Deportation Prevention Advice

[paragraphs]

Reaching out to my flist here--anyone have any ideas?

My daughter's best friend Courtney's family took in a friend of their son's. His mother died, and his father abandoned him--sent him on a bus to Courtney's mom (who had moved from Las Vegas to Minnesota, but when they lived in Las Vegas the boy mostly lived with them).

The kid just turned 16. Turns out, he would've had to have been adopted at 15...which Courtney's mom VERY much wants. They were unable to accomplish that before his birthday thanks primarily to his father (who now can't be found), and now he is facing deportation to the Philipines.

He is 16. He has no family here but Courtney's, he has no family there. And, he is gay.

Any advice on how to keep him here would be appreciated. He has a lawyer and they are trying to do anything and everything they can but our government thinks it is more important to send a 16-year-old gay young man with no family or skills to a country he hasn't been to since he was a child.

Thanks flist--I have no idea how this kid can be saved and he is terrified, beyond terrified. I am heartsick for them all.

Comments

[durayan.livejournal.com]

Here is a somewhat useful article: http://www.cundyandmartin.com/immigration/family/immigration-status-abandoned-children.php

It seems to me that the most practical course would be to get something initiated under the Minnesota Child Protective Services folks. I know that sounds absurd and scary, and I must qualify that by saying I don't know jack about MN CPS, but whereas Immigration is likely to treat him as an unaccompanied minor, and attempt to repatriate him, CPS might intervene on the fact that his mother died and his only living parent has abandoned him. As a ward of the state, he would have access to a different path to legal residency, which is essential if he wishes to stay here, and ever have a decent job. Special Immigrant Juvenile Status is a beautiful thing.

I can't speak, however, to whether MN CPS would act if his current caregivers were willing to keep him (you can always say, yes, we want him, but we can't enroll him in school consent for medical care, etc...)or if they did, if they'd allow him to remain in your friend's home. And then, you'd still need to make sure that someone had it on their radar screen to pursue SIJS. As in jump up and down about it.

[paragraphs.livejournal.com]

More awesomeness! Thank you!!!

[weirdquark]

I don't know anything about CPS in Minnesota either, but in general, CPS likes to keep families together, so if he has family in the Philippines, they might actually prefer sending him there, because CPS never has enough funding to deal with the case load, so they tend to go with the easiest solution. But family friends normally get priority over random strangers when placing kids, so if CPS does move to keep him in the US, since your daughter's friend's family want to keep him, I'd think it's more likely that they'd let him stay than not. (But again, I'm not actually qualified to comment, and am guessing based on what my friends who have worked with similar systems before have said, and on what I've found on the internet.)

[paragraphs.livejournal.com]

He doesn't know of any family there, not a single soul. There's much to the story I don't know. I just hope something in all this helps them, and he stays here, and safe, with the family who loves him like their own. Sigh. He is a great kid, too! Good student, really sweet and funny. So doesn't deserve this.

[00goddess.livejournal.com]

I think this is the best idea and was basically what I was going to suggest.

CPS is different in every state, but here are some things I can offer as a former CPS kid: it is possible that he will get to stay with his current family. It really depends on the caseworker in question & the capacity of local shelters. The most likely scenario is that he will be sent to a shelter or emergency foster care for awhile while his current caregivers are investigated for fitness. Then he will probably be allowed to return to them as CPS is usually overjoyed to find people willing to take kids.

[paragraphs.livejournal.com]

Passing on...thanks!