THE CAUSE: Helping the Immigrant and Refugee Law Center provide legal services to unaccompanied and exploited immigrant children.

THE CHALLENGE: For every collective 250,000 steps tracked between 9/16/23 to 9/30/23, we will donate $78 (7800 cents) to the Immigration and Refugee Law Center. This challenge ends at 11:59 PM EST on 9/30/23. Submissions will be accepted until 10/1/2023 at 11:59 PM EST. 

THE WHY: Each year, thousands of unaccompanied children, many fleeing unspeakable violence in their own countries, enter the United States. After enduring a harrowing journey, they are apprehended and detained in federal custody in facilities contracted by the Office of Refugee Resettlement (ORR), and immediately placed in removal (deportation) proceedings without the benefit of an appointed attorney to guide them through this complicated process.  (https://acaciajustice.org/what-we-do/)

ORR maintains a network of “shelters” for children around the country to hold children while they are detained.  A 2008 anti-trafficking law requires that unaccompanied minors from most countries be screened for trafficking and allowed to stay in the U.S. pending their application for status. Many are released to poorly vetted sponsors who exploit them.

Unfortunately, there are also many children who are brought to the U.S. by someone who may or may not be their relative, and once here are subsequently abused, neglected, or abandoned. 

The Immigrant and Refugee Law Center (IRLC) is part of a network of legal service providers throughout the country that provides pro bono legal services to detained children and children released from detention to their sponsors.  This is a critical need, and without adequate legal assistance and legal education, unaccompanied immigrant children can fall through the cracks.  

As the New York Times has noted, migrant children in the U.S. have few options for help.

However, in Greater Cincinnati they do.  IRLC works with detained, unaccompanied, and exploited children to ensure that they receive critical legal services, as well as the holistic support they need. They work in a collaborative effort to ensure that the rights of children are protected. 

Acacia Center for Justice. (2023). What We Do. https://acaciajustice.org/what-we-do/

Dreier, Hannah. (2023, February 27). Biden Administration Plans Crackdown on Migrant Child Labor. https://www.nytimes.com/2023/02/27/us/biden-child-labor.html