Thread: Illegal Alien Children Can Stay in U.S. Legally Under Law Enacted in 1990

Contrary to Reports, Undocumented Children Can Stay in U.S. Legally Under Law Enacted in 1990

• Jose Serrano | staffwriter@latinopost.com
• Jun 29, 2014 10:23 AM EDT

BROWNSVILLE, TX - JUNE 18: A toddler sits on the floor with other detainees at a U.S. Customs and Border Protection processing facility, on June 18, 2014, in Brownsville,Texas. Brownsville and Nogales, Ariz. have been central to processing the more than 47,000 unaccompanied children who have entered the country illegally since Oct. 1 (Photo : Photo by Eric Gay-Pool/Getty Images)

Thousands of unaccompanied migrant youths have crossed the Mexican border into the United States this year, and the numbers are rising. While the push is for removal from the United States, under a law first enacted by Congress in 1990, these children may actually be able to stay.

The Special Immigrant Juvenile Status (SIJ) allows certain children who are unable to reunite with their parent to attain a green card, which gives them a chance to live and work in the U.S. permanently.

Stipulations include never petitioning for a parent's green card, and not doing so for a sibling until becoming a citizen.

According to the Department of Homeland Security, the program's purpose is to "help foreign children in the United States who have been abused, abandoned, or neglected."

Laws were expanded in 2008 to provide protection to child victims of human trafficking. Reasons not approved by the DHS include escaping political persecution and gang recruitment efforts.

Youth are handed over to Immigrations and Customs enforcement (ICE) who decided whether the minor qualifies for SIJ. Local family judges then determine whether minimum requirements are met before shifting the case to the federal level to be considered for a visa.

In an interview with CNN, immigration attorney Rebeca Salmon said that a child's journey to the U.S. is only half over once they've arrived.

"Not every kid that applies gets to stay. Not every kid who enters can even apply. You have to be abandoned, abused and neglected," Salmon said. "There are minimum requirements, but then there's also the rigorous process of immigration, so not every kid gets to stay."

Salmon said only 10 percent of about 60,000 who migrated to the U.S. in the last year will be eligible for the benefit.

The Obama administration recently estimated it will catch 90,000 children crossing the border illegally without their parents by September.

They returned fewer than 2,000 last year, most from poverty-stricken countries like El Salvador, Guatemala, and Honduras, which carries the highest murder rate in the world.

Attributing to the low transfer rate is an immigration court system backlogged with tens of thousands of pending cases. If a child's case makes it this far, judges may still take years to render a final verdict. By then, they have grown accustomed to living in the U.S.

"If that's the only message you get out through this, please make sure that's clear. If you send your kids here or kids come on their own, you're fleeing something in your country, every case is different and every case is difficult," Salmon said.

http://www.latinopost.com/articles/6...ion-reform.htm

Federal Court Rules Immigrant Detainees Must Be Given Bond Hearings

http://www.alipac.us/f12/federal-court-rules-illegal-alien-detainees-must-given-bond-hearings-299066/

This bill was written for immigrant foster children that reach the age of 18 according to this.

http://www.ocfs.state.ny.us/main/pol...s%20(SIJS).pdf

Special Immigrant Juveniles (SIJ) Status | USCIS

www.uscis.gov/.../special-imm...
U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services
May 28, 2014 - Special Immigrant Juveniles (SIJ) Status. The purpose of the SIJ program is to help foreign children in the United States who have been abused, abandoned, or neglected."

Release the kids to the families in the US... but follow the kid to that family and then nab them all. As far as I'm aware there is NO US Law that states that illegal aliens who entered the US illegally are entitled to a hearing or deportation appeal, or even an attorney. Catch and deport same day.

These people should be stopped at the border and be Mexico's problem or 'immigrants'

W

They are not abandoned, abused and neglected it they are turning them over to parents that are illegally in the states. This is just a sleazy lawyer tactic to find and "bend" a law to suit them. Was this part of Obama's research on what he could do for illegals that he has been talking about?

Originally Posted by ReformUSA2012

. . . As far as I'm aware there is NO US Law that states that illegal aliens who entered the US illegally are entitled to a hearing or deportation appeal, or even an attorney. Catch and deport same day.

Federal Court Rules Illegal Alien Detainees Must Be Given Bond Hearings

U.S. to Provide Lawyers for Children Facing Deportation

[QUOTE=JohnDoe2;1421138]Federal Court Rules Illegal Alien Detainees Must Be Given Bond Hearings
/QUOTE]

A meaningless ruling actually. Bond hearing already means they are being held and given a court hearing at a later date or an appeal. However there is NO US Law that states they must be given a court date at all for an appeal. No need for a bond hearing if no court hearing. They can be deported same day, same hour. They can also be turned away at the border right back into Mexico even if not from Mexico.

There is also no law I have found that states IF they are given a court date that they are required to get a taxpayer funded lawyer. Remember while their actions are criminal the deportation hearing is a civil matter thus NO right to public representation at taxpayer cost. If they choose to hire a lawyer with their own money so be it.

Send them all back. These are not pathetic cases, these are not refugees, these are not people seeking political asylum, these are not neglected, abandoned or abused children, these are women with their children, teenagers and young adults. They are also not "unaccompanied", they're in big organized groups with more than ample adult supervision. After all that's how they got here to begin with. For any American to believe that a young child made its way on its own from Central America to the United States "unaccompanied", is just a sign of grotesque gullibility. After all, they paid thousands of dollars to guides, coyotes and smugglers to begin with to get here in the first place to steal your jobs, money, health care, welfare, educations and eventually our country, because they lack the character to earn their own in their own country.