Kids in Need of Defense (KIND)

Results: In calendar year 2021, KIND provided wide-ranging legal aid to unaccompanied and separated immigrant children, including: Free legal representation to 6,106 clients, with 30% represented by KIND’s staff attorneys, and 70% represented by pro bono partners who are mentored by KIND staff. Our pro bono network serves as a force multiplier, significantly increasing the number of children we can represent without increasing costs. 411 legal trainings for pro bono attorneys, attended by 7,455 participants. Legal guidance to over 4,800 newly arrived children detained in immigration shelters in Atlanta, Houston, New York City, and Seattle. Know Your Rights presentations and other support, including social services, to 33,038 children processed through the Emergency Intake Shelters (EIS). 1,318 clients received education, housing, medical, public benefits, and mental health social-service supports. 98% of cases that reached a legal conclusion in 2021 (representing 535 clients) resulted in successful outcomes.

Target demographics: unaccompanied and separated immigrant and refugee children.

Direct beneficiaries per year: 6,100 unaccompanied children with their legal cases and we served 1,200 with over 2,400 social services.

Geographic areas served: Atlanta, Baltimore, Boston, El Paso, Fresno, Houston, Los Angeles, Newark, New York City, Northern Virginia, Orlando, San Francisco, Seattle, Washington, DC

Programs: Legal Services: KIND provides free legal representation to unaccompanied immigrant children, using trauma-informed, culturally-sensitive approaches. To maximize our impact, clients may be matched with either KIND’s in-house attorneys or a pro bono attorney from KIND’s robust network of more than 730 law firms, corporations, law schools and bar associations partners. No immigration law experience is necessary to serve as a pro bono attorney; KIND’s dedicated team trains and mentors volunteers throughout the duration of their cases. KIND’s full legal representation includes seeking all humanitarian immigration relief for which a child may be eligible, such as SIJS, asylum, T and U visas, as well as removal (deportation) defense in Immigration Court. Social Services: Migrant children’s successful integration into new communities and their ability to live healthy lives is rooted in increased access to culturally and trauma-informed social services. Through an interdisciplinary approach, KIND’s Social Services Program helps migrant children access resources, foster and strengthen networks of support, and invest in their overall wellbeing. KIND provides and coordinates social services with local partner agencies to holistically meet our clients’ needs, including food, housing, physical and mental health care, support for pregnant or parenting teens, resources for LGBTQI+ clients, trauma-informed creative expression opportunities, and more. KIND’s social services coordinators, located at every field office, are trained child welfare professionals who work to assess individual needs, intervene in crisis situations, and provide referrals to local services. KIND’s social services work is reliant upon strong relationships with a wide network of providers, with whom we often partner to host events for clients. Family Reunification: KIND’s Family Separation team works to identify and reunite children forcibly separated from their parents as a result of the 2018 Zero Tolerance policy, and today also works at the border helping to prepare children and their caretakers for separation as they enter at U.S. at ports of entry, including collaboration with border agents to mitigate long-term separations. International Programming: We support migrating children in Europe, Mexico, and Central America. Since 2010, KIND has partnered with local civil society organizations (CSOs) to provide safe return and long-term reintegration support to children returning to Guatemala and Honduras, demonstrating that targeted investments and a holistic approach can help children reunify safely and sustainably. KIND’s Reintegration Program uses a trauma-informed, child-centered model of intensive case management to address the driving factors that led a child to migrate as well as the far-reaching impacts of migration, extended detention, and separation from family members. This work involves both providing direct assistance to children and their family members, as well as advocacy with the U.S. government to increase resources for reintegration programming and to make the repatriation process child friendly. This program is the first and only of its kind that takes a cross-border case management approach, specifically targets unaccompanied and separated children, and seeks to impact policy and procedure to incorporate a child-centered approach. Through the initial years of KIND’s reintegration programming, KIND and our partners identified gender-based violence as a leading cause of child migration, and saw an increase in girls and survivors of GBV in the migrant population. In response, KIND launched the Gender and Migration Initiative (GMI) in 2015 to prevent and address GBV against migrant children. The GMI combines capacity strengthening for local organizations in Guatemala and Honduras with GBV prevention and response programming that engages children and youth, teachers, parents, and community members. Through the GMI, KIND also carries out research on GBV and child migration and engages in advocacy to promote laws and policies that strengthen the rights of migrant children, including survivors of GBV, and encourage the U.S. government to invest in GBV prevention and response in the region.