Fordham Law School’s Olga Byrne wrote an op-ed piece for The Hill stating the need for the Special Immigrant Juvenile (SIJ) program to receive more resources. Byrne is project director of the NY Unaccompanied Immigrant Children Project at the Fordham Law School Feerick Center for Social Justice.
Last year, we saw a dramatic increase in the number of Central American children migrating to the United States. This was largely due to treacherous violence in the region where gangs are instilling terror in young people through shootings, kidnappings, and murders. Many of these children are eligible for SIJ, which involves a complex, two-step process that starts in state court and concludes before the federal immigration service.
Read Byrne’s entire op-ed here.