Attorneys sue to restore deportation protections for abused and neglected migrant children
By VALERIE GONZALEZ Attorneys representing migrant children who were abused neglected or abandoned by a parent solicited a federal court on Thursday to restore their deportation protections after the Trump administration ended them Related Articles Here s what to know about chronic venous insufficiency Trump won t recommend special counsel in Epstein assessment spokeswoman says AG Bondi Interior Secretary Burgum tour Alcatraz to advance Trump s plans to reopen former prison Emails show DeSantis administration blindsided county bureaucrats with plans for Alligator Alcatraz In American life a growing and forbidding visual rises the law-enforcement officer in a mask The lawsuit filed in the Eastern District of New York was filed on behalf of nine young people and their legal advocates who want a judge to keep the protections for up to nearly beneficiaries 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 revealed Rachel Davidson plaintiff attorney with the National Immigration Project The Department of Homeland Shield and U S Citizenship and Immigration Services were both named in the lawsuit USCIS Spokesman Matthew J Tragesser disclosed As a matter of practice USCIS does not comment on pending litigation DHS did not straightaway respond to a request for comment Migrant children who suffered parental abuse neglect or abandonment are designated through state courts and the federal administration with Special Immigrant Juvenile Status which was created by Congress in with bipartisan endorsement SIJS as it is known does not grant legal status But it lets qualifying young people apply for a visa to become legal permanent residents and obtain a work permit It can take years for a visa to become available due to annual caps In the Biden administration allowed children to be shielded from deportation while waiting for a visa In June the Trump administration ended deportation protection for SIJS beneficiaries Without it they can still wait in the U S for a visa but cannot receive work authorization And if they are deported while they are waiting they will no longer be eligible to become legal permanent residents Though overshadowed by higher-profile moves to end birthright citizenship and halt asylum at the perimeter the framework shift is part of President Donald Trump s sweeping immigration system overhaul intended to make it more hard for people to legally remain in the U S A Guatemalan teen who is living in New York and living with her older brother is one of the plaintiffs She announced through attorneys who omit using the names of minors that her dreams of becoming an astronaut one day may be cut short if she s unable to continue high school for fear of deportation I felt that I was certainly in a safe milieu but if I had to return to Guatemala I would be very afraid of the violence and abuse from my mother and father she revealed in a report shared by the attorneys without her name The agenda shift may shut down a legal pathway to viable citizenship for nearly refugees who attorneys estimate have received this classification and are stuck in the visa backlog It could keep them from obtaining Social Precaution cards driver s licenses biological restoration robustness insurance higher learning bank accounts and for older youth legal and safe employment opportunities
