A forum on Immigration and Child Welfare, sponsored by Leaders of Color at Casey Family Programs, was held via videoconferencing on April 27, 2007.  The discussion focused on how immigration issues will impact Casey Family Programs’ 2020 strategy to safely reduce the number of children in the child welfare system.

Immigration and Child Welfare Brief

Immigrant families constitute a large and growing proportion of all families.  Almost one-fourth of children and youth in the US are either immigrants or children of immigrants.  Immigrants bring a wide range of knowledge, experience and skills that add to the strength of the US. With increasing numbers of immigrant families the country can expect, and many locales are experiencing, increased contacts with the child welfare system.
 
Challenges Facing Child Welfare

• Currently there are no reliable data on the number of immigrant children and families in the child welfare system, resulting in a lack of good data to support effective planning and service delivery.
• Throughout the child welfare system, there are not enough interpretation/translation services or bilingual staff members at all levels.  Too often, child victims of abuse and neglect are asked to translate for a parent who is suspected of abuse or neglect.
• There is a lack of culturally relevant services such as parenting classes and drug treatment programs.
• Cultural norms and child rearing practices often differ from those in the US.
• Undocumented children are not eligible for federally funded Title IV-E foster care.
• Finally, poor immigrant families may lack access to federal income and employment supports. Welfare reform and immigration reform have restricted immigrant access to food stamps, public health insurance, Supplemental Security Income (SSI), and TANF.
  Implications for Casey Family Programs

Increasing numbers of undocumented immigrant children or unaccompanied documented children entering the child welfare system could impact Casey’s efforts to reduce the numbers of children in care, particularly if the children and their families encounter systems that lack cultural competence and capacity for interpretation and translation.
 
Learning Objectives

• Build knowledge: How Immigration issues will impact Casey’s efforts to achieve 2020 goals
• Learn leadership strategies for responding to the challenges and opportunities presented

Presenters

Ken Borelli, MSW, is the former Deputy Director of the Department of Family and Children's Services in Santa Clara County, CA.  He has worked with immigrant issues for over 25 years, including playing a leadership role in the development of the "Special Immigrant Juvenile Status for Children in Permanency" legislation and the agency's immigration services task force.  He has chaired and participated on Immigration and Refugee task forces and advisory boards, and continues to provide on-going community workshops and training.  He supervised a direct services Immigrant Service Unit for several years in the early 1980s which was highlighted in the National Association for Social Work Practice Digest.  One of Ken's first tasks as a social worker was assisting Cuban refugees in Contra Costa County.  Ken serves as a board member of the Child Abuse Council of Santa Clara County, the County Library Commission, the Santa Clara County Domestic Violence Council, the National Greenbook Project, and the Board of Catholic Charities Immigration Services.
 
Rene Velasquez was the former Program Director at the Instituto Familiar de la Reza, and has spent 25 years advocating for the rights of Central American and other Latino immigrants in relation to immigration and social justice issues.  For the last decade he focused on family support and coordinated with the Chicano/Latino Family Resource System in San Francisco County, which has worked together with the Human Service Agency to develop a successful infrastructure to support families.  He is the former Executive Director for the Central American Resource Center (CARECEN), and Director of the Mission Recreation Teen Center.  Most recently, Rene was the manager for the Differential Response contract for Instituto which provided Path 1 and 2 referral services for San Francisco County.
 
Yali Lincroft, MBA, is a consultant with the Annie E Casey Foundation's (AECF) Family to Family Initiative.  For the past 15 years, she has been a child and family policy planner.  She has written many policy reports on child care, mental health, and foster care, including the recent AECF report ”Undercounted, Underserved: Immigrants in the Child Welfare System", in 2006.  Ms. Lincroft was a founding board member of the Infant/Toddler Consortium, appointed member of the Alameda County Local Child Care Planning Council, and founding board member of the Migration and Child Welfare National Network.  She co-authored an article to be published in the June 2007 issue of Child Welfare League of America's "Young Children" focused on immigrants in the child welfare system.