Immigrant Youth Who've Suffered Abuse Should Be Allowed Work Permits, California Rights Groups Say in Lawsuit

A coalition of immigrant rights groups sued the Biden administration Monday, challenging its refusal to allow immigrant youth who’ve suffered abuse and neglect to legally work while they seek humanitarian protections.

Tens of thousands of applicants for a type of immigration protection called special immigrant juvenile status are forced to wait several years for work permits in the U.S. because of visa backlogs and other processing delays, according to the lawsuit, filed in federal court in Los Angeles.

The youth, age 16 to 21, often endure homelessness, hunger or exploitation because they are unable to support themselves, said Peter Schey, a lead plaintiffs’ counsel. Many crossed the southern border without their parents and don’t have adult relatives to rely on.

“Our country needlessly causes these young immigrants to experience more instability, more uncertainty and often abuse at the hands of unscrupulous employers,” said Schey, who directs the Center for Human Rights and Constitutional Law in Los Angeles.

“Such a policy is really an affront to Congress's unmistakable purpose in creating this humanitarian protection,” he added.

Immigrant children and youth are eligible for the protections, which were created by Congress more than 30 years ago, if a state court has determined that they cannot be reunited with a parent because of abuse, neglect or abandonment, and that it is not in their best interest to return to their home country.

Currently, SIJ status recipients may not apply for work permits until they are eligible to petition for lawful permanent residence. But there’s a bottleneck slowing their access to green cards (as permanent resident cards are known). Fewer than 700 are available each year to SIJs from any single foreign country. And that has led to the years-long wait times, according to the lawsuit, which names young SIJ status recipients and applicants as plaintiffs.

One plaintiff is Rene Gabriel Flores Merino, 20. He fled gang violence in El Salvador, and was granted SIJ status in November 2021. He’s enrolled in college but has lived in homeless shelters for about a year, as he waits to be able to legally work, he said.

“My life is extremely difficult because I don’t have a work permit,” said Merino. “I'm kind of worried about how I am going to pay for transportation to go to school because I don't have any ability to earn any sort of income.”

By law, SIJ applications must be adjudicated by immigration authorities within 180 days. But in reality, decisions often take a year, according to plaintiffs in the lawsuit, which also seeks to force the government to speed up processing times.

U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services announced new rules on Monday aimed at making the SIJ process more efficient. The changes include clarifying SIJ eligibility criteria “such as updating an age-out provision to protect petitioners who turn 21 while their petition is pending,” according to a statement released by the agency.

“We are taking action to help immigrant children in the U.S. who have been abused, neglected, or abandoned and offer them protection to help rebuild their lives,” said USCIS Director Ur M. Jaddou in the statement. “These policies will provide humanitarian protection to vulnerable young people for whom a juvenile court has determined that it is in their best interest to remain in the United States.”

The agency also will begin considering special immigrant juveniles for “deferred action” — a temporary relief from deportation — when they cannot apply for a green card because visas are unavailable, under a new USCIS policy that will take effect on May 6. That would allow SIJs to apply for temporary work permits. But even with that updated process, new applicants could still wait about two years to be able to legally work, said attorney Schey.

“These are not fraudulent cases. These are cases in which the fundamental eligibility has already been determined by a state court,” said Schey. “There is no reason why a juvenile applying for special immigrant juvenile status should not be … provided a work permit within a month or two months of filing their application. That's the result that we want to see.”

USCIS allows asylum seekers, victims of crime and other vulnerable immigrants to apply for work authorization while their visa petitions are being decided.

An agency spokesperson declined to comment on the lawsuit.

“As a matter of practice, USCIS does not comment on pending litigation,” said Matthew Bourke in an email.

In San Francisco, Supervisor Myrna Melgar said she is introducing a resolution to the Board of Supervisors calling on U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services to let these young immigrants work sooner.

“We cannot open the doors to kids and at the same time deny them a way to feed themselves,” said Melgar, who said she arrived in the U.S. with her family fleeing the war in El Salvador when she was 12 years old. “I implore this administration to hold true to its campaign promises by supporting youth so that they can be able to succeed in this country by having a job, being able to pay for their expenses and be able to have a bright future.”