Kids in Immigration Court
The children and teens RILA represents step into our offices carrying heavy weights on their shoulders. They carry the effects of every manner of physical, verbal and sexual abuse, abandonment, forced child labor, sexual assault and human trafficking. Sometimes these traumas occurred in their home counties, but other times they occurred here in the U.S. Years of their childhoods have vanished.
RILA currently represents 268 children and teens whose cases are in immigration court. All of RILA’s young clients are eligible for one or more kinds of humanitarian-based immigration statuses, and RILA’s dedicated staff spend months to preparing the necessary applications, petitions and evidence to help children apply for:
Special Immigrant Juvenile (SIJ) status: for children who have been abandoned, abused or neglected by a parent and a judge determines it is not in their best interest to return to their home country.
T- Visas: for those who are in the U.S. on account of being a victim of labor or sex trafficking.
U-Visas: for those who have been victims of certain violent crimes in the U.S. (the majority of RILA’s U-Visa cases are for children who have been sexually abused or assaulted).
Typically, each one of these immigration statuses require 3-6 months to prepare an application and supporting documents for submission and months, if not years, for USCIS to adjudicate the application. In the past, when children were able to show immigration judges that they have received preliminary approval or provide evidence that they are eligible for one of these humanitarian-based statuses, immigration judges were willing to dismiss their cases from immigration court. This practice relieved children from attending multiple court hearings, which are extremely stressful and occur during school hours. More significantly, immigration judges would not issue deportation orders for these children because they recognized the children’s eligibility for lawful status.
However, that is no longer the policy or practice. Instead of giving eligible children time, immigration judges and attorneys for the Department of Homeland Security are forcing children to remain in immigration court and thus be faced with the possibility of deportation. Recent precedent decisions from the Board of Immigration Appeals (BIA) support this change in policy, further restraining immigration judges from giving children the time they need to wait to be granted lawful status.
This shift in policy creates an incredible amount of stress for extremely vulnerable children and teens who are clearly eligible for lawful status. It is blatantly unjust and inhumane to the youngest of our immigrant neighbors, like 14-year old Diana.
Diana is an orphan. She was abandoned by her mother when she was six years old and never knew her father. In her home country, the family members that were supposed to care for her instead exploited her, forcing her to work milling corn and selling food. If Diana resisted, she was scolded and beaten. When Diana was 10, her aunts trafficked her to the U.S., where they forced her to do all of the household chores, and again if Diana made a mistake or did not do as she was told, she would be harshly and physically punished. When Diana was 12, her aunts lied about her age and forced her to work at a fast-food restaurant. Diana’s aunts took all of the money she earned and continued to physically abuse her. Finally, Diana was rescued by police officers responding to a caller reporting domestic violence in the home. The police officers saw the bruises on Diana’s arms and she told them she was afraid to stay at her home. The next day Diana was placed in foster care.
RILA worked with Diana to prepare and file a T-Visa application because she is a victim of human trafficking. However, Diana’s case is in immigration court because she entered the U.S. without permission. Diana’s eligibility for a T-Visa and the fact that she had no control of her manner of entry into the U.S. as a 10-year-old child may not be persuasive enough to an immigration judge to prevent her from being deported.
This disheartening change in policy means positive outcomes for RILA youngest clients are increasingly heard to come by. Despite that, we are reassuring our young clients that we will do everything we can to protect their ability to remain safely in the U.S. while they wait to be granted status, and that RILA will always be with them in immigration court. They are not alone in their pursuit of justice and safety, and thanks to your support, neither are we.