The Tablet May 24, 2021
Unaccompanied minors wait to be transported by Border Patrol in La Joya, Texas, April 7, 2021, after crossing the Rio Grande into the United States. (Photo: Catholic News Service)
NEW YORK Rebecca Scholtz has experienced firsthand how the Special Immigrant Juvenile Status (SIJS) program can be an “incredibly life-changing process” for undocumented youth, one that culminates with a green card and the ability to make a life for themselves in the U.S.
For about the last five years, however, the process hasn’t gone as smoothly. Many that have qualified for SJIS find themselves stuck in legal limbo, sometimes for years, because of an existing green card backlog.
Fleeing poverty and gang violence, thousands of Central American children continue to trek alone towards the US-Mexico border hoping for a chance at a new life in the United States.
Since coming into office in January, President Joe Biden has expelled the vast majority of migrant adults and families under a public health order that his predecessor Donald Trump put in place.
But the Biden administration allows children travelling without a parent or guardian to enter the country to unite with relatives while they pursue their asylum claims, acknowledging that turning them away would endanger their lives.
“All of them are vulnerable,” said Eskinder Negash, president of the US Committee for Refugees and Immigrants, a non-profit organisation based in Virginia.