2025 Annual Overview
Young Center for Immigrant Children’s Rights
Letter from the Executive Director
This past year tested us and the people we serve in ways few of us could have imagined. Across the country, immigrant children, their families, and extended communities faced an unrelenting escalation of fear, separation, and uncertainty.
Family separation re-emerged in new and devastating forms, as a cruel strategy designed to destabilize our communities, instill fear in families, and leave children without the protection every child deserves. From Los Angeles to Chicago, Minneapolis, Phoenix, and beyond, immigrant families faced violent enforcement actions in the very places where they should
feel the safest: their neighborhoods, schools, workplaces, and homes.
In 2025, the Young Center returned to its founding truth: we are advocates for children first and foremost. When systems fail, shift, or abandon children, our role is clear: to stand with them, to bring what is happening into the light, and to say yes to what children need.
“Over the course of 2025, we showed up wherever children needed us. Again and again, our teams asked: What does this child need from us in
this very moment?”
-Gladis Molina Alt
We challenged unlawful efforts to deport children without due process. We stood beside detained caregivers and parents fighting to reunify with their children. We accompanied children as their average length of detention rose from 30 to 198 days – more than sixfold, and longer than a typical U.S. school year. We brought children’s stories and voices into our
courtrooms, policy conversations, advocacy coalitions, and public conversations.
This year, we gave our all to stand alongside children. And we did not stand alone.
To every volunteer, colleague, donor, partner, community member and supporter who chose to stand in solidarity with immigrant children during this painful year: your courage truly fueled ours. Your support reminded us that you see, value, and share our commitment to this work.
The threats facing immigrant children remain real. But so does our resolve. We will continue to bear witness, speak truth to power, and stand with every child with care, courage, and the unwavering belief in their right to be heard, to be safe, and to be free from detention and with family in community.
With determination and gratitude,
Gladis Molina Alt
Young Center Executive Director
Reuniting a Father and His Children in Time
for Christmas: Isaias’ story
In the spring of 2024, Evelyn* and Oscar* were placed in the U.S. foster care system after living with their mother. Their father, Isaias*, traveled from El Salvador in hopes of reunifying with his children, but was immediately detained at the US-Mexico border. It was from immigration detention that Isaias first connected with our Technical Assistance Program (TAP).
Artwork generously donated by Aadi,
6-year-old Young Center supporter, and family.
2025 Young Center Highlights
In a year dominated by escalating attacks on immigrant children, families, and communities, the Young Center met each moment with child-centered advocacy, cross-program collaboration, and an unwavering commitment to children’s safety, dignity, and rights.
We began the year in community in New York City
convening funders, partners, and supporters as we prepared to meet the needs of immigrant children in the face of a new administration.
Our Technical Assistance Program began responding to a sharp increase for assistance requests with expanded consultations and trainings
as child welfare professionals and partners navigated executive orders, immigration raids, and family separations
Young Center Child Advocates dramatically increased best interests advocacy for unaccompanied children in immigration court hearings
after the federal government abruptly interfered with funding for children’s immigration attorneys. Alongside partner coalitions, we documented and underscored the funding cut’s harm to children’s safety and right to due process.
Our Litigation program filed an amicus brief defending children’s right to legal representation
and our Safe Repatriation team hosted its first international convening with home study providers across Latin America in Quetzaltenango, Guatemala.
Pictured: Our Safe Repatriation Team, international service providers, and staff in a group picture in front of
Vida Digna’s office.
The Young Center celebrated two decades of child-centered advocacy
alongside supporters, colleagues, and partners at its 20th Anniversary Homecoming Celebration in Chicago, recognizing Help for Children (HFC) as the 2025 Maria Woltjen Child Advocate Waymaker Honoree.
Pictured left to right: Gladis Molina Alt, Young
Center Executive Director, and Sumudu Waas,
HFC Chief Executive Officer
Our Child Advocate Program hosted its largest national volunteer training to date, welcoming over 100 participants over two days
New Volunteer Child Advocates are prepared to support unaccompanied and separated immigrant children with trauma-informed, child-centered advocacy.
Our Policy Program launched the Protect Immigrant Children Campaign
marking Phase 1 of the narrative change campaign.
The Young Center served as “Next Friend” in federal court for Guatemalan children who were targeted for unlawful deportation over Labor Day weekend
while simultaneously coordinating an organization-wide response to new federal policies granting ICE access to children in shelters. Our colleagues across programs worked with partners to document risks, share guidance, and help ensure children’s safety and access to legal protections.
The 5th Annual Elizabeth Frankel Waymakers Mileage Challenge
became the largest in
Young Center history
with over 530 participants across 40 states and three countries logging 28,742 miles, raising $99,420 to support immigrant children and honor the legacy of Elizabeth Frankel.
Pictured: Young Center colleagues and community
members on a Waymakers Walk in Chicago
The Young Center strengthened
its cross-program reproductive
justice work,
expanding support for pregnant and parenting youth
through direct advocacy, case consultations, data analysis, and policy advocacy. We also kicked off a season of fall events in New York City, Boston, and Phoenix, engaging supporters across the country in our work to stand with immigrant children.
Pictured: Young Center supporters in New York City.
Photo: Mauricio de Riglos (@nolightsnyc)
Our Technical Assistance Program curated a panel presentation by youth with lived experience,
at the intersection of foster care and the U.S.
immigration system at a convening of child welfare stakeholders in California coordinated by our partner,
Casey Family Programs.
Pictured: Shaina Simenas, Co-Director for our Technical
Assistance Program, on left, with co-panelists
Our Policy Program presented at
the 2025 TASH Conference
on the needs and challenges faced by immigrant children with disabilities, closing out a year of disability rights advocacy across social media, policy, and trainings. That same month, our Technical Assistance Program responded to as many requests from detained parents for consultations on the custody of their children as it did in all of 2024. By the end of 2025, they responded to four times as many of these requests as they did in 2024.
Pictured: Anne Kelsey, Senior Policy Analyst for Disability Rights, on right, with fellow disability advocates
At the Young Center, our Volunteer Child Advocates aren’t just part of the work — they’re the heart of it.
“This new administration beats down immigrants daily. The prevailing message is that they are wrong, bad, and shouldn’t be here. Being a volunteer child advocate puts us in a position to help heal the wounds of this narrative.”
– Catherine Kutney,
Young Center Volunteer Child Advocate
Here’s what your support made possible in 2025
Illustrator Spotlight: Antonio Alanís
This year we are honored to feature illustrations from Antonio Alanís’ Clarita Migrates North throughout our 2025 Annual Report.
Clarita Migrates North is a tender and powerful story that honors the dignity, strength, and love of migrant families.
Through vibrant illustrations and heartfelt storytelling, Antonio’s work reflects many of the themes at the heart of the Young Center’s mission: ensuring immigrant children are heard, valued, and seen as children first.
Read on to learn more about Antonio’s creative process, the power of child-centered storytelling, and the connections he sees between his work and the mission of the Young Center.
Our Impact: Systems Change
The Protect Immigrant Children Campaign
In 2025, our Policy Program launched the Protect
Immigrant Children (PIC) Campaign, the first phase of a national narrative change effort to build broader public support for immigrant children by educating and activating politically moderate audiences.
Working alongside the Center for Law and Social
Policy, Children Thrive Action Network, Acacia Center for Justice, the National Center for Youth Law, and the End Special Immigrant Juvenile Status (SIJS) Backlog Coalition, we advanced a shared child-centered narrative, expanded public engagement, and developed research-backed messaging tools that helped advocates communicate more effectively about immigrant children’s experiences and rights.
The campaign combined polling research, message
testing, and storytelling by trusted community voices
to reach new audiences and strengthen public support for child-centered policies.