The Young Center Immigrant Child Advocacy Clinic -- Significant Accomplishments
The Young Center for Immigrant Children’s Rights has had a busy and exciting year.
Legislative Advocacy in Washington, D.C.
The Violence Against Women Act. On March 7, 2013, President Obama signed into law the reauthorization of the Violence Against Women Act (VAWA), which now incorporates an important section on the Child Advocate program. The reauthorized VAWA law provides for the establishment of Child Advocate programs throughout the country over the next four years. At present, Child Advocate services are only available in Chicago and South Texas through the Young Center. In addition, on July 11, 2013, the Senate Committee on Appropriations recommended that $1,000,000 be appropriated for the expansion of the Child Advocate program. The Committee specifically recognized that: “This program helps protect the interests and rights of the most vulnerable children while awaiting adjudication of their immigration status.”
Several classes of Young Center clinic students are responsible for these victories. Heather Niemetschek, Brooke Anderson, Teresa Sullivan, Peter Chen, Cathy Yang, Katie Boyle, and Bethany Fisher researched, drafted, and redrafted legislative language, and valiantly trekked back and forth across Capitol Hill in scorching heat to educate Senate and House aides about unaccompanied immigrant children and the Child Advocate program. The Young Center’s clinic students also joined forces with the Institute of Politics at the University of Chicago to develop a strategy to ensure the appropriation of funds by the Senate. The students worked tirelessly to get language into the law which requires the protection of many more vulnerable immigrant children.
Comprehensive Immigration Reform. The Young Center is deeply involved in Comprehensive immigration Reform CIR), working to ensure that the bill includes the language necessary to protect the rights of unaccompanied immigrant children. Young Center clinic students Heather Niemetschek and Brooke Anderson conducted research and accompanied Maria Woltjen to Washington D.C. to meet with legislators regarding CIR. The Young Center supported a number of amendments which were ultimately adopted into the Senate’s CIR bill. Due to the Young Center’s advocacy, on June 19th and 20th, three U.S Senators spoke in favor of best interests on the floor of the Senate.
United Nations Committee on the Rights of the Child
The Young Center, in partnership with the Loyola Center for the Human Rights of Children (CHRC), drafted and submitted an alternate report (also known as a shadow report) to the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, Committee on the Rights of Children regarding the US Government’s implementation of the Optional Protocol on the Sale of Children, Child Prostitution and Child Pornography. University of Chicago law students Angus Ni and Yulia Fradkina analyzed the U.S. report and drafted the Alternate Report. Maria Woltjen, Director of the Young Center, testified before the Committee on the Rights of the Child in Geneva, regarding the lack of protection for children trafficked and exploited for labor in the United States.
The Committee on the Rights of the Child is the international body that monitors implementation of the Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC). Although the United States has not ratified the CRC, it is a party to the Optional Protocol on the Sale of Children, Child Prostitution and Child Pornography (OPSC), and is required to report on compliance every five years. The Young Center often serves children who’ve been transported to the United States only to find out they carry a substantial debt that will take years of work to repay, with no possibility of opting out and no safe way home. It is often extremely difficult to obtain protection for these children. Many view these children as smuggled, and therefore complicit and not eligible for protection. Often the children work in small rural restaurants in the U.S. where no one is investigating for legal violations. Other children work in agriculture for which the labor laws are less stringent. Many children from China, for example, carry debts in excess of $80,000. Children from Central America may owe much less – around—for example, $3,000—but they are just as fearful of retribution if they don’t work to repay the debt.
The Young Center asked the Committee on the Rights of the Child to urge the U.S. to: improve labor standards as applied to child labor; improve protections for children entering the U.S. for the purpose of labor trafficking; and to incorporate a best interest standard into the Immigration and Nationality Act. In February 2013, the Committee on the Rights of the Child issued its Concluding Observations, adopting many of the recommendations submitted by the Young Center and the CHRC, including increased protections for economically exploited children.
Case Victories
Over the course of this past year, the Young Center’s clinic students were appointed to serve as Child Advocate for 36 children from countries all over the world, including China, India, Ghana, Nigeria, Rwanda, Somalia, Albania, Mexico, El Salvador, Honduras and Guatemala. In addition to serving as the Child Advocate for individual children, the students conducted legal research and drafted best interests briefs for numerous other cases originating in South Texas (where the Young Center has an office) and other parts of the country. The following are just a few of this year’s victories.
Hague Convention Case: In 2012, the Young Center was appointed by the Department of Health and Human Services as the Child Advocate for three siblings from Mexico. The children were seeking protection in the United States based on substantial abuse in home country, but against the wishes of their mother. The mother, in turn, filed a petition in federal district court under the Hague Convention, seeking the return of her children. The case raised fascinating issues regarding conflict of laws, parental rights and children’s rights. Young Center Clinic student Alison Krueger did extensive research and took the lead on drafting the Young Center’s brief, which was submitted to the federal district court on the Hague petition. The federal district court decision is currently being appealed. Incoming clinic students will continue to work on this case.
Grant of Status as a Lawful Permanent Resident: In 2013, one of the Young Center’s clients finally received her Legal Permanent Resident status. This victory was five years in the making. In 2008, Young Center clinic student, Jajah Wu, was appointed as the Child Advocate for Dan Dan. Dan Dan, a 16 year-old girl from China, had been trafficked to the United States for labor—Dan Dan had an $80,000 debt that she was expected to pay to her traffickers. Dan Dan’s traffickers had located her in the United States and were threatening both her and her family. Jajah ensured Dan Dan had an attorney to prepare an application for a T-Visa and sylum. In 2010, Dan Dan was granted asylum. After graduating from law school, and while she was an attorney at a Chicago law firm, Jajah continued to work with Dan Dan and represented Dan Dan in her application for her adjustment of status to Lawful Permanent Resident (LPR). In 2013, Dan Dan was granted status as an LPR (i.e. she was given her green card). Jajah continues to stay in touch with Dan Dan. Perhaps even more exciting for the Young Center, earlier this year, Jajah Wu joined the Young Center as the Clinical Teaching Fellow and Staff Attorney.
Grants and Awards
In March, the Young Center received a two-year grant from the MacArthur Foundation to spearhead changes in federal immigration policy and practices toward children. With this funding, the Young Center is leading a national working group consisting of representatives from the Department of Homeland Security, the Department of Justice, the Department of Health and Human Services, as well as non-governmental organizations, to create a framework that treats children as children and con- siders their best interests in every decision that affects them. Young Center clinic students Brooke Anderson and Alex Morgan worked tirelessly over their December holiday break to research and draft language that was later adopted by the working group. Incoming clinic students will continue this work under the MacArthur grant.
In July, Maria Woltjen, Director of The Young Center, was honored with the 2013 Ruth Goldman Award on July 18 at the American Constitution Society (ACS) Chicago Lawyer Chapter's Legal Legends Luncheon. Each year, the chapter presents the Goldman Award to honor one woman who has made significant contributions to advance the state of women in the legal profession and the goals of ACS. Everyone at the Young Center was thrilled - but not surprised - that the ACS has decided to award Maria with this incredible honor. A number of current and former clinic students, including Ellie Norton, Natalie Kissinger, and Brooke Anderson, attended the luncheon.