PUBLIC TESTIMONY
Testimony by Abena Hutchful, Policy Attorney at Young Center for Immigrant Children's Rights
3:17:12
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179 sec
Abena Hutchful, a policy attorney with the Young Center for Immigrant Children's Rights, testified about the challenges faced by unaccompanied immigrant youth in the United States. She highlighted the lack of coordination between federal and local agencies in tracking and understanding the needs of children in ORR custody.
- Emphasized the importance of access to legal representation for unaccompanied minors fighting deportation proceedings
- Pointed out the gap in coordination between ORR, MOIA, and ACS in understanding the number of children in each agency's care and their needs
- Advocated for better access to family courts for children eligible for Special Immigrant Juvenile Status (SIJS) before they age out of ORR custody
Abena Hutchful
3:17:12
Sorry.
3:17:12
Thank you.
3:17:15
Thank you, chair Avilis and chair Stevens for convening this hearing and for report and for the opportunity to testify on the proposed resolution.
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My name is Abena Hutchville.
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I'm a child of Guinean immigrants and resident of of District 40 Flatbush.
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I am also a policy attorney with the young Center for immigrant children's rights, an organization that is federally appointed as child advocate for children in ORR custody.
3:17:46
I'm the office of refugee resettlement.
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I'm testifying today in my personal capacity.
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The young center will submit testimony in writing.
3:17:55
But I wanted to speak today as a a former child advocate and someone who was able to serve in that role thanks to the unaccompanied minors initiative.
3:18:05
And has worked with many youth that made the difficult journey to the United States only to spend several months to years in federal custody.
3:18:17
Fighting deportation proceedings without guaranteed access to an attorney.
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We know that many of these youth are as has been discussed here eligible for special immigration immigrant juvenile status.
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And I wanted to address something that has come up through the last panel questioning.
3:18:43
Just how Little information, the state and cities agencies have on children in ORR custody and in children who are released from ORR custody.
3:18:56
This failure to track and understand the needs of kids in federal custody is a big issue that I I wanted to just address here.
3:19:10
I think we are failing kids every day that we don't have oop.
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Am I Okay.
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I I wanted to just address 11 last one big gap, which is the role of the family court.
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I realized that these kids who are such eligible in federal custody are not a priority for the city and the state, but ultimately they will be.
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Ultimately, they will age out of ORR custody without having filed for a special immigrant juvenile status, without having ever seen a family court judge.
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And this is something that can be easily fixed.
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I'm here to just advocate for better coordination between ORR and and the office of Moia and ACS.
3:19:53
To ensure that we understand how many kids are in each agency's care, what their needs are, and that they are all able to access state court, to access the federal benefits really from deportation, work authorization that we need.
3:20:10
Thank you.