SECTION 1.
The Legislature finds and declares the following:(a) California law grants the superior courts jurisdiction to make judicial determinations regarding the custody and care of children, including the juvenile, probate, and family court divisions of the superior court. These courts are also empowered to make the findings necessary for a child to petition the United States Citizenship and Immigration Services for classification as a special
immigrant juvenile under federal immigration law.
(b) Special immigrant juvenile status, under the federal Immigration and Nationality Act, offers relief from deportation and a path to permanent residence to undocumented immigrant children under 21 years of age, if a state juvenile court has made specific findings.
(c) The findings necessary for a child to petition for classification as a special immigrant juvenile include, among others, a finding that reunification with one or both parents is not viable due to abuse, neglect, abandonment, or a similar basis under state law, and a finding that it is not in the child’s best interest to be returned to his or her country of origin.
(d) Despite recent changes to law
that eliminate ambiguity regarding the jurisdiction of superior courts to make the findings necessary to petition for special immigrant juvenile status, misalignment between state and federal law continues to exist.
(e) Children who enter the United States without a parent or legal guardian and without immigration documentation are placed in the custody of the federal Department of Health and Human Services, Office of Refugee Resettlement. While most unaccompanied immigrant children are released to family members or other adult caretakers with whom they can seek a legal guardianship, there are a small number of children who have no appropriate caregiver in the United States and therefore remain in Office of Refugee Resettlement custody. Some of these children remain in the shelter system and some are transferred to a federal foster
care program that is administered by the Office of Refugee Resettlement. In either case, the minor may need to seek a state court order regarding their eligibility for special immigrant juvenile status.
(f) Minors in some Office of Refugee Resettlement placements in California are currently able to obtain the necessary state court order through entity guardianship proceedings pursuant to Section 2104 of the Probate Code. However, current law limits entity guardianships to entities that are incorporated in California. Some Office of Refugee Resettlement programs in California are part of national agencies that are incorporated in another state, although the programs are licensed in California. These national agencies, despite their extensive experience in providing care for unaccompanied immigrant children, cannot currently petition for entity
guardianship of those children, denying the children the opportunity to be in the legal care and custody of these care providers, and to petition for special immigrant juvenile findings which could protect them from deportation.
(g) Given the recent influx of unaccompanied immigrant children arriving in the United States, many of whom have experienced parental abuse, neglect, or abandonment, it is necessary to provide an avenue for these unaccompanied children to petition the probate courts to have an entity guardian appointed regardless of which agency they are placed with. This is particularly necessary in light of the vulnerability of this class of unaccompanied youth, who have been found to have no available caretaker in the United States and who require a stable placement and services to recover from the trauma of abuse, neglect or
abandonment.
(h) It is the intent of the Legislature to ensure unaccompanied minors are treated with equity and are able to receive underlying state court orders the children need to apply for special immigrant juvenile status. It is the intent of the Legislature to give the probate court jurisdiction to appoint an entity guardian, regardless of where the entity is incorporated, as long as that entity is contracted by the federal Department of Health and Human Services, Office of Refugee Resettlement to provide care for and custody of the minor, and that minor needs to request findings from the probate court necessary to enable them to petition the United States Citizenship and Immigration Services for classification as a special immigrant juvenile.