Unaccompanied Children in the Immigration System
Lise Clavel, Amanda Frost, Shannon Lederer, Wendy Young
Over the past several years, the U.S. government has adopted laws and policies intended to protect unaccompanied immigrant children. Yet some of these policies have had harmful downstream consequences, while others have proven difficult to enforce. One result has been a proliferation of migrant children working long hours in hazardous industries. Is the federal government equipped to protect these children? How can advocacy groups and other partners help? Join UVA's Karsh Institute of Democracy and the School of Law’s Immigration Law Program for a roundtable discussion among scholars and leaders from different sectors about how to protect unaccompanied immigrant children.
Speakers
Lise Clavel
Practitioner Fellow in Democracy, Karsh Institute of Democracy, University of Virginia
Lise Clavel
Practitioner Fellow in Democracy, Karsh Institute of Democracy, University of Virginia
Lise Clavel has worked in politics, government and advocacy for the past fifteen years. Most recently, she served in the Biden White House as Deputy Assistant to the President and Senior Advisor for Migration, and before that as Chief of Staff at U.S. Customs and Border Protection. In those roles, Lise led policy development in response to Southwest border challenges and other national security issues related to trade and travel.
From 2015 to 2019, Clavel worked on education policy and advocacy in the United States as a senior program officer at the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. In the second term of the Obama Administration, she served as Special Assistant to the President and Director of Public Engagement for the Vice President. Clavel has also managed federal campaigns in Virginia and served in leadership roles in both the Biden and Obama presidential campaigns. She got her start in politics working on Tom Perriello's campaign in Virginia's 5th district, which encompasses Charlottesville. She also served as Perriello's chief of staff on Capitol Hill following his 2008 victory. Clavel graduated from Yale University with a degree in English.
Amanda Frost
John A. Ewald Research Professor of Law, University of Virginia
Amanda Frost
John A. Ewald Research Professor of Law, University of Virginia
Amanda Frost writes and teaches in the fields of immigration and citizenship law, federal courts and jurisdiction, and judicial ethics. Her scholarship has been cited by over a dozen federal and state courts, and she has been invited to testify on the topics of her articles before both the House and Senate Judiciary Committees. Her non-academic writing has been published in The Atlantic, The New Republic, The Washington Post, The New York Times, Slate, USA Today and The American Prospect, and she authors the “Academic Round-up” column for SCOTUSblog. In 2019 she was awarded a fellowship from the American Council of Learned Societies to complete her book, You Are Not American: Citizenship Stripping from Dred Scott to the Dreamers (2021), which was named as a “New & Noteworthy” book by The New York Times Book Review and was shortlisted for the Mark Lynton History Prize.
Shannon Lederer
Director of Immigration Policy, AFL-CIO
Shannon Lederer
Director of Immigration Policy, AFL-CIO
As director of immigration policy for the AFL-CIO, Shannon Lederer works with union affiliates and allies in all sectors of the labor movement to develop and advance policies that promote workers' rights and shared prosperity. Since she first began working with brave Filipino teachers who had been trafficked into jobs in U.S. public schools, she recognized that we cannot expect to lift labor standards in our country until all people working here are assured fundamental rights and protections. In her 17 years in the labor movement, Lederer has focused extensively on efforts to reform our abusive guest-worker programs and regulate the international labor recruitment industry. She also has worked closely with global unions to develop cross-border strategies to more effectively represent and defend workers in a migratory labor context. She has a bachelor's degree in political science from Northwestern University and a master's degree in union leadership and administration from the University of Massachusetts.
Wendy Young
President, Kids in Need of Defense (KIND)
Wendy Young
President, Kids in Need of Defense (KIND)
Wendy Young has led KIND since 2009, and brings extensive immigration policy experience to the organization. Prior to KIND, she served as chief counsel on immigration policy in the Senate Judiciary Subcommittee on Immigration, Border Security and Refugees, for Senator Edward M. Kennedy. She held prior immigration policy positions with organizations such as the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, the Women’s Refugee Commission, the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops, and the National Council of La Raza. She has also written numerous articles, reports, and cutting-edge op-eds on the plight of unaccompanied children. Young has received a number of awards and honors for her work on immigration rights: 2017 Williams College Bicentennial Medal Award; 2016 Keepers of the American Dream Honoree by the National Immigration Forum; Women Inspiring Change 2015 Honoree at Harvard Law School’s 2nd Annual International Women’s Day Celebration; Foreign Policy’s Leading Global Thinker of 2014; Nominated as one of two NGO representatives to participate in Seminar XXI Program on U.S. Foreign Policy by Massachusetts Institute of Technology and National Defense University (2002); Honored by Florida Immigrant Advocacy Center for work on behalf of women and children detainees (2002); Child Advocacy National Certification of Recognition, American Bar Association, in recognition of contributions advancing the welfare of children (2001); Human Rights Award, American Immigration Lawyers Association, in recognition of the work of the Women’s Commission for Refugee Women and Children on behalf of women and child asylum seekers (1999). Young earned a joint law degree and master’s degree in international relations from American University in Washington, DC, and a bachelor’s degree from Williams College in Massachusetts.