Immigrant Youth in the Youth Justice System: What You Need to Know in 2018

Recent shifts in U.S. pol­i­cy have placed nonci­t­i­zen youth who are involved in the juve­nile jus­tice sys­tem at increased risk of arrest, deten­tion and depor­ta­tion. Nonci­t­i­zen par­ents are also fac­ing increased depor­ta­tion risks — a threat that under­mines fam­i­ly sta­bil­i­ty while leav­ing their chil­dren — includ­ing U.S. cit­i­zen and nonci­t­i­zen youth — grap­pling with height­ened anxiety.

To help juve­nile jus­tice pro­fes­sion­als nav­i­gate this evolv­ing land­scape, the Annie E. Casey Foun­da­tion has pub­lished an update to its 2014 prac­tice guide Nonci­t­i­zen Youth in the Juve­nile Jus­tice Sys­tem. Much like its pre­de­ces­sor, the 2018 update includes infor­ma­tion aimed at help­ing juve­nile jus­tice juris­dic­tions and indi­vid­ual employ­ees devel­op poli­cies and pro­ce­dures that align with the core strate­gies of the Juve­nile Deten­tion Alter­na­tives Ini­tia­tive (JDAI).

Down­load the 2018 Update to Nonci­t­i­zen Youth in the Juve­nile Jus­tice System

Read­ers will learn how fed­er­al immi­gra­tion enforce­ment poli­cies have changed since 2014 and how these devel­op­ments are impact­ing nonci­t­i­zen youth in the juve­nile jus­tice sys­tem. Nonci­t­i­zen Youth in the Juve­nile Jus­tice Sys­tem: 2018 Update also deliv­ers revised pol­i­cy rec­om­men­da­tions for pro­fes­sion­als who are work­ing with nonci­t­i­zen youth and with young peo­ple how have nonci­t­i­zen fam­i­ly members.

These rec­om­men­da­tions include:

• Do not enforce ICE detain­er or hold requests
  Com­pli­ance with detain­ers — a tool used by the U.S. Immi­gra­tion and Cus­toms Enforce­ment (ICE) — is vol­un­tary. Sev­er­al fed­er­al court deci­sions have found key aspects of ICE’s detain­er sys­tem uncon­sti­tu­tion­al and in vio­la­tion of fed­er­al statutes cre­at­ing lia­bil­i­ty for local law enforcement.
   
• Do not vio­late state con­fi­den­tial­i­ty laws in shar­ing infor­ma­tion with ICE 
  Many states have con­fi­den­tial­i­ty laws that pro­tect infor­ma­tion about youth in the juve­nile jus­tice sys­tem, often with no excep­tion for fed­er­al immi­gra­tion officials.
   
• Do help nonci­t­i­zen youth obtain law­ful immi­gra­tion status
  Juve­nile jus­tice offi­cials can help nonci­t­i­zen youth by con­nect­ing them with local legal ser­vices providers for immi­gra­tion legal assis­tance. If a youth is able to gain legal sta­tus, the youth could work law­ful­ly and pur­sue high­er edu­ca­tion and oth­er ser­vices and ben­e­fits, con­tribut­ing sig­nif­i­cant­ly to the youth’s suc­cess­ful tran­si­tion into adulthood.
   
• Do con­tin­ue to pur­sue JDAI reforms 
  For 25 years, JDAI has aimed to keep young peo­ple from being unnec­es­sar­i­ly sep­a­rat­ed from their fam­i­lies and com­mu­ni­ties. This work includes reduc­ing reliance on locked deten­tion, since even a short stay in deten­tion can cause young peo­ple seri­ous harm in areas like edu­ca­tion, employ­ment and men­tal health. Less reliance on deten­tion also keeps nonci­t­i­zen youth out of the depor­ta­tion pipeline.

The 2018 update also encour­ages juris­dic­tions to part­ner with local immi­gra­tion attor­neys and experts to help devel­op poli­cies and pro­to­cols and resolve indi­vid­ual cases.

“Ensur­ing a bright future for all chil­dren requires poli­cies that keep fam­i­lies togeth­er and allow them to flour­ish. Chil­dren also need com­mu­ni­ties that sup­port them and sys­tems that pro­tect them,” says Nate Balis, direc­tor of the Foundation’s Juve­nile Jus­tice Strat­e­gy Group. ​“We’re com­mit­ted to the well-being of all chil­dren liv­ing in the Unit­ed States, nonci­t­i­zen youth included.”

Webi­nar on the Report

On March 15, 2018, the Casey Foun­da­tion host­ed a webi­nar to high­light data and rec­om­men­da­tions from the report.