Por / By Robert Fuchs, Esq.
Special Immigrant Juvenile
A Good Alternative Solution for Latin American Children in Deportation
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Many children and families seeking protection via asylum in the United States are from Central America. However, while we wait for the current Administration to restore and expand the asylum system to better protect people from countries like Honduras, El Salvador, and Guatemala, there is another form of relief available to these minors, Special Immigrant Juvenile Status (SIJ). SIJ status is a form of humanitarian-based immigration relief for children who have been abused, abandoned, or neglected by at least one parent, are under the jurisdiction of a state juvenile court, and for whom such court has determined that it would not be in the child’s best interest
to return to their home country. In recent years, more children than ever are
seeking SIJ status.
The SIJ classification is subject to the immigration quota system. Each year, a certain number of visas are available for children with approved SIJ applications to go ahead and apply for their green cards. Only 9,940 green cards are available to Special Immigrant s each year, and each country has a 7 percent visa (green card) cap, meaning each country is afforded about 696 visas per year. There is a growing backlog, particularly for children from El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, and Mexico, and these children with approved petitions must wait, potentially for years, before they can secure relief from deportation. However, many of these children have asylum cases that may not get approved and therefore, the relief of SIJ may be a better alternative for them.