The Importance of the Vulnerable Youth Guardianship Protection Act
Since 2022, KIND has worked with Legal Aid DC to pass the Vulnerable Youth Guardianship Protection Act, which provides all vulnerable immigrant youth survivors of child abuse, neglect, or abandonment in Washington, DC, equal access to courts to apply for, without filing costs, a guardian to support their protection and stability, creating a path for accessing a special federal humanitarian immigration benefit. With the bill’s permanent enactment last week, some of our most vulnerable immigrant youth have a new lifeline.
The Vulnerable Youth Guardianship Protection Act allows these young people to have an appointed guardian up until the age of 21. In doing so, the bill enables these youth to apply for Special Immigrant Juvenile Status (SIJS), which provides protection for young survivors of abuse, abandonment, and neglect.
Before the passage of the Vulnerable Youth Guardianship Protection Act, a discrepancy existed between Washington, DC, law and federal law impacting vulnerable youth ages 18 to 21. Federal law allows immigrants under 21 who were abandoned, abused, or neglected and under state court dependency to apply for legal status through SIJS. However, the District of Columbia Superior Court lacked jurisdiction over 18- to 21-year-olds in the District unless they were in the custody of the DC Child and Service Agency or previously determined neglected by the court. Consequently, many of these young adults were unable to seek the protection of SIJS.
