An estimated 250,000 children of legal immigrants age out of their parents’ visa status at age 21 and must leave the country if they can’t find other ways to stay. Currently, there is no clear path toward permanent legal status, so young people at the cusp of adulthood must scramble for temporary solutions - or part from their families and the only home most have ever known.
What happens when parents are recruited to bolster U.S. companies, raise their children in American schools and communities, but have no way to secure their future here? What is the cost to these families and to our society when we kick out American-raised young people just as they are ready to enter the workforce, give back, and launch their lives?
In this hour-long webinar, AIC will moderate a discussion featuring the story of one such family. Fedora Castelino grew up in the U.S. and is a pre-med student studying at the University of North Carolina and Duke University. She wants to serve in the Army and work as a physician. But at 20, she may have to leave the country in a matter of months. She will be joined by her father, Clifford Castelino, who was recruited by a U.S. company, moved his family to America when Fedora was five, and now must wrestle with the consequences of an obscure policy that may send his daughter away from her family and home. (Learn more about Fedora’s story here).
The panel will also be joined by Dip Patel, who also immigrated to the U.S. thanks to a parent’s temporary work visa, and the founder of Improve the Dream, a youth-led nonprofit advocating for the children of legal immigrants, as well as Adriel D. Orozco, Senior Policy Counsel at the American Immigration Council.
5 сен 2024