Catholic Charities Archdiocese of New Orleans

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Proskauer honored its lawyers and staff who have made significant contributions to the Firm’s pro bono and corporate social responsibility programs this year at its 12th Annual Golden Gavel Awards ceremony on January 22. The following is a list of recipients alphabetically by project.

Protecting Immigrant Youth

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Team New Orleans: Catholic Charities-Archdiocese of New Orleans – Special Immigrant Juvenile Status

In collaboration with Catholic Charities-Archdiocese of New Orleans, this team successfully represented six immigrant children from Honduras and El Salvador in obtaining predicate orders from Louisiana juvenile courts finding that the children cannot be reunified with one or both of their parents due to abuse, abandonment, or neglect, and that it would not be in the children’s best interest to return to their home countries. These predicate orders open the door for these children to apply for Special Immigrant Juvenile Status, an immigration remedy that would protect these children from deportation and give them a pathway to lawful permanent residence in the United States.

Here at our sea-washed, sunset gates shall stand

A mighty woman with a torch, whose flame

Is the imprisoned lightning, and her name

Mother of Exiles. . .

The children cross the border alone, without friends or family, sometimes walking, sometimes riding in the back of a truck, train or car.  They come from Honduras, El Salvador, Guatemala, and other countries, leaving their homes and communities to escape difficult conditions, journeying to the United States often to be reunited with a family member, who they haven’t seen for many years.  Once they arrive, they begin the hard work of assimilation, finding and enrolling in a school, learning the language, trying to make friends and become accustomed to living in a new country.