Thousands of unaccompanied immigrant children are currently in the custody of the Office of Refugee Resettlement, waiting to be reunited with a family member or other loved one (known as a “sponsor”) who is willing to receive them into their home in the United States. In VECINA’s ReUnite project, we assist these sponsors in securing the release of their children from the U.S. government custody by helping them navigate the release and reunification process. VECINA is recruiting volunteers to help sponsors with paperwork, gather supporting documents, provide interpretation, and advocate for the release of a child. Join a team to help reunite a family!

PROJECT BACKGROUND:

When unaccompanied immigrant children are apprehended by immigration officials after entering the U.S., they are transferred to the custody of the Office of Refugee Resettlement (ORR), where they remain until they have been approved for release to a viable “sponsor” in the U.S. The sponsors, who are family members or other loved ones of the children, must undergo a rigorous vetting process, which can be confusing and frightening to navigate alone. Most unaccompanied children have a family member in the U.S. who can receive them, and for nearly half of these children, the family member is a parent. Many of these children have entered the U.S. after fleeing violence and persecution in their countries of origin.

The majority of unaccompanied minors are held in ORR shelters, but in times of influx, they are often held in Emergency Intake Sites — large, warehouse-like facilities — that are not appropriate or safe for children, and where staff are not equipped or trained to properly care for them or manage their release process. The suffering that these already-traumatized children experience in custody compounds each day that they are detained.

So, in the midst of the largest influx of unaccompanied minors to date in the spring of 2021, VECINA launched the ReUnite project with the aim of helping the loved ones of detained unaccompanied children seek their release and reunite with them more quickly. These sponsors would contact VECINA to inform us that they needed help with the reunification process, and through ReUnite, we would assign a team to assist them, generally consisting of a pro bono attorney, an administrative support volunteer, and an interpreter.

As the influx of 2021 subsided, we began to receive ReUnite referrals that were more complex than the cases we originally placed, which usually followed a similar pattern. Now, most of the cases we place are of sponsors who are struggling with the reunification process because they are experiencing particular barriers. Some sponsors do not receive the necessary interpretation services from the government in their language. Others may struggle to complete all of the documentation requirements. Others may have been denied the release of their child for reasons that are not in line with government policy. In all of these cases, ReUnite is there to help sponsors overcome the barriers to a successful reunification.

In some instances, ReUnite assists with cases where an unaccompanied minor has yet to enter the U.S., but has a quickly-approaching entry date. In these cases, ReUnite’s pro bono teams work with the child’s intended sponsor to help them complete as much of the reunification paperwork as possible in advance of the child’s entry, with the aim of submitting the paperwork to the government right away once the child is detained to reduce the amount of time the child spends in custody.

To date, ReUnite has provided reunification and post-release support to over 1,200 families. Over 360 of these children’s sponsors received direct legal representation in the release and reunification process from one of VECINA’s volunteer teams. ReUnite remains the only organization in the United States that provides pro bono legal assistance to sponsors to help them secure the release of detained unaccompanied minors.

HEAR SOME OF OUR VOLUNTEERS SHARE THEIR EXPERIENCES WITH THIS PROJECT:

Volunteer attorney Shyaam Subramanian:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v

Our goal is to get kids out of detention as quickly and efficiently as possible! We are currently at the beginning of another influx of unaccompanied minors. While the precise number of cases we will receive is somewhat unpredictable due to the ever-changing immigration landscape, we want to be as prepared as possible to meet family reunification needs as they arise.

We are currently in need of more attorney volunteers to work on these cases.

TIME COMMITMENT AND CASE LENGTH:

Each volunteer can expect to spend approximately 8-10 hours over the duration of a ReUnite case, which includes the ~1.5 hour online training and the case work. Each case can last anywhere from a week to a few months, depending on the complexity of the case. Because these cases involve detained children, it is important for volunteers to work as efficiently as possible on their cases.

IMPORTANT: Once we place a case with a team of volunteers, we ask that volunteers contact the client within 24 hours, whenever possible, to begin working on the case, given that these cases involve detained children and time is of the essence.

This opportunity is entirely remote! As a reminder, work with this project is done on a volunteer basis. This is not a paid opportunity.

Lawyers do not need immigration law experience to help children be released from federal Office of Refugee Resettlement (ORR) custody!

Most ReUnite cases will consist of a three-person volunteer team, including an attorney, an administrative support volunteer, and an interpreter. Depending on the language needs of the sponsor in your case, it is possible that an interpreter will not be needed. If the sponsor in
your case has already completed much or all of the sponsorship paperwork when your case is placed, we may determine that an admin support volunteer won't be needed in your case.

ATTORNEY ROLE:
The attorney will represent the sponsor in the reunification process, provide guidance to the sponsor regarding any legal or substantive questions, and review the sponsor’s documents for final approval before submitting them to the child's case manager or ORR. The attorney will
also be the person to reach out to the case manager once the attorney's entry of appearance has been submitted, should the sponsor need help liaising with the case manager or ORR, or if additional advocacy is needed. While we recognize that the type of assistance that the sponsor needs may not be particularly legal in nature, it is important to recognize that case managers and ORR will only communicate with the sponsor or the sponsor's attorney (not a non-attorney reaching out on behalf of the sponsor). For this reason, it is very important for the sponsor to have an attorney in these cases, particularly when the sponsor is confused about what the case manager has told him/her, or when he/she needs additional advocacy.

Spanish skills or Haitian Creole skills will be very helpful, but are not required, as we pair attorneys with volunteer interpreters.