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 In past articles I have written to you with regard to the many new changes in the law, and it has been well-received. As many of you know, in some instances Congress changes the law and the United States Citizenship and Immigration Service does not always follow the letter of the law, nor does the United States State Department. I will treat this subject in the hopes that you will become better educated with regards to Immigration Law.
Federal Lawsuit Filed to Force Government to Follow Child Status Protection Act
Generally, when children turn 21 years of age, they can no longer qualify for green cards along with their parents. Congress knows this, and they attempted to keep families intact by passing the "Child Status Protection Act" (CSPA) in 2002.
However, Congress realized that despite their best efforts, some children would turn 21 ("age-out") despite CSPA, and, therefore, they inserted a provision in CSPA (the last sentence of section three) to allow these youngsters to promptly reunite with their parents and siblings.
Unfortunately, in the six years since CSPA was signed into law, the USCIS has never issued regulations explaining how the agency would implement the law. The agency has issued a total of ten memos explaining the intricacies of CSPA. Incredibly, none of the ten memos explains the "automatic conversion" provision at the end of section three of CSPA which provides as follows:
(3) RETENTION OF PRIORITY DATE- If the age of an alien is determined under paragraph (1) to be 21 years of age or older for the purposes of subsections (a) (2) (A) and (d), the alien's petition shall automatically be converted to the appropriate category and the alien shall retain the original priority date issued upon receipt of the original petition.'.
It is really very simple. Yet for the past six years, the USCIS and State Department have ignored this section of the law.
After years of trying to get the government to follow the law, the patience of our clients is wearing thin. On June 23, a suit was filed against the government on behalf of the mother of a child who had aged out (was 19 years of age when the Petition was filed and was 21 years of age at the time of for the Adjustment of Status to that of Lawful Permanent Resident). This occurred with a number of other plaintiffs with similar cases. Most of the plaintiffs were from the Philippines and South American countries, which are the countries with the longest backlogs in the family categories.
Would you or your family or friends benefit if the government followed the letter of the CSPA law? Please let us know.
I welcome readers to share their opinion and ideas by writing to
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Source: Shusterman’s Immigration Update (July 2008), Volume 13, Number 6
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