Laura Zhang
Esperanza Immigrant Rights Project
Los Angeles, USA
This week is my fourth of the summer with Esperanza Immigrant Rights Project, in which I have already learned so much about unaccompanied minors, their legal proceedings, and forms of relief. Esperanza is a really unique organization, in that they offer pro bono representation, legal orientations, and social services to unaccompanied minors and their sponsors in the United States.
An unaccompanied minor is defined as an individual under the age of 18 who arrives at the United States without their legal guardian or parent and has no lawful status. Their first address in the United States is the shelter they are taken into by the Unaccompanied Children program, managed by the Office of Refugee Resettlement (ORR). From there, they are released to a sponsor in the United States which can include close family friends, aunts, siblings, parents, and others. When the youth are reunited with their sponsors, is where Esperanza’s work comes in.
The scope of my work runs between three different programs at Esperanza. First, the Opportunities for Youth (OFY) program that offers social services to the minors including English and Math practices sessions, workshops on how to find a lawyer, and how to apply for health insurance. OFY is a government funded pilot program in California and a couple other states through the Department of Social Services. Within OFY, I make outreach calls to families after their legal orientations to inform them of the programs offered and make other referrals if needed. I also work within the broader Released Youth Program that oversees OFY to source donors that can give gift cards or other materials to incentivize the youth to join OFY programs.
The Legal Orientation Program for Custodians (LOPC) provides group and individual orientations to sponsors and the minors. This is not a representation program where individual cases are discussed but rather a way to share information about the complex legal system and the forms of relief for unaccompanied minors to avoid deportation or voluntary removal. With LOPC, I work with the resources coordinator to create materials to be distributed at legal orientations such as mental and physical health, educational, housing, or other resources in Los Angeles County.
Getting to work in multiple programs, I see firsthand the important connections between them. Esperanza really builds rapport with the minors and their sponsors because they offer so many holistic programs, and I am excited to continue familiarizing myself with the work and team as passionately as they do for the rest of the summer. The next time I write, I hope to share more about the specific types of relief for unaccompanied minors, the one to one client work I’ve observed, and the impacts of the ongoing pandemic on Esperanza’s work.