The SIJS classification was authorized by Congress in 1990 as part of the further-reaching Immigration and Nationality Act. Under the SIJS provision, immigrant minors who were abused, abandoned, or neglected in their home countries can apply for protection against deportation and are eligible to receive work permits.
Young immigrants who allegedly endured hardship, abuse, and neglect as a result of President Donald Trump’s immigration policies have filed a proposed class-action lawsuit challenging the administration’s attempts to remove them from the United States.
According to NBC News, the plaintiffs in the case include several “immigrant youths” with Special Immigrant Juvenile Status, the Central American Refugee Center, and Centro Legal de la Raaza. Together, the plaintiffs are asking the court to reinstate a policy that let certain immigrants obtain work permits while waiting for their green card applications to process—an undertaking that can take several years due to longstanding backlogs.
Attorneys for the proposed class say that the termination of the Special Immigrant Juvenile Status program is unlawful and contradicts Congress’s intent of protecting young people who had been abused from being deported.
“This is a case about broken promises with devastating consequences,” said Rachel Davidson, an attorney for the plaintiffs and director of the END SIJS Backlog Coalition at the National Immigration Project. “State courts and the federal government have already found that it is not safe for these young people to return to their countries of origin, but their protection is now being callously stripped away. These young people have survived abuse, abandonment, and neglect only to be retraumatized now by the constant threat of detention and deportation from the same agencies that vowed to keep them safe.”
The SIJS classification was authorized by Congress in 1990 as part of the further-reaching Immigration and Nationality Act. Under the SIJS provision, immigrant minors who were abused, abandoned, or neglected in their home countries can apply for protection against deportation and are eligible to receive work permits.
Critically, and unlike other migrant programs, an SIJS classification allows young immigrants to apply for permanent residency.
“Congress has agreed that this group of young people are particularly vulnerable and in need of protection,” Alexander Shalom of the Lowenstein Center for the Public Interest told NBC News.
“One form of that protection has been deferred action,” he said. “The government wants to take away the protections. The law requires it to provide a good, reasoned explanation. It failed to do so here. So in order to protect these most vulnerable children, we’re filing this lawsuit.”
Several of the named plaintiffs in the lawsuit have said that, due to Trump administration changes, they must now apply for Social Security and work permits separately.
However, youth with Special Immigrant Juvenile Status must now compete with others for work permits, making a previously-automated process now subject to visa caps and quotas.
“It’s very strange that they’re in that category, because SIJS is about humanitarian protection for young immigrants,” Davidson told NBC. “There shouldn’t be visa limits for these young people.”
Sources
Abused and abandoned immigrant youths sue Trump administration over deportation fears
Join the conversation!