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FIRST ON FOX: An immigration program meant to supply everlasting authorized standing to undocumented migrant kids who expertise abuse or neglect was, below the Biden administration, provided principally to unlawful immigrants older than age 18, a lot of whom had legal information, in line with a brand new Division of Homeland Safety (DHS) report obtained by Fox Information Digital.
A Trump administration overview of the particular immigrant juvenile petition program discovered that between fiscal yr 2020 and monetary yr 2024, 198,414 particular immigrant juvenile petitions have been accepted. And in fiscal yr 2024, 52% of particular immigrant juvenile petitioners have been over the age of 18 by way of a loophole that allowed classification to be provided as much as age 20.
Of these petitioners, 60% have been male. Massachusetts, New York, Maryland and California are scorching spots, states the place courts routinely approve particular immigrant juvenile predicate orders for authorized adults, typically based mostly solely on affidavits.
Affidavits alone, typically written by the petitioner or a petitioner’s lawyer, are used to say abandonment or neglect. Judges might log out with out hearings.
BORDER CRISIS UNDER BIDEN REVEALS SHOCKING ABUSE OF MIGRANT CHILDREN PLACED WITH UNVETTED SPONSORS: DHS
A Trump administration overview of the particular immigrant juvenile petition program discovered that between fiscal yr 2020 and monetary yr 2024, 198,414 particular immigrant juvenile visas have been accepted. (Benjamin Lowy for Fox Information Digital )
Misuse of this system did not simply happen below Biden. Since 2013, greater than 600 MS-13 gang members utilized for the particular immigrant juvenile visa, in line with the DHS report, and greater than 500 of them have been accepted.
The report additionally recognized 853 recognized or suspected gang members who filed particular immigrant juvenile petitions, most of whom have been accepted.
Not less than 120 of these petitioning for particular immigrant juvenile visas since 2013 have been arrested for homicide, and greater than 200 of those that had their visas accepted have been convicted of intercourse offenses and required to register on the Nationwide Intercourse Offender Registry.
Many petitioners filed after they have been older than age 18 and certified as a result of they have been raised with one pure mum or dad and claimed the opposite mum or dad was not concerned of their life, “abandonment,” or didn’t financially assist them, “neglect,” in line with the report.
Greater than 100 recognized or suspected members of the 18th Avenue gang, a legal group with origins in California and Mexico, had particular immigrant juvenile petitions accepted since 2013, and dozens of others suspected of involvement within the Tren de Aragua, Sureño and Norteño gangs had accepted particular immigrant juvenile visas, in line with the report.
The Northern Triangle international locations of El Salvador, Guatemala and Honduras accounted for roughly 73.6% of all filings inside the particular immigrant juvenile program from 2014 to 2024.
In 2024, U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Companies acquired a petition from a 19-year-old suspected of plotting an Islamic State terror assault within the U.S. after he requested one other grownup be appointed his authorized guardian.
However the brand new report discovered that U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Companies determined in opposition to interviewing or requiring biometrics for these below the age of 18. Even for these 18 and older, solely 36% have been requested to submit biometrics.
An Ecuadorian migrant youngster walks by way of the river Nov. 20, 2022, in Darién Hole, Colombia. (Jan Sochor/Getty Pictures)
Since fiscal yr 2013, almost 20,000 particular immigrant juvenile petitioners submitted conflicting beginning dates, with 18,407 showing over the age of 21 based mostly on prior information — this system age cutoff.
Fraud could also be widespread in international locations with weak documentation programs, like Bangladesh, Somalia and Yemen, the place beginning certificates are simply falsified, the report mentioned.
TRUMP IMMIGRATION ADVISOR TARGETS CRIMINALS EXPLOITING UNACCOMPANIED MINORS WHO ENTERED US UNDER BIDEN
“Legal aliens are infiltrating the U.S. by way of a program meant to guard abused, uncared for or deserted alien kids,” mentioned U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Companies spokesman Matthew J. Tragesser. “This report exposes how the open border foyer and activist judges are exploiting loopholes within the identify of aiding helpless kids.”
Greater than 600 MS-13 gang members utilized for the SIJ visa, in line with the DHS report, and over 500 of them have been accepted. (John Alle/Santa Monica Coalition)
In June, the Citizenship and Immigration Companies workplace stopped providing deferred immigration enforcement for particular immigrant juveniles. The workplace mentioned it’s new methods to “make sure the SIJ classification stays accessible for the juveniles it was supposed to guard.”
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Congress first established this system in 1990 to permit younger illegal immigrants {that a} courtroom has decided can’t reunify with dad and mom resulting from abuse or neglect to use for particular immigrant juvenile classification, lawful everlasting resident standing and have an eventual path to U.S. citizenship. However, by regulation, there are not any legal bars or good ethical character necessities for particular immigrant juvenile petition approval.
