The document is a conference presentation hosted in Phoenix. It provides an overview of Special Immigrant Juvenile Status (SIJS) petitions, focusing on the legal and procedural challenges faced by state court judges. It aims to help people better understand how to issue well drafted court orders containing the required judicial determinations (findings of fact and conclusions of law) children eligible must obtain as a requisite to filing for Special Immigrant Juvenile Status, how to apply state laws regarding jurisdiction, UCCJEA, notice, and service of process to cases in which children seek SIJS judicial determinations, how to use state court judges’ expertise on child welfare and apply state best interests of the child laws when deciding the facts as to a child’s parental maltreatment without regard to where the maltreatment took place, how to understand how SIJS cases are part of a trauma informed state and federal approach that provides child victims with humanitarian immigration relief needed stabilize lives and help children heal and thrive.
Child welfare, abuse and neglect, Family Law, National Judicial Network & Judicial Training, Special Immigrant Juvenile Status (SIJS)