In his first four months in office, President Donald Trump has created immense fear and uncertainty for immigrants, including minors. In Los Angeles, an immigration rights advocate is working hard to do the opposite: Jocelyn Vargas brings support to the most vulnerable – immigrant children, including unaccompanied minors – and some additional help may be coming her way soon.
Vargas works at the Young Center for Immigrant Children’s Rights. As the volunteer coordinator for the center’s LA office, she recruits and trains candidates to advocate for unaccompanied minors in immigration detention in Southern California. With bachelor’s and master’s degrees in social work from California State University, LA, Vargas has been doing this work at the center for three years and currently has 80 volunteers. She hopes to increase that number with a series of events this summer.
The Young Center will hold informational sessions May 27 and June 2 for those interested in becoming a volunteer. That session will be followed by formal training on June 28 and 29. All the sessions will be online.
“Folks need to be at least 21 years of age or older, commit to serving as a volunteer for at least 12 months, and submit all required application materials,” said Vargas. Volunteers will be paired with a child and provide weekly in-person visits at detention facilities across Southern California. Other requirements include FBI and state background checks, a tuberculosis test and proof of COVID-19 vaccination.
“Volunteers also advocate for the children’s best interests alongside our dedicated staff,” added Vargas. She explained that the LA office staff includes two social workers and two attorneys who serve as the child advocate supervisors, plus a managing attorney who supervises the whole team.
Needs in the Valley
Some LA areas may require more help than others. “Right now, we need a lot of folks in the Westside and the San Fernando Valley area,” she said.
California is a top destination for unaccompanied children, with LA being called home by the highest number in the Golden State.
Bilingual volunteers are essential. Spanish is the language in highest demand due to the large number of child refugees coming from south of the border, especially from nations like Guatemala, Honduras, El Salvador and Venezuela. The Young Center also needs volunteers who can speak various Mayan dialects and indigenous languages spoken in Southern Mexico and Latin America. There is also a need for volunteers who speak Arabic, French, Russian, Vietnamese and other languages to serve the large numbers of people from countries experiencing conflict, persecution or instability.
Since the sessions and training are virtual, they are open to applicants from all over the United States, noted Vargas.
The President and Immigration
The training sessions are scheduled during a time when President Trump continues to aggressively push mass deportations through executive orders and proposed legislation. But regardless, José Ortiz-Rosales, deputy program director at the center’s LA office, said volunteers will always be in demand no matter the administration.
“There’s always youth coming over who need this support, and so that’s why there’s always going to be that need for volunteers,” he said. “There will always be a need as long as kids are migrating to the United States, either alone or separated from their family at the border, or when immigration authorities enforce their policies inside the United States.”
However, Trump has attempted to arrest and deport unaccompanied minors. In February, the president directed immigration agents to track down thousands of undocumented migrant children who crossed the border without their parents as part of his ambitious deportation effort. Trump has also tried to cut the funding of legal assistance for these children, though that effort has been halted by the courts.
Homeland Security versus Child Immigrants
Still, immigration authorities persist in their efforts to contact immigrant youths. Recently, CNN reported that Homeland Security Investigations agents in civilian clothes visited the residence of an unaccompanied minor in Virginia unannounced, reportedly for a “welfare check.” The youth, a green card applicant, was not home but somebody in the house alerted the minor’s immigration attorney, who surprised the agents on the spot.
The lawyer told them all government contact with his client must go through him. The lawyer said he had never seen “welfare checks” before by Homeland Security agents and questioned their intentions and honesty. He video recorded the incident. The video has more than 1.3 million views and over 3,000 comments, many of which are skeptical of the agents’ motives.
An Attorney’s Assessment
Immigration attorney Sergio Siderman, whose law firm has offices in Van Nuys and LA, has a theory about how Homeland Security and Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents operate under Trump. In a recent presentation at a community forum in East LA, Siderman said that agents go for the “low hanging fruit” in the immigrant population, hoping that vulnerable individuals don’t know their constitutional rights and can be easily intimidated.
The best defense is to hire a professional immigration attorney to represent them in all interactions with immigration authorities, said Siderman.
The attorney still had more advice. “If ICE agents knock on your door, don’t open it; ICE cannot enter your home without a court order signed by a judge,” Siderman said. “Call your lawyer so he can deal with the agents on the phone.” When immigration agents encounter well-informed and legally well-represented immigrants, they usually move on to someone else, he added.
Making a Difference
For his part, Ortiz-Rosales emphasized the importance advocates have in the lives of detained immigrant children. “The training prepares volunteers to meet with these youths and build a relationship with them,” he said. Being in the custody of the U.S. government can be a traumatic experience, dealing with many strangers and much inconsistency.
“Just talking about their day or having some play time together once a week is something that I think children appreciate,” said Ortiz-Rosales. “I also think the training will be fun for the volunteers, seeing everyone come together as a community to support our immigrant children.”
To submit your volunteer child advocate application through the website by June 9, go to: https://www.mobilize.us/theyoungcenter/.