Pro Bono Teams Represent Young Immigrants and Refugees

Throughout 2014, Ropes & Gray worked with nonprofit organization Kids in Need of Defense (KIND) to provide legal representation for unaccompanied refugees and immigrant minors entering the United States. 

These minors, entering the United States alone, are often fleeing abuse, violence and other threats in their homelands.  Ropes & Gray attorneys assisted one Guatemalan orphan in obtaining lawful permanent resident status in 2014, securing Special Immigrant Juvenile Status. 

A New York associate secured guardianship and an order of special findings to support an application for Special Immigrant Juvenile Status for a 16-year-old who was facing deportation after attempting to cross the U.S. border and spending two months in a detention facility.  On July 25, a Bronx family court judge ordered that the young woman’s aunt be granted full guardianship status over her and made further special findings in support of the client’s application for Special Juvenile Immigrant Status.  The young woman is now eligible to obtain expedited legal residency status in the United States

For more information on the work performed by the firm on behalf of youth in underserved communities, review the firm’s pro bono report and newsletters here.