This webinar will discuss recent trends of increased requests for evidence (RFEs) and notices of intent to deny (NOIDs) in Special Immigrant Juvenile Status cases following the centralization of SIJS adjudications. We will cover common fact patterns that have resulted in RFEs or NOIDs and discuss strategies for success – both in avoiding these requests to begin with, and in responding to RFEs or NOIDs if encountered. The webinar will feature practitioners with expertise in this area.
Speakers
Rachel Prandini, Immigrant Youth Project Attorney - Immigrant Legal Resource Center
Rachel Prandini is the ILRC’s Immigrant Youth Project Attorney based in San Francisco. Rachel focuses on immigrant youth issues, including unaccompanied minors and immigrant youth in the juvenile justice and child welfare systems. Rachel provides technical assistance and trainings to immigration and state court attorneys, social workers, and judges. She works on statewide and national policy that affects the rights of immigrant youth and is frequently consulted for her expertise in Special Immigrant Juvenile Status. Rachel co-authored the ILRC’s publication Special Immigrant Juvenile Status and Other Immigration Options for Children and Youth.
Prior to joining the ILRC, Rachel represented detained and released unaccompanied minors in removal defense and led a project focusing on Special Immigrant Juvenile Status at Esperanza Immigrant Rights Project in Los Angeles. While at Esperanza, Rachel also performed "Know Your Rights" work in southern California immigration detention centers for minors. Previously, Rachel worked as an associate at Paul Hastings, LLP and volunteered as a Child Advocate for unaccompanied minors.
Rachel earned her law degree from the University of California at Davis, where she was a member of the Immigration Law Clinic and worked on complex deportation defense cases and detention issues. She received her undergraduate degree from Westmont College, where she double-majored in philosophy and political science. Rachel is admitted to the bar in California. She is conversant in Spanish.
Lucero Chavez, Staff Attorney - Public Counsel
Lucero Chavez is a staff attorney in the Unaccompanied Children’s Project within the Immigrants’ Right Project of Public Counsel in Los Angeles, California. She has worked directly with unaccompanied children since November 2014. Since joining Public Counsel, Lucero has represented children in immigration court, affirmative asylum interviews, and state courts in order to seek Special Immigrant Juvenile Status. In immigration court, Lucero has challenged the requirement of having a sponsor present when a client is represented, proper service of the NTA under federal regulations and case law, and the reliability and sufficiency of evidence regarding alienage. Before joining Public Counsel, Lucero was an immigrant rights attorney at the ACLU of Southern California, focused on impact litigation around immigration enforcement, including Lopez-Venegas v Johnson, a class action related to the use of coercive practices in the administration of Voluntary Departure. Lucero received her J.D. from Berkeley School of Law and is a native of Southern California.
Kristen Jackson, Senior Staff Attorney - Public Counsel
Kristen Jackson is a Senior Staff Attorney in Public Counsel’s Immigrants’ Rights Project in Los Angeles. She also teaches the Asylum Clinic at UCLA School of Law. Kristen has expertise in asylum and children’s immigration issues, including Special Immigrant Juvenile Status and the intersection of immigration and juvenile justice. She has litigated SIJS issues in state and federal court, resulting in published opinions. Kristen has authored numerous publications, including a practice advisory on suppression and termination strategies for children in removal proceedings. Kristen clerked on the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit after receiving her J.D. from Yale Law School.