CGJ Intern Update from Maitte Barrientos

This summer at the Children’s Law Center of Massachusetts I’ve been able to assist in providing representation and resources to low-income children and youth in immigration, education, and child welfare matters. My experience at the CLCM has opened my eyes to the tremendous amount of immigrant children in need of mental health care and the barriers that they face in accessing mental health services. The mental health trajectories of immigrant and refugee children are diverse.  An estimated 92% of immigrant and refugees deemed in need of mental health services never receive them.  Needed treatment includes high rates of trauma, anxiety, depression, insomnia, nightmares, flashbacks, PTSD, and adjustment disorder.

The immigration process involves separation from country of origin, family members, and familiar customs; exposure to a new physical environment; and navigation of unfamiliar cultural contexts. Stresses in the immigration experience can cause or exacerbate mental health difficulties.  These may have occurred in the child’s home country (such as substandard living conditions), abuse, neglect, poor physical health, community violence, or lack of support.  The high level of potential trauma before and during migration may lead to high levels of mental illness among migrant children and young adults. Common barriers to a child or young adult in obtaining adequate mental health services are distrust of authority, fear of stigma, language and cultural barriers, as well as primacy and prioritization of resettlement stressors.

Working with the CLCM I have been able to assist many children in more than just a legal capacity.  I have been able to assist them firsthand in obtaining health insurance, a therapist, safe home environment, and support from various educative community organizations.

Similarly, I have also participated in opportunities to educate the community in Lynn about their legal rights as undocumented immigrants in areas such as mental health access. As I previously mentioned in my last blog post, Lynn is a very poor community with a high number of Spanish speaking immigrants who lack access to adequate housing, food, and health access.  However, as part of the CLCM staff I feel blessed to be given the opportunity to assist these children and their families in all areas of their lives.  I have been given the opportunity not only to work as their legal advocates, but also as an educative voice in their community.

Working hand-in-hand with these children in the community has made me very grateful for the opportunity I have had to work for the CLCM.

It has been a constant reminder of why I aspired to become an attorney in the first place.  I am glad I work for an organization that goes above and beyond their ethical duties in order to facilitate the tough transition for minors coming from a different country.

This post was written by a Center for Global Justice student intern.  The views expressed in this post do not necessarily reflect those of Regent University, Regent Law School, or the Center for Global Justice. 

CGJ Intern Update from Chelsea Mack

I recently completed my three-month internship with HIAS.  The last month of my time with the organization was spent in their headquarters in Silver Spring, MD.  During my time in the office, I was assigned a couple of cases where I met with clients during several appointments in order to complete their I-589 applications and declarations for the immigration courts.  The I-589 application allows an individual to apply for asylum along with other benefits.  A declaration is a summary of the applicant’s life story that gives factual, mental, and emotional details of the individual’s background and the reasons why the individual does not want to return to his or her home country.

There is a particular application that can be submitted to the immigration court on behalf of juveniles that is identified as “Special Immigrant Juvenile Status” (SIJS).  The legal basis for a juvenile to qualify for SIJS is that the child must be abused, neglected, or abandoned by one parent.  SIJS cases are argued in state courts rather than federal courts such as other immigration cases.  Thus, state law is controlling authority.  This can prove to be a more challenging task for attorneys to find favorable controlling law if a state has not released an opinion on a case with similar fact patterns to the case that the attorney needs for their client.  Along with completing the I-589 applications and declarations for clients, I worked on developing a legal memo that provided a summary of Maryland case law that dealt with the three components (abuse, neglect, and abandonment) of a SIJS claim.

Additionally, I researched country conditions information to support cases for clients originating from Guatemala, Colombia, Cameroon, Sudan, and Serbia.  The research focused on various aspects of the countries and cultures including governmental structures, gender-based violence, law enforcement, religious persecution, and minority discrimination.  I thoroughly enjoyed the work that I was assigned because I was given the opportunity to interact with refugees, hear their stories, and complete reports and applications that will hopefully help them receive asylum in the United States.

Currently, there are many women and children fleeing Central America due to gang violence and gender-based violence.  Many of the potential clients I sat in intake interviews with fled from Honduras, El Salvador, and Guatemala for these very reasons.  Each week the legal team at the headquarters meets to discuss which cases they will take based on the intake interviews conducted during the week.  They allowed me to sit in on these meetings to present some of the cases and to give input about whether the potential client’s story met the qualifications for a viable claim to accept them as a client.  Due to the requirements of the asylum and SIJS applications, we were not able to take on every individual’s case.  This reality was a bit difficult to grasp because many times the individual’s story was real and heartbreaking, but due to the legal requirements set by federal law, the story did not have the “right” set of facts in order to be a viable and successful claim.

I am beyond grateful for the opportunity to work with HIAS this summer.  The entire staff in the office is comprised of amazing individuals that truly desire to assist refugees in seeking safety for their families.  The legal team allowed me to jump right in and take control of cases while answering all questions that I had throughout the internship.  I feel blessed to be able meet individuals from countries around the world and learn more about the needs that still exist within the United States as well as abroad and the ways that I can help meet those needs using my legal skills.

This post was written by a Center for Global Justice student intern.  The views expressed in this post do not necessarily reflect those of Regent University, Regent Law School, or the Center for Global Justice. 

The Land of the Free and the Home of the Brave

The following blog post is by Center for Global Justice intern Natasha Delille, who is working on immigration and protection of children with Gardner & Mendoza, PC.

This summer, I have been interning at Gardner & Mendoza (G&M), an immigration and criminal law firm in Virginia Beach. Among other things, G&M takes on special immigrant juvenile status (“SIJS”) cases. During my time at the firm, I have learned about the complexities of SIJS cases. Similar to all immigration cases, SIJS cases are more complex than they seem. Obtaining SIJ status involves multiple stages of review by both state officials and federal immigration officers.

First, a juvenile must secure a special findings order from a state juvenile court. The special order must state that the State juvenile court has found that the child meets all of the SIJS requirements listed above, except that the child must be under the age of 18. Obtaining this special order is probably the most difficult step in the process because many judges are unfamiliar with SIJS and do not understand the juvenile court’s role in the process. Fortunately, in the Tidewater area, local judges recently attended a SIJS seminar that educated them on SIJS and the intersection between immigration law and family law.

Second, the special order, along with a petition for SIJS, is sent to United States Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS), which determines whether to accept or reject the order and thus grant SIJ status. Once granted SIJS, an applicant can apply eligible to adjust his/her status to Lawful Permanent Resident status (LPR). If granted LPR, the child will be eligible for a work permit, driver’s license, subsidized health insurance, and financial aid for higher education.

Every day young children enter our nation through its ports and land borders. Many of these children have had to cross multiple borders to make it to the Land of the Free and the Home of the Brave. Out of fear and desperation, many children make this journey on their own. The children who enter a foreign nation without a parent or legal guardian are known as unaccompanied minors. This year, the majority of unaccompanied minors who have entered the United States have come from El Salvador, Guatemala, and Honduras. Upon arrival, unaccompanied minors are usually apprehended and taken to the Office of Refugee Resettlement.  Please keep in mind that these children are not given permanent residency or any other legal status. Every child who enters the United States without status is placed into deportation proceedings even if released to a family member or sponsor to wait for an immigration hearing.

One of the legal protections available to these children is SIJS.  This remedy prevents unaccompanied child from being deported to parent(s) who abused, abandoned, or neglected them.  The Immigration and Nationality Act allocates a percentage of immigrant visas to individuals considered “special immigrants,” including “special immigrant juveniles.” This means that there is a cap on the amount of children who can receive SIJ status.

The purpose of SIJS is to help unaccompanied, foreign children in the United States who have been abused, abandoned, or neglected and provide them with a green card. To qualify for SIJS the child must meet the following criteria:

1.      Must be under 21 years old at the time of filing;

2.      Must be unmarried;

3.      Must be declared a dependent upon the state;

4.      Reunification with one or both of the applicant’s parents must no longer be a viable option  due to abuse, neglect, abandonment, or a similar basis found under state law; and

5.      It is not in the best interest of the applicant to return to her home country.

The primary benefit of SIJS is that the child will become a lawful permanent resident (i.e., receive a “green card”). Once granted SIJS status, the recipient cannot petition for a green card for her birth parents, siblings, or other family members.

During my time at G&M, I have assisted on three SIJS cases. The stories of the children vary, yet there are three common factors the unaccompanied children share: (1) they are brave, (2) they have been abused, neglected, and/or abandoned, and (3) they have fled violence. I have been able to attend hearings at the local juvenile courts regarding the first step of the SIJS process. Later this month, I will also have the opportunity to attend an immigration hearing at the immigration court (EOIR) in Arlington. Please pray for our client and the thousands of other unaccompanied children who make the dangerous journey to our nation.

INA § 203(b)(4)

INA §101(a)(27)(J); 8 U.S.C. §1101(a)(27)(J).

https://www.uscis.gov/green-card/special-immigrant-juveniles/special-immigrant-juveniles-sij-status

This post was written by a Center for Global Justice student intern.  The views expressed in this post do not necessarily reflect those of Regent University, Regent Law School, or the Center for Global Justice.