Abused immigrant youth eligible for green cards are being detained and deported

Last year, ICE detained 265 and deported 132 young people with Special Immigrant Juvenile Status, according to a letter the Department of Homeland Security sent to Sen. Catherine Cortez Masto.

They were offered a path to a green card reserved for young immigrants who experienced abuse or abandonment in their countries of origin. Then the Trump administration detained and deported them.

From Jan. 20 to Dec. 22 of last year, ICE detained 265 and deported 132 young people with Special Immigrant Juvenile Status (SIJS), according to a letter the Department of Homeland Security sent to Sen. Catherine Cortez Masto, D-Nev., obtained exclusively by NBC News.

“They are tearing them away from the stability that they’re in, the lives that they’re building on their pathway to permanent protection,” said Rachel Davidson, the director of the End SIJS Backlog Coalition, part of the National Immigration Project.

Congress created the SIJS pathway to legal residency in 1990 to protect immigrant minors who have been victims of abuse, abandonment or neglect in their countries and give them a way to remain in the U.S. and obtain green cards. They must be under 21 when they petition for the status.

Because of a backlog of green card applications, since 2022, the youths were also typically protected by a policy for immigrants with SIJS known as deferred action. That shielded them from deportation and allowed them to work legally in the U.S. as they waited in a visa backlog to be able to apply for green cards. In June, the Trump administration ended deferred action for SIJS recipients, but that policy is on hold as it makes its way through a court case.