Between October 2014 and April 2018, the U.S. government apprehended and placed 1,568 children who are unaccompanied immigrants1 (“CUI”) with sponsors in communities throughout Illinois (U.S. Office of Refugee Resettlement, 2018c). These young people joined an unknown number who crossed the U.S. border undetected and also live in Illinois, the state with the 6th largest population of undocumented immigrants (Pew Research Center, 2016). The research suggests that many CUI have specific service needs related to experiences in their home country and migration and apprehension and detention in the U.S. Moreover, their unresolved legal status and the politicization of immigration and individuals who enter the U.S. without legal status further complicates their integration.
In 2017, the Loyola University Chicago’s Center for the Human Rights of Children and School of Social Work professor, Maria Vidal de Haymes, PhD, initiated a research project to (1) address this knowledge gap, with its focus on the Chicago metropolitan area, and (2) provide relevant information to stakeholders who can strengthen the systems that support these young people. This report provides an overview of this research project, background information and findings from the study. To date, no research has examined these young people and their families who live in the Chicago metropolitan area, their needs, or the services and systems that can, potentially, meet their needs.
