UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT FOR THE DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA JANE DOE, Plaintiff, v. Civil Action No. 20-2521 (JDB) ALEJANDRO MAYORKAS, Secretary, U.S. Department of Homeland Security, et al., Defendants. MEMORANDUM OPINION Plaintiff Jane Doe is a Honduran national who came to the United States in 2015 at the age of sixteen. After U.S. Customs and Border Protection placed her in removal proceedings, Doe sought and received a judgment from the 315th Judicial District Court in Harris County, Texas (the “Texas Court”) declaring her “dependent upon th[e] juvenile court in accordance with the laws of the State of Texas.” J.A. to Pl.’s Mot. for Summ. J. & Defs.’ Cross-Mot. for Summ. J. (Redacted), Vol. II [ECF No. 33] (“J.A. II”) at 184–85. Based on the Texas Court’s declaration, Doe then applied for Special Immigrant Juvenile Status (“SIJS”) with U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (“USCIS”). Had Doe’s petition for SIJS been granted, she would have been eligible to receive a visa. But USCIS denied her application, and USCIS’s Administrative Appeals Office (“AAO”) upheld the denial on administrative appeal. Doe filed suit in this Court challenging the denial of her appeal as arbitrary, capricious, and contrary to law under the Administrative Procedure Act, 5 U.S.C. §§ 701–06, and moved for summary judgment on her claims. The government filed a cross-motion for summary judgment, asserting that the denial was lawful and appropriate. The party’s cross-motions have been fully 1 briefed and are ripe for this Court’s review. For the reasons explained below, the Court will grant Doe’s motion for summary judgment, deny the government’s cross-motion, and remand to the agency for further consideration. Background I. Statutory Framework The Immigration and Nationality Act (“INA”) extends SIJS to certain at-risk migrant children in the United States who have been estranged from one or both of their parents due to abuse, abandonment, or neglect. See 8 U.S.C. § 1101(a)(27)(J). There are five statutory requirements for an immigrant to obtain SIJS: (1) The immigrant must have been “declared dependent on a juvenile court located in the United States”; 1 (2) Reunification of the immigrant with one or both parents must not be viable “due to abuse, neglect, abandonment, or a similar basis found under State law”; (3) An administrative or judicial tribunal must determine that it would not be in the immigrant’s best interest to return to his or her home country; (4) The immigrant must be under twenty-one years old and unmarried at the time he or she applies for SIJS; and (5) The Secretary of Homeland Security must consent to the grant of SIJS. See id. § 1101(a)(27)(J); 8 C.F.R. § 204.11(c). A petitioner who obtains SIJS is eligible for a visa. 8 U.S.C. § 1153(b)(4). These requirements have evolved over the years since Congress first established SIJS. At its inception in 1990, SIJS was available only to immigrant children deemed eligible for long-term foster care. See Immigration Act of 1990, Pub. L. No. 101-649, § 153, 104 Stat. 4978, 5005 1 USCIS regulations provide that …
Original document
Source: All recent Immigration Decisions In All the U.S. Courts of Appeals