Summary
The District of Columbia Court of Appeals held that the record required findings that reunification of the minor with her father was not viable due to abandonment and that returning her to Guatemala was not in her best interest for purposes of Special Immigrant Juvenile Status. The court vacated the Superior Court's findings and remanded for amended findings consistent with its opinion.
Topics
Practice areas
Questions Presented
- Whether reunification of M.L.P. with her biological father was not viable due to abandonment under the SIJS statute.
- Whether the evidence established that it would not be in M.L.P.'s best interest to return to Guatemala.
Holdings
- A child may satisfy the SIJS reunification criterion when the child is placed in the custody of one parent and reunification with the other parent is not viable due to that parent's abandonment; reunification with the custodial parent does not defeat the criterion.
- Where the evidence establishes that the child's best interests are served by remaining in the care and custody of the mother, and the child would have no caregiver in Guatemala, the court must find that returning the child to Guatemala is not in the child's best interest.
- The Superior Court's SIJS findings must be vacated and the case remanded for amended findings consistent with the appellate opinion.
Key quotations
“Assessing the viability of reunification “calls for a realistic look at facts on the ground,”” (11)
“Considering “the lifelong history”—or lack thereof—between M.L.P. and her father, and employing the “common-sense practical workability” perspective required in the SIJS context, reunification of M.L.P. with her father was not “viable” due to abandonment.” (12)
“sending the juvenile “back to the care of a father who has never fulfilled any day-to-day role in the support, care, and supervision during the boy’s lifetime cannot be a ‘reunification’ that is ‘viable,’ that is, ‘practicable; workable,’ and such a conclusion is due to ‘abandonment’ evidenced by the record here in its relation to the viability of reunification” (13)
Factual background
M.L.P. was born in Guatemala in 2009. Her father left Guatemala when she was six months old, did not see her again until the custody and SIJS proceedings in 2016, provided no meaningful support, and did not exercise visitation during the proceedings. M.L.P.'s mother left Guatemala in 2012, M.L.P. entered the United States in 2014, and the child was later placed in her mother's sole legal and primary physical custody. The mother testified that M.L.P. was thriving in her care in the United States and would have no one to care for her if returned to Guatemala.
Procedural history
E.P.L., the mother of M.L.P., filed a custody complaint and a motion for SIJS findings in the Superior Court. The Superior Court awarded the mother sole legal and primary physical custody, but found that M.L.P. did not satisfy the abandonment and best-interest criteria for SIJS. E.P.L. appealed, and the District of Columbia Court of Appeals reviewed the legal issues de novo.
Remand instructions
Vacate the Superior Court's Special Immigrant Juvenile Status Findings and remand for entry of amended findings consistent with the opinion, including findings that reunification with M.L.P.'s father was not viable due to abandonment and that returning M.L.P. to Guatemala was not in her best interest.