REMARKS
Legal services and immigration status options for unaccompanied children
0:10:19
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102 sec
Council Member Avilés discusses the importance of legal services and various immigration status options available to unaccompanied children (UACs), emphasizing the need for timely and trauma-informed support.
- UACs may be eligible for special immigrant juvenile status, U-Visas, or asylum, which could lead to lawful permanent residency and citizenship.
- Timely legal services are crucial for navigating the complex immigration system and meeting deadlines.
- The importance of trauma-informed legal services, wraparound supports, and continuity of care is highlighted.
- The role of the Mayor's Office of Immigrant Affairs and the Office of Asylum Seeker Operations in providing and facilitating access to these services is mentioned.
Alexa Avilés
0:10:19
Including special immigrant juvenile status, you or TeVices or asylum.
0:10:26
All of it would entail a pathway to lawful permanent residency and ultimately citizenship.
0:10:33
For this process to succeed, immigrant youth would require timely and legal timely legal services to navigate the Byzantine immigration bureaucracy and its attendant deadlines and pitfalls.
0:10:46
When simply missing a deadline can cause a child to miss out on a pathway to lawful permanent residency status and citizenship, it is clear that these children, many of whom are learning to maneuver a new country, let alone a notoriously complex legal system must be connected with trauma informed legal services and wraparound supports, stability and continuity of care, as well as expertise and experience in nation law as are essential in this context.
0:11:20
For these reasons, we're eager to hear how the mayor's office of immigrant affairs serves as a subject matter expert and facilitator of connections to resource on legal services, education, mental health, and so much more.
0:11:34
We are also keen to learn of how the office of asylum seekers operations is approaching legal services for children, mindful that continuity of care as opposed to a prosay model is the gold standard for continuing to serve this vulnerable population.
0:11:50
We look forward to hearing from the administration about how we can work collectively to ensure that these children and youth who need access to resources can thrive in our city.
