webinar

Supporting Immigrant Youth to Thrive

PAST EVENT
September 25, 2025

On September 25, GTY and the National Collaborative for Transformative Youth Policy convened immigrant youth leaders to share their experiences and recommendations on how we can hold the line for immigrant youth now—and hold steadfast to a collective vision of a welcoming and equitable future.

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Top Takeaway

Immigrant youth leaders emphasize the importance of recognizing their full humanity and dismantling toxic narratives that marginalize them. Their leadership calls for systemic change in policies and institutions, advocating for inclusion, equity, and acknowledgement of immigration as a normal and valuable part of society.

Recording

More Takeaways

  1. Immigrant youth demand not to be the exception, but the norm, by advocating for lasting institutional change within educational systems and broader society. Their pursuit of higher education and work authorization is strengthened through activism, legal advocacy, and the sharing of lived experiences that build community solidarity.
  2. Building and sustaining community, including strong networks with peers, faculty, and supportive family, is critical to resilience amid hostile political and institutional landscapes.

Resources

MASSACHUSETTS IMMIGRANT & REFUGEE ADVOCACY COALITION

Federal Immigration Policy Changes & Massachusetts Impacts

THE NATIONAL FOSTER CARE YOUTH & ALUMNI POLICY COUNCIL

Supporting Immigrant Children & Youth in Foster Care

IMMIGRANTS RISING

Creating Fellowship Programs: For Educational Institutions
Including Immigrant Students in California’s Master Plan for Career Education
What We Do: Mental Health

THE DREAM US

Creating Inclusive Models for Undocumented Students’ Career Success

PRESIDENTS’ ALLIANCE

In-State Tuition and Scholarships for Undocumented Students: What Institutions Should Know

Bill Text CA AB713

What Can Philanthropy Do?

Funders and allies must move beyond one-time scholarships and invest in systemic change:

  • Funding fellowships, paid internships, and long-term career pathways
  • Supporting organizations providing academic, legal, and mental health resources
  • Advocating for system-wide policy changes and removing barriers to education, employment, and well-being for undocumented students

Memorable Quotes

I’m studying law so I can use the law as a tool to serve my community.

Undocumented status is a social construct. We are human. We’re superhuman to thrive under these conditions. We need our humanity to be seen.

—Karely Amaya Rios, CUNY School of Law

We want to be the norm, not the exception. We want our presence to be normalized—because we exist.

Undocumented students deserve opportunities and access to the resources that other students have simply because they were born in the US.

—Morelys Urbano, Columbia University

Supporting undocumented youth means funding staff, paid opportunities, professional development, research, and uplifting storytelling that centers our lived experience and well-being.

Immigration is a normal part of our history; understanding root causes is crucial to shifting society’s view and policies towards us.

—Iliana G. Perez, PhD, Immigrants Rising

I hope undocumented communities are seen as more than migrants and that we can heal from the ongoing trauma inflicted by systemic oppression and fear.

Legislative reform is critical, but healing from trauma—the birthmark of our experiences—must also be part of the future we build together.

—Andrea Anaya, New Deal for Youth, TYP

Contact the Speakers

If you’d like to follow up with any of these speakers, please reach out to GTY.

Speakers

Morelys Urbano

Columbia University

Morelys Urbano is a Dominican journalist author, poet, and graduate student at Columbia University and a recent graduate of Morgan State University, where she received the President’s Second Mile Award for her service and leadership. At Morgan, she helped secure a partnership with TheDream.US and raised $40,000 for paid internships for undocumented students. Her work spans politics, broadcast, and investigative reporting; she hosted the award-winning show No Borders, Just Flavors!, contributed to the Emmy-winning documentary History of a National Treasure, and published articles in the Morgan Journalism Review, which became part of the university’s Latin American studies curriculum.

She has also interned with the Congressional Hispanic Caucus Institute and has been recognized as an “Emerging Leader of the Immigrant Community” by the Mayor of Baltimore in 2022, and as a 2025 SUCCESS Award recipient by the President’s Alliance for Higher Education and the University of Chicago.

Karely Amaya Rios

CUNY School of Law

Karely Amaya Rios is a first-generation Latina pursuing a law degree at CUNY School of Law. Growing up in a low-income immigrant community in Southern California, she witnessed firsthand the impact of anti-immigrant policies on her family and community. Karely is a transformational leader committed to advocating for marginalized individuals and hopes to build bridges between policies and communities of color.

During her undergraduate and graduate studies at UCLA, she focused on grassroots organizing to advance immigrant rights in California. One of her proudest achievements was co-founding Immigrant Justice in Action Coalition (formerly known as Undocumented Student-Led Network) and spearheading the Opportunity For All Campaign, which aims to ensure equal access to campus job opportunities for all students, regardless of immigration status. Karely is passionate about the intersections of immigrant rights with health, labor, and education, and is committed to building solidarity across movements.

Andrea Anaya

New Deal for Youth, National Collaborative for Transformative Youth Policy

Andrea Anaya (She/Her/Ella) is a first-generation Salvadoran, a New Deal for Youth Changemaker, and a graduate student at Carnegie Mellon University pursuing a Master of Science in Public Policy & Management. She is deeply passionate about advancing education and immigration equity, with a focus on expanding access to resources for immigrant youth and low-income families. Andrea has worked with organizations such as United We Dream, the President’s Alliance on Higher Education & Immigration, and most recently, Immigrants Rising, where she led career-readiness and entrepreneurship workshops for immigrant youth in Montgomery County, MD. Her leadership and advocacy have been recognized nationally as a Dream Summer Fellow, Newman Civic Fellow, and Public Policy & International Affairs Fellow.

Iliana G. Perez, Ph.D.

Executive Director, Immigrants Rising

An esteemed leader in the field of immigrant entrepreneurship, Dr. Perez (she/her) brings over a decade of experience as a researcher and advocate for immigrant rights to her role at Immigrants Rising. She has pioneered initiatives to empower and support undocumented entrepreneurs through resource development, training, and ecosystem building across the U.S.

Dr. Perez holds a B.A. in mathematics from Fresno State, as well as an M.A. in economics and a Ph.D. in education policy from Claremont Graduate University. Her academic research, which has focused on immigrant entrepreneurs, the occupational and educational attainment of immigrant students, and the economics of immigration, has been widely cited in academic journals, technical reports, and online publications. She has also served as a lecturer in the Labor Studies Department at UCLA and in the School of Educational Studies at Claremont Graduate University.

Dr. Perez immigrated to the U.S. from Mexico with her family at the age of eight. She grew up in the California Central Valley and was undocumented for 27 years before adjusting her status.

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