FAMILY COURT SHOULD HAVE MADE FINDINGS WHICH WOULD ALLOW THE CHILD TO APPLY FOR SPECIAL IMMIGRANT JUVENILE STATUS (SECOND DEPT).

The Second Department, reversing Family Court, determined the court should have made findings which would allow the subject child to apply for special immigrant juvenile states (SIJS);

The Family Court erred in failing to make the specific finding that reunification with the father is not viable due to abandonment. Based upon our independent factual review, the record supports the requisite finding that reunification with the child’s father is not viable due to parental abandonment … . The record demonstrates that even though the child’s father knew where he lived, the father never visited him. The child has never met his father, his father has never supported him and has never sent gifts or cards, and his father’s whereabouts are unknown.

Moreover, the record supports a finding that it would not be in the best interests of the child to be returned to Nicaragua, his previous country of nationality and last habitual residence, as there is no one to care for him or protect him in that country … . The record reflects that it would not be in the child’s best interests to return to Nicaragua as he would be separated from his mother who has consistently cared for and supported him. In Nicaragua, there is no one who can care for him or support him; as previously set forth, his father has abandoned him. The child’s maternal grandparents, with whom he lived after his mother left Nicaragua, are elderly and began to struggle to care for him and protect him. Moreover, the child faces harm from gang violence in Nicaragua, having been threatened by gang members and been kidnapped by them once for approximately eight days. Matter of Rosa M. M.-G. v Dimas A., 2021 NY Slip Op 03033, Second Dept 5-12-21