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MA Thesis Final
Embargoed Access, Embargo ends: 10/16/2028
Thesis
From Hope to Hurdles: Immigration Attorneys' Strategies in Special Immigrant Juvenile Status
Master of Arts (MA), Washington State University
2026
Abstract
Unaccompanied migrant youth navigating Special Immigrant Juvenile Status (SIJS) proceedings experience one of the most complex intersections of immigration and family law the United States legal systems offers, yet the strategies attorneys use to represent them remains largely unknown. Therefore, this study investigated what strategies immigration attorneys use in SIJS cases, whether these differ for detained versus non-detained clients, and what policies immigration attorneys would recommend for the private bar to ensure adequate legal representation for unaccompanied migrant youth. Using reflexive thematic analysis, eight semi-structured interviews were conducted with immigration attorneys practicing in the Houston, Texas area. Five themes emerged: (1) SIJS practice requires simultaneous competency in both state family court and federal immigration court; (2) effective representation depends on relational and trauma-informed skills that formal legal education does not offer; (3) whether a child is detained versus non-detained is the most consequential strategic variable in SIJS practice; (4) competing temporal pressures like the pre-18 deadline and a multi-year visa backlog create substantial pressures the legislative design of SIJS was not intended to accommodate for; and (5) the field’s collective knowledge infrastructure that was built over almost two decades is being defunded faster than it can be replaced. What appeared across all five themes is an original analytic contribution described as the structural double bind: the same political entities responsible for expanding detention and increasing the overall demand for SIJS representation are simultaneously dismantling the organizations that founded the field’s expertise, creating a crisis that is not only related to capacity, but also institutional memory. The findings of this study have direct implications for legal education, bar associations, and policymakers who work to ensure unaccompanied migrant youth receive the legal aid they deserve and are entitled to.
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Details
- Title
- From Hope to Hurdles: Immigration Attorneys' Strategies in Special Immigrant Juvenile Status
- Creators
- Julian Schepers
- Contributors
- Hillary A Mellinger (Advisor)David A Makin (Committee Member)Dale W Willits (Committee Member)
- Awarding Institution
- Washington State University
- Academic Unit
- Department of Criminal Justice and Criminology
- Theses and Dissertations
- Master of Arts (MA), Washington State University
- Number of pages
- 90
- Identifiers
- 99901419606501842
- Language
- English
- Resource Type
- Thesis