US Lawyer Is Getting Unaccompanied Minors Legal Status Using Controversial 2008 Law Elizabeth Llorente and Bryan Llenas - Fox News Latino
go to original September 14, 2014

As the US is immersed in a debate about whether to be tough or compassionate when handling the cases of tens of thousands of unaccompanied minors from Central America, a New York lawyer is working doggedly to keep them from being deported.

His main weapon is a 2008 law, virtually unknown to most Americans until now, that bestows a special immigration status upon children who lack at least one parent in their homeland or last place of residence who can care for them. Such children are deemed victims of “abuse, neglect, abandonment or a similar basis found under state law.”

Returning them to their country, the law holds, is counter to the child’s best interest.

Armed with the Trafficking Victims Protection Reauthorization Act, immigration attorney Bryan Johnson has been able to score Special Immigrant Juvenile visas for roughly 50 of the 50 youths for whom he has sought them, he said.

Read the rest at Fox News Latino

This is the second of two parts. The first part detailed the journey of five children who fled violence and gang threats in El Salvador and are now settling into their new life in the U.S.

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