Swordsmyth
04-18-2018, 11:51 PM
The Trump administration appears to have lowered the age limit for a legal immigration status granted to certain young people under the age of 21 who have been abused, abandoned, or neglected by their parents, the New York Times reported Wednesday. (https://www.nytimes.com/2018/04/18/nyregion/special-immigrant-juvenile-status-trump.html) The publication found that several people between the ages of 18 and 21 have been unable to proceed with their petitions and are now ineligible for green cards.
The federal U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) agency allows some young people — who can prove that they have been abused, abandoned, or neglected by a parent (https://www.uscis.gov/green-card/sij) — to apply for the Special Immigrant Juvenile (SIJ) status. If the classification is granted, people may then qualify for lawful permanent status, or a green card. But as the New York Times reported (https://www.nytimes.com/2018/04/18/nyregion/special-immigrant-juvenile-status-trump.html), applicants in New York over the age of 18 and under the age of 21 have seen their applications denied “because of an unannounced policy reversal by the Trump administration.”
At least 81 SIJ applicants from the New York City area “have been denied or were told they would soon be denied by the immigration agency,” according to The Legal Aid Society of New York (https://www.nytimes.com/2018/04/18/nyregion/special-immigrant-juvenile-status-trump.html) which spoke with the New York Times. And “in total, more than 1,000 young people across the state, not all of them from Central America, could be affected.”
According to the publication, the Trump administration appears to be “reinterpreting” the policy and saying that applicants over the age of 18 but under 21 do not qualify for the status because “family courts lack jurisdiction over the person’s custody” at the age of 18. These in-between young immigrants can have guardians, but the USCIS agency do not consider guardians the same as “custody.”
More at: https://thinkprogress.org/trump-administration-reportedly-denying-green-cards-sij-children-16e40ef4c5b3/
The federal U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) agency allows some young people — who can prove that they have been abused, abandoned, or neglected by a parent (https://www.uscis.gov/green-card/sij) — to apply for the Special Immigrant Juvenile (SIJ) status. If the classification is granted, people may then qualify for lawful permanent status, or a green card. But as the New York Times reported (https://www.nytimes.com/2018/04/18/nyregion/special-immigrant-juvenile-status-trump.html), applicants in New York over the age of 18 and under the age of 21 have seen their applications denied “because of an unannounced policy reversal by the Trump administration.”
At least 81 SIJ applicants from the New York City area “have been denied or were told they would soon be denied by the immigration agency,” according to The Legal Aid Society of New York (https://www.nytimes.com/2018/04/18/nyregion/special-immigrant-juvenile-status-trump.html) which spoke with the New York Times. And “in total, more than 1,000 young people across the state, not all of them from Central America, could be affected.”
According to the publication, the Trump administration appears to be “reinterpreting” the policy and saying that applicants over the age of 18 but under 21 do not qualify for the status because “family courts lack jurisdiction over the person’s custody” at the age of 18. These in-between young immigrants can have guardians, but the USCIS agency do not consider guardians the same as “custody.”
More at: https://thinkprogress.org/trump-administration-reportedly-denying-green-cards-sij-children-16e40ef4c5b3/