GUARDIANSHIP OF YOSSELIN GUADALUPE PENATE. DEPARTMENT OF REVENUE VS. MANUEL MORALES LOPEZ & another.
Supreme Judicial Court of Massachusetts, Suffolk
June 9, 2017
477 Mass. 268 (2017)
Suffolk. January 6, 2017. - June 9, 2017. Present: GANTS, C.J., LENK, HINES, GAZIANO, LOWY, & BUDD, JJ.
Discussion of the special immigrant juvenile status provisions of the Immigration and Nationality Act,
This court concluded that a Probate and Family Court judge, if requested by an immigrant child under
In a proceeding on a petition for appointment of a guardian for a minor immigrant, in which the minor filed a motion for special findings of fact necessary to a legal determination of her entitlement to special immigrant juvenile status under
In a proceeding on a complaint to establish paternity, in which the immigrant child, appearing as an interested party, moved for special findings pursuant to
This court declined to reach an issue that had no bearing on the outcome of the case at issue. [278-279]
PETITION for appointment of a guardian filed in the Suffolk Division of the Probate and Family Court Department on September 14, 2015.
A motion for special findings of fact was heard by Virginia M. Ward, J.
The Supreme Judicial Court on its own initiative transferred the case from the Appeals Court.
COMPLAINT to establish paternity filed in the Suffolk Division of the Probate and Family Court Department on November 25, 2014.
A motion for special findings of fact was heard by Virginia M. Ward, J.
The Supreme Judicial Court on its own initiative transferred the case from the Appeаls Court.
Valquiria C. Ribeiro for Marvin H. Penate.
Jennifer B. Luz (Joshua M. Daniels also present) for E.G.
Elizabeth Badger for Kids in Need of Defense & others.
The following submitted briefs for amici curiae:
Benjamin C. Mizer, Principal Deputy Assistant Attorney General, William C. Peachey, Erez Reuveni, & Joseph A. Darrow, of the District of Columbia, for the United States.
Mary K. Ryan & Meghan S. Stubblebine for American Immigration Lawyers Association, New England Chapter, & others.
HINES, J. In these appeals brought by E.G., an eight year old undocumented immigrant from Guatemala, and Yosselin Guadalupe Penate, a nineteen year old undocumented immigrant from El Salvador, we consider for the second time3 the statutorily mandated role of the Probate and Family Court (and the Juvenile Court) in a juvenile‘s application for special immigrant juvenile
We now clarify the role of the judge with respect to a juvenile‘s motion for special findings necessary to apply for SIJ status under
Background.5 1. Yosselin Penate. Yosselin6 was born in 1997 in El Salvador to Marleny D. Penate-Velasquez. The father abandoned Marleny before Yosselin was born, and is not listed on her
Because her mother was unemployed, Yosselin did not have access to medical treatment. At age fourteen, Yosselin took a job to help with family expenses. While working, Yosselin continued to attend school, but her job responsibilities frequently prevented her from completing her homework. Although she added to the family‘s income, Yosselin‘s living conditions remained poor. In 2013, when Yosselin was fifteen years of age, she began receiving death threats from a local gang. The gang demanded that she either join the gang or be killed. Because Marleny was unable to properly provide financial resources for Yosselin or protect her from the gang, Marleny determined that it would be best for the family if Yosselin left for the United States to live with her uncle, Marleny‘s brother, Marvin H. Penate, who lives in Massachusetts. In accordance with her mother‘s wishes, Yosselin traveled to the United States and has lived with Marvin in Revere since that time. Since her arrival in the United States, Yosselin has had access to proper medical care, is enrolled in school, and has adequate food and clothing. Although Yosselin remains in contact with her mother in El Salvador, she wishes to continue living with Marvin in the United States.
In September, 2015, when Yosselin was seventeen years of age, Marvin filed a petition in the Probate and Family Court seeking guardianship of her, and she then filed a motion seeking the requisite special findings for SIJ status. In her motion for special findings, Yosselin asserted that she was dependent on the Probate and Family Court, that reunification with her mother was not viable due to neglect, and that return to El Salvador was not in her best interests.7 Following a short hearing, the Probate and Family Court judge issued a written decision, dismissing the guardianship petition and declining to make special findings as to the first and third prongs. With respect to the second prong, the judge stated, “The sole problem here is that [Yosselin] must find a legal way to re-enter this country if in fact she is deported. This [c]ourt
2. E.G. E.G. was born in Guatemala in 2008 to Norma Cecilia Mauricio Guzman. After finding out that Guzman was pregnant, E.G.‘s father, Manual Morales Lopez, abandoned Guzman, and he moved to the United States before E.G. was born. Following his move to the United States, Lopez made no effort to contact or take care of E.G. and offered Guzman negligible financial support. After E.G.‘s birth, Lopez stopped providing financial support altogether. Because Lopez ignored Guzman‘s efforts to inform him of E.G.‘s birth and had no relationship with E.G., Guzman did not list Lopez on E.G.‘s birth certificate.
During the early years of E.G.‘s life, she and her half-brother were raised by their mоther in Guatemala. As a single mother, Guzman was unable to earn enough money to support her two children. She left for the United States without her children when E.G. was three years old and her half-brother was ten years old. Once in the United States, Guzman remained in contact with her children and attempted unsuccessfully to secure reliable care from members of E.G.‘s extended family and a woman whom Guzman paid for child care services. Neither proved reliable. Consequently, E.G. was looked after by her half-brother or, when he was at school, left completely alone. Although initially E.G. attended kindergarten in Guatemala, after three months she had to stop going because the walk to school was far and too dangerous for E.G. to walk alone. On one occasion, E.G. suffered a head injury and was hospitalized after falling into a large hole. On another occasion, she was attacked by a stray dog when she was out on the street alone.
In 2014, with no possibility of a safe or secure life in Guatemala, E.G. and her brother left Guatemala for the United States. Thе two children were captured while attempting to cross into the United States from Mexico. Following their capture in Texas, the Office of Refugee Resettlement contacted Guzman, who by then lived in Massachusetts, and released the children to her custody. Since that time, both children have lived with their mother and other members of their family in Massachusetts. Unlike in Guatemala, in the United States, E.G. lives with responsible adults who care for her, and she attends school.
After moving to the United States, Lopez made no effort to contact E.G. E.G. met Lopez for the first time when he appeared
Appearing as an interested party to the paternity suit, E.G. filed a motion for special findings pursuant to
Discussion. 1. Statutory overview. We begin by providing an overview of the SIJ status provision. In 1990, Congress created the SIJ provisions of the Immigration and Nationality Act to enable immigrant children who have been subject to abuse, neglect, or abandonment by one or both of their parents to remain in the United States and apply for lawful permanent residence. Recinos, 473 Mass. at 734, 737, citing
After obtaining special findings, the immigrant child must file a petition, including the special findings, with USCIS.
2. The role of the Probate and Family Court. Although “[t]he process for obtaining SIJ status is ‘a unique hybrid procedure that directs the collaboration of [S]tate and [F]ederal systems,‘” Recinos, 473 Mass. at 738, quoting H.S.P. v. J.K., 223 N.J. 196, 209 (2015), a person‘s immigration status remains a matter governed solely by Federal law. Thus, whether a child qualifies for SIJ status and whether to grant or deny an immigrant child‘s application for SIJ status is beyond the jurisdiction of the Probate and Family Court. The State court‘s role is solely to make the special findings of fact necessary to the USCIS‘s legal determination of the immigrant child‘s entitlement to SIJ status.
The judge‘s obligation to make the special findings also applies regardless of whether the child presents sufficient evidence to support a favorable finding under each of the criteria set forth in
As further guidance for the judge to whom a motion for special findings has been presented, we direct that the findings be limited to the parent with whom the child claims reunification is not viable due to abuse, neglect, or abandonment. Thus, where an immigrant child asserts in her or his motion for special findings that reunification is not viable with only one parent, the Probate and Family Court shall limit its findings to that parent. In the event that the child asserts that reunification is not viable with both parents, the court shall make findings as to both parents. In our view, no more and no less is required of the Probate and Family Court to meet its statutorily mandated role.
We recognize the disparate approaches among State courts to this prong of the special findings required under the statute. Some State courts have interpreted the statute to mean that the immigrant child must establish that reunification is not viable as to both parents, while others have proceeded on the assumption that reunification is not viable if only one parent has been shown to have abused, neglected, or abandoned the immigrant child. See,
3. Special findings for Yosselin. In the Probate and Family Court judge‘s written judgment of dismissal on the petition for appointment of guardianship, the judge addressed Yosselin‘s motion for special findings, but only as to the viability of the parental reunification prong. After concluding that Yosselin‘s mother did not intend to abandon her, the judge posited that the sole reason for the guardianship petition was to allow Yosselin to request special findings and ultimately “take advantage of the [SIJ] [s]tatus program.” The judge went on to note,
“While it appears from her affidavit that she may have good reasons for leaving El Salvador, as an emancipated eighteen year old adult, Yosselin may now choose herself where she wishes to live. She is in a voluntary living arrangement with her uncle. The sole problem here is that she must find a legal way to re-enter this country if in fact she is deported. This [c]ourt does not find that ‘reunification with one or both of the immigrant‘s parents is not viable due to abuse, neglect, abandonment, or similar basis fоund under State law.‘”
Here again, the judge‘s special findings determination crossed into territory reserved to the Federal authorities. Instead of determining whether Yosselin‘s mother abandoned or neglected her under Massachusetts law, the judge focused on the alleged motive behind the petition for guardianship and the motion for special findings. This was error, as was the judge‘s failure to make findings as to the dependence on the Probate and Family Court and
Moreover, although Yosselin asserted in her motion for special findings that reunification is not viable due to abuse and neglect by her mother, the record establishes that Yosselin also filed a motion for special findings as to her father. Yosselin is entitled to special findings on this motion as well, regardless of whether reunifiсation with the mother is viable. To ensure that Yosselin, who is approaching her twenty-first birthday, may timely exercise her right to seek SIJ status, the Probate and Family Court shall conduct a hearing forthwith on both motions for special findings. While we express no view as to the substance of the special findings as to the mother, we note the judge‘s acknowledgement that Yosselin has never known her father and that, in fact, he is “unknown.” In these circumstances, a finding that reunification with the father is not viable due to neglect or abandonment is difficult to avoid.
4. Special findings for E.G. In E.G.‘s сase, the Probate and Family Court judge failed to make any factual findings with respect to E.G.‘s motion for special findings. Based on the record, the judge‘s reason for declining to make the special findings was due, at least in part, to the fact that E.G. is in her mother‘s custody. As we have said here, such a rationale for declining to make special findings is inconsistent with the role of the Probate and Family Court under
Becausе the Probate and Family Court judge declined to make special findings based on her review of documentary evidence, we “stand[] in the same position as did the [motion] judge” with respect to evaluating the written evidence and reaching a conclusion as to the special findings determination. See Commonwealth v. Novo, 442 Mass. 262, 266 (2004), quoting Berry v. Kyes, 304 Mass. 56, 57 (1939). Accordingly, we direct the Probate and Family Court judge to make the following findings: (1) E.G. is dependent on the Probate and Family Court; (2) E.G.‘s reunification with her father is not viable due to abuse, neglect, or abandonment; and (3) it is not in E.G.‘s best interest to return to Guatemala.
“failure by a caretaker, either deliberately or through negligence or inability, to take those actions necessary to provide a child with minimally adequate food, clothing, shelter, medical care, supervision, emotional stability and growth, or other essential care; provided, however, that such inability is not due solely to inadequate economic resources or solely to the existence of a handicapping condition” (emphasis in original).
110 Code Mass. Regs. § 2.00 (2008). Since E.G.‘s birth, Lopez has made no attempt to establish a parental relationship with E.G. or materially support her in a meaningful way. Prior to appearing for a court-ordered paternity test, Lopez made no effort to even meet E.G., despite her prеsence in Massachusetts.
Because it is clear from the record that Lopez has, at the very least, neglected E.G., she is, as a matter of law, “dependent on the Probate and Family Court for the opportunity to obtain relief.” Recinos, 473 Mass. at 743. With respect to the second inquiry - whether E.G.‘s reunification with “[one] or both” of her parents is not viable due to abuse, neglect, or abandonment - we reiterate that the court‘s findings will be limited to E.G.‘s father. Thus, the fact that E.G. lives in the United States with her mother has no bearing on the judge‘s duty to make the special findings, or the substance of the finding. Accordingly, E.G. meets the criteria for the second prong of the special findings analysis.
Last, the record clearly establishes that E.G.‘s interests are not best served by returning to Guatemala, the country of origin. If returned to Guatemala, E.G. would, once again, live with little if any adult supervision. In fact, her circumstances if forced to return to Guatemala would be even more dire considering that her adolescent brother, who looked after her when the two were living in Guatemala, also lives in the United States.
5. Guardianship. Marvin also urges this court to find error in the Probate and Family Court judge‘s dismissal on the petition for appointment of a guardian. Because the outcome of the guardianship petition has no bearing on the outcome of this case, we
Conclusion. For the foregoing reasons, we reverse the judgments of the Probate and Family Court as to E.G.‘s and Yosselin‘s motions for special findings, and remand the matters for proceedings consistent with this opinion.
So ordered.