Hughes Hubbard Saves Salvadoran Teen from Deportation

Hughes Hubbard secured legal permanent residency status for an El Salvadoran teenager who faced deportation after entering the United States to reunite with his sister.

The client fled El Salvador in 2012 at the age of 17 after being abandoned and abused by his father, neglected by his mother and subjected to threats of gang violence.

The client was only 5 years old when he was forced by his father to stop going to school and work in the fields of El Salvador, suffering through years of physical abuse. His sister emigrated to the United States in 2004 to find work, and in 2012 she was finally able to tell her younger brother to come and join her.

In 2012, the client made the arduous journey from El Salvador to the United States running out of food and water at the end of the journey. He was apprehended by Homeland Security having crossed the border into Arizona. The client was thereafter released to his sister's care in Brooklyn, but was still subject to deportation proceedings.

Hughes Hubbard received the case from Kids in Need of Defense, a national nonprofit that provides legal counsel to unaccompanied immigrant children in the US. The firm represented the client throughout several immigration and family court hearings.

In September 2014, Hughes Hubbard successfully petitioned the Kings County Family Court to award guardianship to the client's sister and secured the special findings order required. In January 2015, Hughes Hubbard successfully petitioned the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services for status as special immigrant juvenile. In June 2015, Hughes Hubbard secured dismissal of the deportation proceedings against the client. The client, now 20, received his green card on March 8, 2016 and is elated that he can now live and work legally in the United States.

Marlena Frantzides worked on the case, with supervision by Bill Beausoleil.