Going to bat for immigrant kids brings broader impacts on humanitarian relief

Ordinarily, Sirena P. Castillo's practice involves corporate investigations and white collar defense, with a sideline in pro bono immigration law work, for Manatt, Phelps & Phillips LLP. She was working on a habeas petition for a young immigrant, J.L., whose application for Special Juvenile Immigrant Status was delayed--when the case mushroomed into a much bigger deal.

"We thought delay was the issue, but when we got the government's denial letter it contained reasons I'd never seen before," Castillo said. The letter claimed "that because California probate courts did not have child reunification authority, they could not qualify as a juvenile court" under the relevant federal law. "That was significant because, if it was a new policy, it meant children would be precluded from gaining a path to legal residency."

Castillo investigated with colleagues Adrianne E. Marshack and Kathleen E. I. Wise at her firm and with Mary Tanagho Ross at Public Counsel Law Center and Bree Bernwanger at the Lawyers' Committee for Civil Rights of the San Francisco Bay Area.

The children in question had been granted guardianships by probate courts to get them away from abusive or neglectful parents. Public Counsel's national network checked and reported that it wasn't a blip. Similar denials were happening in New York state. Instead, an unannounced policy change by the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services and the Department of Homeland Security imposed a "new requirement" for SJIS classification that cut probate courts from the process.

"All of a sudden, children who had been through really hard times would have their dreams shattered, even though their guardians had created safe homes for them. We saw that if we did not act there would suddenly be more and more of them getting denials," Castillo said.

Her first move was to seek a preliminary injunction to pause the new policy as part of a class action designed to end it. J.L. v. Cuccinelli, 5:18-cv-4914 (N.D. Ca., filed Aug. 14, 2018).

Granted in October 2018 by U.S. Magistrate Judge Nathanael Cousins, the injunction proved to be an influential move in the case that was cited by lawyers raising the same issue in other states. "That really was a domino that led to success," Castillo said. Even though Cousins found the case was likely to succeed, the government fought hard, Castillo said. "They filed a motion to dismiss; we filed for summary judgment. Then they said they were interested in settlement negotiations."

The resulting deal, signed in December 2019, means the government can no longer deny California probate courts the capacity to make necessary determinations for class members to obtain humanitarian relief. But that did not end the case. "After we signed the settlement, we learned that government had wrongly deported five of our class members," Castillo said. She and her colleagues got Cousins to find the government in contempt and to impose daily monetary sanctions until the deportees are returned to the U.S. That part of the case has been delayed by the coronavirus crisis, but so far two have been returned.

As many as 2,100 juveniles are on the class list. And Castillo wasn't done. She applied for and got $875,000 in attorney fees under the Equal Access to Justice Act. Manatt donated its share to its nonprofit partners, who really needed the money as funds dried up during the pandemic. "It came at a good time for them," Castillo said. Her original client, J.L., is close to obtaining legal permanent residency and another on the named plaintiff list has achieved that goal. "I could not be happier. This has been life changing for these kids," she said.

-- John Roemer