Our Mission & Vision for New Jersey🗽

Who We Serve

NJCIC’s primary community is immigrant children and youth seeking legal status and equitable pathways to education, employment, good health, and civic engagement in NJ. We work with and connect these youth, children, and, when possible, their support networks across all 21 counties in NJ to vital services in-house and beyond. Almost are economically disadvantaged, live in entirely undocumented or mixed-status households, and face multiple systemic barriers to employment, education, access to justice, and other social safety nets and services afforded to New Jerseyans with legal status. Systemic barriers to entry, inclusion, and advancement are exacerbated for NJCIC’s community members due to limited education in their country of origin and limited English proficiency.  

Our community members hail from more than 35 different countries, representing the Garden State’s incredible diversity. In FY24, those originally from Guatemala and Honduras comprised more than 50% of requests to NJCIC for legal assistance. Young immigrants from Ecuador, Mexico, and El Salvador also made up another 20% of these requests. Many of the children and youth who turn to us were forced to flee extreme poverty and violence in their country of origin and still grapple with the traumas they left behind back home and from their journey to the United States. While the majority of NJCIC's current community members are Spanish speakers, we also have seen a growing number of speakers of indigenous languages, including Q'eqchi', Quiche, and Mam. 

Most of the young immigrants we currently serve are unaccompanied children qualifying for a range of immigration relief, including asylum, Special Immigrant Juvenile Status (SIJS), U visas, and T visas. As defined by U.S. law, an unaccompanied child is someone who enters the United States: under the age of 18 years old, without lawful immigration status, and without an accompanying parent or legal guardian. Children separated from their caregivers at the US-Mexico border also fall (and are forced into) this qualification. In addition to unaccompanied children, we also serve other young immigrants who call New Jersey home, including those who are part of family units, long-term children residents undetected by ICE, those who live in mixed-status homes or were never legally designated as UCs despite now living without a caregiver. This also includes young immigrants who entered legally and overstayed their visas. We refer to these diverse statuses outside of the UC designation as similarly-situated youth. 

There is no guaranteed right to counsel for immigrant children and youth facing the byzantine immigration system and the threat of deportation. New Jersey is the fifth largest recipient of unaccompanied children in the US, and, in FY24, 4,348 young immigrants were released to sponsors. High-quality and free legal representation is a critical lifeline for New Jersey’s young immigrants. Findings show that judges are more than twice as likely to order deportation for unaccompanied children without counsel compared to those who are represented. Unaccompanied children with legal counsel, on the other hand, are nearly 100 times more likely to receive legal relief than those without counsel. Additionally, it currently takes a median of nearly 4.5 years to complete an unaccompanied child’s case. Similarly situated youth, including those detained and out on bond, also experience lengthy legal proceedings and are tasked with “finding” legal representation.