Last month the University of Miami School of Law’s Children & Youth Law Clinic (CYLC) joined forces with the national Juvenile Law Center (JLC) and the Florida State University College of Law’s Center for the Advancement of Human Rights in the filing of an amicus curiae brief before the Board of Immigration Appeals, to adjust the immigration status of a minor (Carlints) who suffered abuse and abandonment.  The adjustment would enable Carlints to stay in the United States and eventually become a citizen.

Carlints was born in Haiti and at the age of five, his mother placed him on a boat for the U.S. and abandoned him.  When Carlints arrived in the U.S. he was bounced from one family member to the next and finally entered foster care at age 10.  It was not until age 12 that Carlints was placed in an appropriate foster care placement where he received treatment and care.  During the initial unstable and traumatic years in foster care, Carlints was arrested and adjudicated delinquent on a number of occasions. However, once placed in an appropriate and stable home, Carlints began a dramatic process of rehabilitation.

In order to legalize his immigration status, Carlints filed a petition both for Special Immigrant Juvenile (SIJ) status and for adjustment of that status to that of a lawful permanent resident.  He was granted SIJ status, but denied adjustment of status as a matter of discretion.  The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) then placed Carlints in removal proceedings.  Carlints again requested discretionary relief of adjustment of status as a special immigrant juvenile.  After considering the voluminous record establishing Carlints’ rehabilitation, the Immigration Court exercised its discretion and adjusted Carlints’s status.  DHS appealed the Immigration Court’s decision to the Board of Immigration Appeals.

The JLC-CYLC-FSU amicus brief argues that the Immigration Court appropriately exercised discretion in granting Carlints’s adjustment of status.  The brief describes how the favorable exercise of discretion in this case is supported by legal precedent recognizing the distinctive status of juveniles, and immigration law and guidelines.  A decision in the case is expected later this year.

Click here to view a copy of the amicus brief.

posted 09-May-2008