Through Brown Rudnick’s partnership with Kids in Need of Defense (KIND), Brown Rudnick Associate Blair Rinne has successfully obtained a permanent resident visa (aka green card) for a nineteen year old girl from El Salvador. Blair, former associate Katherine Andrew and supervising partner Amanda Varella began working with our client after she arrived as an unaccompanied minor nearly four years ago, The client had fled El Salvador, where she had been sexually assaulted by gang members and was too scared to leave her house to attend school.
The client’s father was verbally abusive and her mother suffered from depression and neglected her. After a successful motion for guardianship and special findings in the Probate and Family Court, the attorneys submitted applications to US Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) for immigration relief as a special immigrant juvenile. Unfortunately, shortly thereafter, USCIS announced a delay on processing visa applications for youth from El Salvador, so the client had to wait several years for the approval of her application.
Working on this matter has been an eye-opening introduction to the U.S. immigration process, where unaccompanied immigrants do not have a right to an attorney, and it has inspired these attorneys to take on several additional KIND matters.
Blair M. Rinne, Counselor at Law
BROWN RUDNICK LAW FIRM
