Young Center for Immigrant Children’s Rights invites applications for the full-time position of Staff Attorney to be based in San Antonio, Texas.
This position is a unique opportunity for an attorney to join a passionate team made up of social workers, attorneys, and administrative staff, to engage in interdisciplinary written and oral advocacy on behalf of children in immigration removal proceedings. The Young Center is appointed as independent Child Advocate for unaccompanied and separated immigrant children and advocates for their best interests with respect to their custody, conditions of release, and their immigration proceedings. The Young Center does not directly represent children in immigration matters but works closely with the legal service providers who may represent the children. The Staff Attorney will help recruit, train, and supervise bilingual and bicultural volunteer Child Advocates—teachers, law students, social workers, community members—who will work one-on-one with children. The Young Center team is a passionate and collegial group of professionals committed to ensuring that children receive the full protection of federal immigration law, domestic child welfare law and international human rights law.
ABOUT THE YOUNG CENTER:
The Young Center for Immigrant Children’s Rights is a national organization dedicated to protecting and advancing the rights and best interests – safety and well-being – of immigrant children in the United States. The immediate focus of the Young Center’s work is to serve as Child Advocate for unaccompanied and separated immigrant children pursuant to the 2008 Trafficking Victims Protection and Reauthorization Act and the 2013 Violence Against Women Act. Our role is to identify and advocate for the best interests of immigrant children both while they are in federal custody and after they are released, applying federal and state law and long-recognized principles of the best interests of the child. The Young Center also engages in policy work, advocating with legislators, federal agencies, and other stakeholders to promote consideration of the best interests of the child in all decisions concerning immigrant children and to create a dedicated juvenile immigrant justice system that treats children as children. The Young Center has programs in Houston, San Antonio, Harlingen, Chicago, New York, Washington DC, Phoenix, and Los Angeles.