Our Executive Director Gladis Molina Alt was recently featured in a podcast on the Swedish initiative  Great.com. The broadcast touched upon the importance of ensuring the best possible outcome for unaccompanied children who go through the United States’ immigration system.

Our work to create safe spaces for immigrant children took a leap forward this month as Representatives Jimmy Gomez, Zoe Lofgren, and Adriano Espaillat introduced the Protect Vulnerable Immigrant Youth Act (PVIY). This bill is the product of relentless advocacy from the #EndSIJSBacklog Coalition, which includes incredible youth organizers and the Young Center among its proud members. When passed, the legislation will protect immigrant youth who are survivors of abuse, abandonment, and neglect from further harm—including homelessness, wage theft, trafficking, and deportation to danger—by exempting Special Immigrant Juvenile (SIJ) beneficiaries from numerical visa limitations. 

Since 2016, the Young Center has worked with hundreds of children who won SIJ protection but were denied work, loans for education, and other opportunities because of a “visa cap.” Under the Trump Administration, the Young Center repeatedly (and successfully) went to court to ensure children with SIJ didn’t experience the perverse outcome of being deported by the same agency that granted them protection. For all of these reasons, we look forward to celebrating the legislation’s passage.

We are one month out from our Reimagine virtual benefit! Join Pulitzer-Prize winning journalist and featured speaker Maria Hinojosa, global literary icon and philanthropist Isabel Allende, and the Young Center team in reimagining a better world for unaccompanied immigrant children.

The Young Center has several open positions across its eight offices. Join the fight for immigrant children's rights!

Tijuana-born Ceci Bastida is a singer-songwriter and longtime collaborator of Julieta Venegas in the ska-punk band Tijuana No! She is also an advocate for social justice causes. Most recently, Bastida served as a volunteer Child Advocate at the Young Center. She was recently featured in BeLatina magazine, where she talks about the intersection of activism and art. We are grateful for your support Ceci!

"I realized, it’s important to have someone in your corner listening to you and supporting you through a difficult process. I wanted to be able to do that for someone."
-Young Center-Houston Volunteer Child Advocate Miguel Conner