A team from our Washington, DC office, led by partner Jodi Avergun and associate Michael Gonzalez, recently secured lawful permanent resident status for their 16-year-old client from El Salvador. The Firm has been working on this matter, referred by Kids in Need of Defense (KIND), since February 2017.

When the Cadwalader team initially met our client, he was a frightened 9-year-old who had just fled El Salvador after gang members threatened to harm him. When our client was a young boy, his father abandoned their family shortly after leaving for the United States to find work and subsequently being deported for criminal activity. This left his mother to care for him alone. Local gang members began pressuring him to join their gang, telling him that they would beat him if he refused. After several months of constant harassment, he was forced to drop out of school in order to avoid them. Eventually, he made his way to the U.S. so that he could find safety and a better life.

With our team’s help, our client’s mother filed for custody for him in the DC Superior Court and eventually Special Immigrant Juvenile Status, and, after waiting over two years, he finally received approval to become a permanent resident.