Interview Summary

Unaccompanied minors face numerous challenges at the border and in the US immigration system, including cultural and intergenerational trauma, lack of empathy and community partnerships, and systemic flaws. The group emphasized the need for dedicated organizations, community involvement, and addressing root causes like segregation and violence to provide better support and advocate for systemic change.

​

Transcript

Haley:

So Oscar, it's so nice to meet you. Thank you so much for agreeing to meet with us again. Yeah. So basically, we created an or an organization called like the students helping unaccompanied minors at UEFI. And our goal is to inform students about the struggles of that, like these children, unaccompanied minors endure when they're both coming to the states and kind of just adjusting to life you're having to deal with all of the other conflicts. And so we are creating a website and an Instagram like page to show off resources such as the refugee center here. So my first question would be What led you to work with this community? Um,

Tre:

yeah, so actually, it's a it's a it's a long and somehow short story. At the same time, I was raised in Oakland, California by brilliant the legacy of actually the Black Panther Party is self defense. I knew a lot of I've known a lot of Black Panthers. So the idea of like economic, cultural and community sovereignty, thank you, is like a, it's been a really big deal for me. So even but I understood from being like this lifelong activist that there's, there's overlap. So even though like primarily, we serve Latinos, communities here that immigration is not just a, like a Latino thing. I think a lot of times, there's a lot of hyper visibility on the Latino community, but it's a global phenomenon and even particularly to African and black different black diasporas it is a form of immigration as well, depending on how you look at it. So there's a lot of cross applicable strategies and organizing that really kind of brought me in here. So I mean, I wanted to help people that needed to be helped. It just happened that, uh, not that long ago at Parkland, the role I serve before here at Parkland College, they needed a program coordinator for their English second language and community navigation program that they had there. I then got promoted the program manager, but I knew I still needed a gig that was a little bit more long term. It's not it might be locked.

Maria:

Or do you want to bring yourself alright? Yeah. Yeah,

Tre:

But um, to move to where I knew I was at. Because of that. Yeah, I knew that there was a lot of cross applicable work, I learned that in a program was called Project read. It introduced me into some of the immigrant struggles are more specific to the microcosm of Champaign Urbana, and I knew that I had something to offer. And there were people that needed help that and we're in a very interesting political climate at the sight of Absolutely. So I worked where I was needed. 

Haley:

Amazing to hear. And it is really interesting, too. I mean, a lot of times it is focused with immigration on like, the Latin X community, but like you said, truly global phenomenon. I know like for my family and some other friends like immigrants that came from ton of different countries. Do you wanna do the second question? Okay. So what would you say is the biggest need that you have seen that is specific to this community, especially these unaccompanied minors? Um,

Tre:

I'll have somewhat two answers for that. One, the biggest thing that I would feel like that I would see for the, like the immigration services, community is a I mean, to better work in coalition with one another. So we're here down in the immigrant cooperative, but that doesn't mean that always we sometimes have to like actually kind of compete against each other from time to time. And that's not really the goal of any of our organizations. But there's been a but we need to have a little bit of better collaboration to make sure that we're in that we're being succinct like immigration services, Champaign Urbana, which obviously are run is the has like transportation related services, health care, navigation. Other ones have legal services that are what they do. And if we really were as succinct as we want to be, essentially, we could be a one stop shop. So I don't really even like the idea of looking at all of us as different organizations, when instead, there's really a good amount of radical potential there that if we instead really move as a collective and move together, and that's what I'd rather do.

​

Are you gonna be able to make it to the grand opening tomorrow?

Tre:

Yeah. Okay, cool. Good to know. Yeah, I wouldn't. I didn't know I was what's great. It's actually not only grand opening is something that I have to go to, but I should go to make it good. Okay, yeah. That's another executive director of another nonprofit. We have fun here.

Haley:

That's I mean, it seems really welcoming here. Yeah,

Tre:

a lot of the most of the folks that actually nobody in this meeting if it wasn't for Marina, my system director and myself, I don't think anybody that you've seen since you've been walking around here would be in this space. Like I said, it's that important overlay of like black and brown communities working together. I am sadly the only black person in My organization right now that we've been changing that by making sure that we're resource hub for other smaller nonprofits that want to do collaborative work, work on grants and stuff like that, because we have like, say cross cultural cross cross racial, cross ethnic backgrounds, collaboration, so we can kind of achieve a higher goal together. So that's a great example of a business elevators, a great

Haley:

Organization. That's awesome. Are they like, also in this building,

Tre:

Yeah. Okay, cool. Good to know. Yeah, I wouldn't. I didn't know I was what's great. It's actually not only grand opening is something that I have to go to, but I should go to make it good. Okay, yeah. That's another executive director of another nonprofit. We have fun here.

Haley:

That's I mean, it seems really welcoming here. Yeah,

Tre:

a lot of the most of the folks that actually nobody in this meeting if it wasn't for Marina, my system director and myself, I don't think anybody that you've seen since you've been walking around here would be in this space. Like I said, it's that important overlay of like black and brown communities working together. I am sadly the only black person in My organization right now that we've been changing that by making sure that we're resource hub for other smaller nonprofits that want to do collaborative work, work on grants and stuff like that, because we have like, say cross cultural cross cross racial, cross ethnic backgrounds, collaboration, so we can kind of achieve a higher goal together. So that's a great example of a business elevators, a great

Haley:

organization. That's awesome. Are they like, also in this building,

Tre:

they are not in this building. They actually don't, technically they are. So all over, I don't even know where I would call, they're necessarily their headquarters. But now this elevator helps incubate minority owned different minority owned businesses, and all that primarily micro businesses in the first place. So for example, we think that it's important to develop the infrastructure out of minority communities, immigrants who oftentimes would fall into that work. So we were like, okay, cool. Well, there might be a language barrier, there might be a cultural understanding barrier, we have some of the data on that. You all know how to build our businesses, let's help these communities have some of the same platforms and access as others. So going bigger and more specific to the kids partner, it's actually interesting, because we're working in a different capacity I'm working on a program with them, which is on a youth develop is actually on youth development anyway. So I'm, particularly when we talk about, like unaccompanied youth that are coming to here, it's kind of it's actually I could use a very similar approach. I don't have the longest experience of immigration, but it's collective intergenerational trauma is still something that we look to focus on, when when we are here. So I that's been where a lot of my learning has had to actually come from as the very same coalition that you're seeing walking with, with into the room and the recognition of the necessity for coalition when we as a nonprofit, are always going to be understaffed, we are always going to be undermanned, because we're relying on grants and other people's generosity to see and be able to feel the solution to a problem that they oftentimes can't see themselves. If the money is sitting in one group's hands and you're having to make oppression tangible to them, there's only going to be so much that you can do. And the generosity only goes as far as they're able to really feel the effect of such a mission. And there's limits there. So especially a lot of times it's an older white savior is community, it might be in the background, but then you're literally having a conversation about traumatized youth, not from the country, there's a limit to that. So that's why we have to have coalition work, even though there may not be money, there's still man and woman power on the ground, that we could be able to mobilize and that collective experience can better account for the intersectionalities that all meet within a lot of these kids that are crossing the border. Yeah.

Haley:

That actually answers part of like the other question, too. No, no, it's amazing. Thank you so much. I love the detail. So thank you so much for that. So partially, I was going to ask like, how often do you work with these miners? But you brought up a good point with the generational trauma and I think that is something that is definitely overlooked. So would you say that you focus more on kind of that aspect of trauma with like all refugees that come here? Is that something common that you experienced at this place? Or

Tre:

and I'm so do me a favor, Manisha. Can you get Maria? Yeah, cuz, you know, she's actual person that works with them. And I do more of the high level administrative stuff going out. Um, so I'm gonna have, so I'm gonna actually have briefly pause, I'm gonna have my system director and they do more to service, but I will do give my answer as well. So my system director does a lot of the actual direct work with them. There's a language barrier, which is why sometimes, and I don't speak Spanish, and it's primarily Spanish speaking, folks. So I have Maria come in and answer the question. Oh, yeah.

Haley:

And so our final question, if both of you could answer for whatever works. So how often do the needs of unaccompanied minors differ from other immigrants? Or just situations that you

Maria:

See? They're completely different? Yeah, I mean, as I just like, shared, like, both of those cases, were the first time that I ever dealt with an adoption lawyer or with like, literally an investigation to find a missing child. So I can imagine the Yeah, like the needs are much higher. I don't explain what I'm trying to say. If they've gone through the system, they belong to a database. And they have to meet certain like requirements to be able to be here specially if they have a sponsor. So I'm assuming you guys know what a sponsor is. There's a lot of like I said, specific recommendations that they have to meet, which is actually why the child that ran away did because she wasn't meeting like the academic requirements, and they essentially had, so I would, I would put it in its own category. It's absolutely its own category where I myself, and I've been working with immigrants for quite some time. Every time I haven't been accompanied minor come through my door. It's like I'm having to learn from scratch. How to provide services. Yeah, it's incredibly difficult. Yeah,

Haley:

I mean, it definitely does sound like a lot. But like you said, very rewarding. rewarding work.

Maria:

Sure. And yeah, I learned a lot in the process. It's also like, one thing I learned from it was, it opens the door to create new community partnerships, because as much as our world is incredibly problematic, there is a general kind of like consensus to a certain degree of like, children's. Yeah, yeah. It still isn't where it should be. We have, you know, children of color all the time that are losing their lives for no reason. Other than just systemic oppression. But for example, like, I don't want to be on a call with detective or police officer. But in this call, the police officer showed a lot of empathy because it was an unaccompanied minor and was able to like, you know, would call me randomly once a week and be like, Have you heard anything? And then the immigration lawyer, this is like, what are the adoption lawyer, whereas they would have probably charged like a lot more money to somebody else, because of an unaccompanied minor, they had more empathy, and they were able to give a discounted rate. So I think it opens the door to create more, just like community partnerships.

Tre:

Yeah. Which, of course, is a really interesting thing, because at the same time, I was getting asked a question by them earlier that was around some of the pitfalls in the work. And it's weird, because it's still based on generosity, versus it being built into the system. So as I was saying, Oh, actually, one of the biggest problems is that it's built on how much someone's willing to be generous, but that's often not enough. Yeah, so it's a really super interesting. It may sound like opposites, but it's not at all.

Maria:

It's difficult to like talk about because I think I mean, it's something that I think I would encourage anyone who has anything to do, or any proximity to unaccompanied minors is to like consider how corrupt a system in a country has to be for a young child to 10 years old to be like, I'm going to cross the border by myself so that I can come get a job and send money back to my mom, right? Like, those conditions are something that none of us in this room can like true really grasp? Um, what else was I gonna say? Yeah, I second what you're saying. I like this is like just like on a personal level believe that unaccompanied minors are going to be what like breaks the system, because all of these different systems that we're talking about, have no idea how to navigate unaccompanied minors. Right. When you when someone who doesn't know much about immigration hears that 1012, eight year old children are crossing the border by themselves are like, wait, what, like, so I believe that it's going to be them that's going to like force systems to have to really like shift and change. I can't say how long that will take probably knowing our country longer than it should. But I've already kind of seen it start to really like, create conversation and dialogue where people who are like anti immigration are kind of like, what Wait, what about these kids? And I'm sure you guys will come to find that it's all very related to human trafficking as well. So yeah, it's like I like I, like I said earlier, I think it's like a field of its own. I may have a lot of information about immigration, but I still have trouble wrapping my head around unaccompanied minors. And yeah, I believe it probably needs its own office and its own organization,

Tre:

which is why I'm happy you are focused on possibly creating some Right, yeah, honestly, we would whatever you need on support wise to get your own stuff. Yes, we would love to help. Anytime.

Haley:

Yeah, that was kind of another question I had just like, what sources do you recommend, like, you guys offer anything you've seen in the community just that we can spread more weird? Yeah, so are grown accompanying minors to find these resources.

Maria:

Um, I actually would like to sit on that and like, make a document for you of like, all the stuff that I do know, just because it's going to require me to like go through my email. I do know that places like Cunningham Children's Home, which I don't know if you guys have heard of them. Places like that are starting to get grants that are literally just to provide services to unaccompanied minors. So I don't know if they've able been able to successfully hire someone prior to coming here. And I was like, kind of like looking at this position, where they have grant money to hire a case manager that literally like their only job, like requirements are to try to take in unaccompanied minors and make sure they are connected to all of the sources that need to be connected to, I don't know, but I'm very curious to know what the school system is doing about it. Like, how are they navigating this right? Because like, you have an unaccompanied minor who's like going to first grade or fifth grade every day, what's happening after school? And how is the school aware whatever it is, so yeah, it's fascinating that you guys are like, really taking this on because it is not integrated into our community yet. So yeah, you guys will probably be like, just groundbreaking initiators of Yeah, work that's eventually going to make the people that are doing the boots on the ground work to be able to have better connections. So

Naeshya:

quick aside on that. So my I told you some of what my graduate work was in a little bit, my specific focus was in looking at activism and registered student organizations and RSLs and all that in their role in playing a part of bigger movements. Please stay in contact with us as you do as you do this work. You asked about the internship program, like a little bit off record that we've been developing. And I think there's multiple people here. Interviewers that could probably speak to like how we've tried to make activism and on the ground work, a part of the internship experience and a part of the student development experience holistically. So that is something we would love to talk to you about. And also the importance of taking stuff off campus because there's a long history of like said segregation and violence that is tied to particularly a land grant institution like you have I. And it goes even beyond that. There's ways that obviously, Shabana was cartography devised and broken down in red line that is based on something that don't stuff that started from the university level. So that is a starting point is a very intro Mr. Manuel, there's a lot of resources but not a lot of expertise on genuinely how to get into the community. So I would, I would not even caution, I'm just going to straight say, please stay in contact with us because you need a spot that's not just on campus or your work will not succeed. It is what I've studied. I've watched it happen a little bit too much. We're good, well intentioned students have that. And then it's something that's like, oh, yeah, radical activism, and they feel good about themselves on campus, but the radical potentiality is getting nullified because they don't necessarily know how to deal with the liminal relationship between community and university and college

Haley:

town. If there's any other information you would want us to include to, we would be happy to do

Maria:

like, yeah, or if you guys have like any, like, I mean, I don't know, like, you present this somewhere, or you have like a get, like, whatever it is, like, let us know, if you want us to be a part of that in any way.

Haley:

Thank you so much for your time!