The U.S. government has approved an alarming number of criminals, gangbangers and alleged murderers for a special classification originally intended for vulnerable migrant children.
Earlier in June, U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) revealed shocking findings about the Special Immigrant Juvenile (SIJ) program, a little-known classification that can provide a pathway to permanent residency and citizenship to young illegal migrants who’ve been abandoned or abused by their parents. Investigators discovered that, over the past decade, the SIJ program has experienced a wave of petitions from criminals and adults over 18. (RELATED: ICE Office Set Ablaze In Sanctuary State As Attacks Against Agency Rack Up)
USCIS Director Joseph Edlow — who was sworn in as USCIS director in July — predicts these findings may just be the tip of the iceberg.
“Unfortunately, I do expect to uncover more,” Edlow said to the Daily Caller News Foundation. “The SIJ program has been something that I think USCIS has not been administering appropriately for many years.”
TOPSHOT – A US Customs and Border Protection officer gives food to an immigrant child waiting to be processed at a US Border Patrol transit center after crossing the border from Mexico at Eagle Pass, Texas on December 22, 2023. (Photo by CHANDAN KHANNA / AFP) (Photo by CHANDAN KHANNA/AFP via Getty Images)
Created by Congress under the Immigration Act of 1990, the SIJ program allows young illegal migrants who a juvenile court determined cannot be reunited with one or both parents because of abandonment, abuse or neglect to apply for SIJ classification, according to USCIS. This special status also allows approved petitioners to apply for lawful permanent status and creates a pathway to citizenship.
Despite being intended for children, eligibility only requires applicants be under 21, unmarried and in the U.S. at the time of their petition, according to the agency. There are currently no criminal bars or good moral character prerequisites for SIJ petition approval.
These low barriers to entry have allowed a wave of petitions — and approvals — from criminal migrants over the years.
Between 2013 to February 2025, a total of 853 known or suspected gang members submitted SIJ petitions, according to the USCIS study. The vast majority of the individuals were given the green light, with 519 known or suspected MS-13 gangbangers being approved.
In 80% of cases, the government had prior knowledge of their gang affiliation before approval. A slate of other gangbangers — such as Tren de Aragua, 18th Street, Surenos members — have also applied for the program.
What the Trump administration uncovered didn’t stop there.
At least 200 SIJ petitioners arrested for rape, child molestation and other sex crimes were approved into the program since fiscal year 2013, according to the study. At least 120 SIJ petitioners were arrested for murder, nearly 91% of whom were also approved for the program.
When asked how such a program became inundated with bad actors, an administration spokesperson noted that foreign nationals have become adept at exploiting loopholes in the system.
“Like anything in immigration, once there’s a gap or vulnerability identified, it explodes,” USCIS spokesperson Matthew Tragesser stated to the DCNF. “The SIJ program has kind of become the darling of aliens who just don’t have any other way.”
“The way Congress wrote the statue is, at best, ambiguous, and at worst, problematic, but the last administration didn’t do us any favors with the way it was operationalized,” Tragesser continued.
US Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) Deputy Director for Policy Joseph Edlow,(R) and Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, applaud and congratulate new US citizens during a naturalization ceremony hosted by the USCIS at the State Department in Washington, DC, on October 22, 2020. (Photo by Manuel Balce Ceneta / POOL / AFP) (Photo by MANUEL BALCE CENETA/POOL/AFP via Getty Images)
Unlike in other applications where a petition is filed on a foreign national’s behalf — such as when a spouse who marries a noncitizen — applicants for SIJ classification petition themselves, making it that much easier for foreigners to target the program.
A major impact to the program was a lawsuit that largely restricts the agency’s ability to deny applications from potentially dangerous individuals. The settlement from that lawsuit, known as the Saravia settlement and handed down in 2021, currently prohibits USCIS from denying SIJ petitions based on grounds of gang affiliation.
An SIJ approval alone does not confer any immigration benefit such as a green card or work authorization, according to USCIS. While the agency may not always be able to deny an SIJ applicant if they were arrested for murder or another heinous crime, that individual is still amenable to arrest and deportation by Immigration and Customs Enforcement.
However, President Joe Biden’s handling of the program effectively rendered it a wholesale amnesty program. In 2022, the Biden administration granted deferred action to foreign nationals given SIJ classification. This policy change not only applied to forward approvals, but also to those who were approved years prior — giving many foreign nationals protection from deportation.
Data show that the program became incredibly more popular with migrants under Biden’s watch.
There were a total of 18,440 individuals who filed for an SIJ petition in 2020, the final year of President Donald Trump’s first term, according to the USCIS study. By 2024 — as Biden was overseeing record-settling levels of illegal immigration — this number skyrocketed to 67,754. Biden’s final year in office was also unique in that migrants over 18 filed more SIJ petitions than those under 18.
“I think it did get worse under the Biden administration,” Edlow stated to the DCNF. “And yes, it has been a pathway that has been exploited by criminal aliens and some gangbangers.”
However, the Trump administration has quickly acted to fix the program, and other major changes are on the horizon.
On June 6, USCIS officially rescinded the Biden-era policy of automatic consideration of deferred action for migrants classified as SIJs, effectively eliminating it as an amnesty program. Additionally, the Saravia settlement will sunset in 2026, meaning gang members and others suspected of gang affiliation will no longer have free rein to enter the SIJ program.
Edlow pledges the Trump White House will focus on cleaning up not just the SIJ program, but all other facets of the U.S. immigration system left in dire straits by the previous administration.
“We already knew there was a misalignment of priorities and resources, but it became painfully obvious that USCIS was acting as kind of the arm of the prior administration to help maneuver [around] the border crisis,” Edlow stated. “And you know, to come back here and realize that, really, fraud was never really something that they were too concerned about.”
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