Immigrant Youth
Removal Defense
Publication Date
This practice advisory, authored with our partners at the End SIJS Backlog Coalition, Children's Immigration Law Academy, Make the Road New York, National Immigration Project, Rocky Mountain Immigrant Advocacy Network, and Safe Passage Project, offers strategies at every stage of an SIJS client’s removal proceedings to advocate against the client’s removal and to preserve the record for appeal. This advisory was updated in May 2026 and includes:
- strategies for pleading to the Notice to Appear;
- challenging the Department of Homeland Security’s evidence of removability;
- arguments that can be made once removability has been established to avoid removal and/or preserve the best record for appeal;
- strategies after an immigration judge has ordered removal;
- detention issues that SIJS youth may face; and
- risk mitigation strategies for SIJS clients who may be vulnerable to expanded expedited removal.
Audience
Practitioners