Law Commons^™

Abandoning The Status Quo: Towards Uniform Application Of Special Immigrant Juvenile Status, Gregory Catangay

Gregory Catangay

The accompanying Article identifies and analyzes the causes of unequal application of the Special Immigrant Juvenile Status (SIJS) program and argues for a federal takeover of the program. The Article highlights the current immigration crisis and the plight of unaccompanied minors seeking a better life in the United States. These minors may be eligible for permanent legal status in the United States through the SIJS program. Although SIJS is a federal remedy, variations in state law and interpretation of SIJS requirements exclude eligible minors.

In order to be eligible for the SIJS program, a state trial court must find that …

Advocating Duress And Infancy Exceptions To The Persecutor Bar To Asylum For Former Child-Soldiers, Joshua Dankoff

Joshua Dankoff

After briefly discussing asylum law, the persecutor bar to asylum, and the 2009 Supreme Court decision Negusie v. Holder, this paper argues that former child soldiers are a unique population of asylum seekers. The article considers the wide use of duress in domestic and international law, and briefly discusses the infancy defense. The article then argues that a lack of duress exception to the persecutor bar for former child soldiers negatively impacts child asylum seekers, and proposes that the Board of Immigration Appeals read in both a duress and infancy exception to the persecutor bar to asylum.