Video

Struggle for Identity and Inclusion Unaccompanied Immigrant Youth in New York City

Vera partnered with Fordham Law School’s Feerick Center for Social Justice to conduct a research study that explores the needs and experiences of New York City’s unaccompanied immigrant youth. The study, Struggle for Identity and Inclusion: Unaccompanied Immigrant Youth in New York City, draws upon the personal expertise of these youth and system stakeholders, in collaboration with researchers and community service providers.

In this video, peer researchers who immigrated to the United States alone as minors discuss their experiences recruiting and interviewing other unaccompanied immigrant youth as participants for the study. Abja Midha, project director of Advocates for Children, and Elvis Garcia Callejas, advisory committee member of Catholic Charities New York and himself a former unaccompanied youth, further discuss the importance of including youth as partners in the research.

To learn more, please visit the Immigrant Youth Participatory Action Research project.

Related

Ten Ways Trump Is Making Us Less Safe

From public health to disaster response, the administration is weakening the systems that keep Americans safe.

“Safety will be restored,” Donald Trump declared from the Republican National Convention floor a decade ago. “The most basic duty of government is to defend the lives of its own citizens,” he said, promising to do so if elected president. “Keeping America Safe” has been a consistent Trump message ever since. It generally refers to violent crime, wh ...

News
June 16, 2026
News

Maryland Takes Significant Step Toward Fair Housing for People Returning from Incarceration

Maryland’s newly passed Fair Chance Housing Act expands access to safe, stable housing for people with conviction histories and advances public safety.

Marquis Howard recalls sweating over every word he wrote in the box on the housing application that asked about his criminal conviction. Even though he had gone back to school, earned degrees, and held a good job, he reasonably feared his application would be rejected due to a decades-old conviction. “I was so stressed,” said Howard, a senior organ ...

News
June 04, 2026
News

How Legal Representation Turned the Tide For a Mother Facing Deportation

“I hope [my attorneys] will be able to help other people—the same way they helped me.”

Shackled hand and foot on a deportation flight to Mexico, Naomi* sat weeping and praying. Her parents brought her to the United States when she was nine years old. Though she had struggled to navigate the complex path to legal residency, she had built a life in the Chicago area, with children and grandchildren she would be leaving behind. When she ...

News
May 27, 2026
News