by Jorge Cabrera, MSW, Aakanksha Sinha, MSW, PhD, Maria Nuno, MSW, ACSW, Iris Lopez, MSW and Lily Garay, Casey Family Programs
Youth and families at the intersection of child welfare and immigration are one of the most vulnerable populations in the United States due to challenges in accessing resources such as legal support, translators and culturally relevant practices. They are also exposed to trauma due to their unique immigration circumstances, which could include political conflict, environmental disasters and poverty. Some youth experience family separation in their home countries and some when they move to the United States, leading to a continued cycle of trauma. Abundant evidence highlights that family separation may lead to damaged attachment relationships, traumatization, toxic stress and long-term impact on the child’s well-being (Wood, 2018; Children’s Rights Organization, 2025). Evidence also indicates that growing up with one’s parents or relatives is generally in the best interest of the child and can mitigate the impact of many adverse childhood experiences (Greenburg, et al., 2019; Liming, 2021).
For 60 years, Casey Family Programs has prioritized safe and stable homes for all children within a family-based setting. Over the course of decades, Casey’s direct practice team has worked with and supported immigrant youth and families with efforts to ensure more effective pathways to legal and relational permanency. Casey’s practice model, “A Safe and Permanent Home for Every Youth,” is a value-based framework that guides social work practitioners in advancing permanency practices for all youth who are involved in the child welfare system. These practices take a trauma- and healing-informed approach. They are guided by the Indian Child Welfare Act principles that promote centering family and community, relationship-based teamwork, strength-based and participatory approaches, culturally responsive practices, and strategic and financial decisions that can have long-lasting positive impacts on the populations served.
While this practice model and guiding values are critical when working with youth and families involved with the child welfare system, they are especially important to embed in work with families with immigration experience. Exposure to different types of trauma (war, migration journey, exploitation and adjustment to a new culture) adds another dimension to the supports and services this population needs.
Systems Change
Practice model elements are integrated into Casey’s direct practice and systems change work with public child welfare systems to ensure that all stakeholders who impact the lives of immigrant youth and families can be effective.
In systems change work, for example, Casey has provided training to state child welfare leaders and staff to build their capacity to identify immigration needs of youth and families, engage with cultural humility, and effectively advocate for and secure necessary resources. In one state, a partnership with the child welfare agency and the Mexican consulate resulted in a training focused on understanding the historical context, strategies for engaging with families with a sense of cultural humility, and procedures for requesting assistance from the consulate. As a result, the agency began a practice of regularly contacting parents who live outside the U.S., ensuring their perspectives were represented in all meetings and court hearings. It also helped staff understand how to identify youth immigration needs from their initial involvement with the child welfare system.
Another child welfare jurisdiction created a task force to improve processes for transnational families navigating systems in two countries. This included a toolkit with a checklist and expectations for judges, attorneys and child protective services (CPS) specialists. It also established protocols to follow throughout the life of a case, including best practices for contact, visitation, and involvement in court hearings.
Direct Practice
In direct practice work, paramount importance is given to understanding a family’s unique context, investing in partnerships and collaboration, and expanding the possibility of achieving permanency beyond U.S. borders. Casey focuses on building internal capacity and expertise to train and develop staff. Skill-building areas include support to understand international permanency practice within agencies and within courts.
Casey social workers practicing at the intersection of immigration and child welfare are trained to identify potential networks of family and community in youths’ countries of origin, who, after connection and efforts at engagement, can become important resources in meeting the needs of family connection and identity, and can be sources of hope and validation. Frequently, those connections from countries of origin can also be options for legal permanency. When this is deemed as being in the best interest of the youth, the practice approach includes building relationships and partnerships with individuals and entities who can provide critical resources and pathways, such as specialized units within some child welfare systems, immigration attorneys, foreign consulates and child welfare organizations in other countries.
An example of this practice approach is Casey’s work with a youth and their birth mother. The youth needed intensive support to access community resources in the United States and to engage with their biological mother in Honduras. Throughout the case, staff facilitated connection with the mother in Honduras and with the Honduran consulate, while exploring permanency options with the youth’s current caregiver in the U.S. Monthly support was provided to facilitate communication between the birth mother, jurisdiction workers, the guardian ad litem and the mother’s legal counsel to ensure that her perspective was considered. This regular convening of critical partners was pivotal in engaging with the birth mother and receiving and sending documents. The youth was adopted by the caregiver after the birth mother articulated her desire to relinquish her parental rights. Casey supported the youth through the process and ensured that a multidisciplinary team was in place to facilitate the permanency process.
Using this practice approach, applying guiding values while intentionally collaborating with other individuals such as immigration attorneys, and prioritizing individualized care has helped meet the needs of many immigrant youth and families at risk of, or currently facing, family separation. While this approach is imperative to support all those who come in contact with the child welfare system, it is especially important to embed it in the work we do with immigrant youth and families due to their heightened vulnerabilities.
Visit casey.org for additional resources on the intersection of child welfare and immigration.
Jorge Cabrera, MSW, is Managing Director of Child Family Services at Casey Family Programs. In this capacity Cabrera oversees Casey's direct practice in 5 offices in California and Arizona. Contact: [email protected]
Aakanksha Sinha, MSW, PhD, is a Senior Director of Research Services at Casey Family Programs. Her main areas of focus are immigration and child welfare, transition age youth, permanency and reunification. Contact: [email protected]
Maria L. Nuno, MSW, ACSW, is Family Engagement Liaison at Casey Family Programs San Diego Field Office. She provides support in strengthening relational and permanent connections for youth and families. Contact: [email protected]
Iris A. Lopez, MSW, is a Supervisor, Prevention and Permanency Services for the Casey Family Programs Yakima Field Office. Contact: [email protected]
Lily Garay is a supervisor for the Casey Family Programs Arizona office. She is responsible for clinical supervision of the team and community partnership. Contact: l[email protected]