For 18 years, my Young Center colleagues have used these principles to fight for the rights of children seeking protection in the United States. They’ve relied on the Convention to reunify children separated from their parents at the border, to win children’s release from detention, to help children access care that protects their physical and mental health, and to ensure children’s identities—their language, their religion, their gender identity, their sexual orientation—are respected and honored.

But the United States’ failure to ratify the Convention and enact meaningful protections for all children has wreaked havoc on kids’ lives. On this World Children’s Day, children who have the legal right to seek protection in the United States are trapped across the border, living in encampments where their families are attacked, extorted, and lack the most basic necessities. The children who manage to make it across the border are subjected to an immigration system designed for adults, where they will have to defend themselves against deportation without the guarantee of a lawyer or independent Child Advocate by their side.  

Join us in the fight for children's rights.

The Young Center's Policy Team fights every day to ensure immigrant and refugee children will be recognized first and foremost as children. We’re fighting to end the practice of turning children and families away at the border—and to call out the lies on which the policy is based. We’re challenging Congress to enact laws that ensure children have a fair day in court. And perhaps most importantly, we’re using the Convention’s principles to reimagine our immigration system into one that centers the needs and strengths of children and young adults.  

We cannot do this work without your support. Please be a champion for children and help us continue to fight for children by making a tax deductible donation to our Giving Tuesday campaign now. 

Thank you so much,

Jennifer Nagda
Policy Director