because they are being deported.  The assigned Child Advocate identifies community resources for the child and ensures that a responsible adult will be available to meet the child.  The Child Advocate remains in contact with the child in the home country until he or she is settled.

Protecting Children's Right to be Raised by their Parents. The Young Center works on national initiatives to protect the rights of children who have been separated from their parents, in particular, their right to be raised by and cared for by their parents. The Convention on the Rights of the Child, Article 9, specifically protects children from separation from their parents against their will absent a determination by competent authorities subject to judicial review that separation is necessary for the best interests of the child. In 2009-2010, Young Center attorneys and law students in the Young Center's clinic at the University of Chicago Law School submitted an amicus brief in the case of In re CMBR, in which an infant child was permanently separated from his mother after she was detained in an immigration raid. Young Center's amicus brief applied United States and international law to highlight how the child's rights were repeatedly violated when he was adopted by a couple unknown to his mother or family, and argued that he should be returned to his mother. Early this year, the Missouri Supreme Court invalidated the child's adoption. This year, the Young Center has also advocated against any increase in the number of detention facilities for unaccompanied children along the U.S.-Mexico border, where unaccompanied children face significant, additional hurdles reuniting with parents or family members.

Substantive Best Interests Standard. The best interests standard is the fundamental principle guiding decisions in U.S. domestic child welfare law, and international law, as set forth by the Convention on the Rights of the Child; however, at present, U.S. immigration law does not have a statutory best interests standard for children in immigration proceedings. The Child Advocate make best interests recommendations to decision makers using standards set forth in child welfare and international law; however, many immigration judges still do not consider the child's safety and well-being when making decisions regarding removal. We regularly see cases where children face long-term separation from their parents if deported or face return to countries where they have no one to care for them, yet lack a basis to apply for immigration status. Some decision-makers believe that without a statutory best interests standard, their hands are tied and they must order the child deported in such cases.