News & Events

Please join the Quinnipiac University School of Law Human Trafficking Prevention Project—along with the Connecticut Bar Association and the Connecticut Bar Foundation—for our second panel of Awareness Week 2024: “Protecting Immigrant Children: Their Journeys Before and After They Reach the U.S.”

In recent years, the U.S. has seen an influx of unaccompanied children from Central America fleeing violence and extreme poverty in their home countries. For many Americans, it is difficult to understand what circumstances cause a child to leave their home and family behind to journey on their own to a foreign country. This panel seeks to answer this and other questions by providing an in-depth look into the flight of these children away from their countries of origin and their journeys into the U.S.

The panel begins by examining the cultural context and conditions of the three Northern Triangle countries—and Guatemala in particular—from which so many children are fleeing. Next, the panel will focus on migrant children’s journey to the U.S. and how they are processed and then resettled after they cross into the U.S. Finally, the panelists will come full circle by describing their struggles to regularize their immigration status in this country while providing insight on pathways for these kids to immigrate legally before they even leave home.

Our panel features attorneys and advocates who work with Central American migrant children and their families:
• Lesly Tayes, Staff Attorney, Kids in Need of Defense (KIND) International Program.
• Emily Norman, Managing Director, Kids in Need of Defense (KIND).
• Mana Shorack, Senior Program Coordinator, Kids in Need of Defense (KIND) International Program.
• Brandon Warner, VP Community Relations & Director Permanency Services, Children’s Community Programs of CT

This is a free event.

Attorneys admitted in Connecticut may claim up to two (2) CLE hours for attending this event.

For more information and to register, please click the link above.