Pro Bono Client Secures Special Immigrant Juvenile Status and Green Card

Cleary Gottlieb successfully represented Ms. T, a citizen of Mali, in her applications for special immigrant juvenile status (SIJS) and a green card.

When Ms. T was just 17 years old living in Mali, her family forced her into a non-legal, non-consensual marriage with a man 30 years her senior. The man transported Ms. T far away from her home, where she was subject to repeated sexual, physical, and emotional abuse. Ms. T was eventually able to escape to the United States, but her parents and extended family threatened to return her to her abuser if she ever returned to Mali, and her abuser threatened to stone her to death.

Cleary helped Ms. T, who was under 21 when she arrived in the United States, in family court guardianship proceedings to secure a special findings order that ultimately allowed her to apply for SIJS and a green card. Cleary simultaneously filed Ms. T’s SIJS and green card applications in 2017. The U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Service approved Ms. T’s SIJS application in January 2020. Her green card application was approved on September 17, 2021. As a result, Ms. T is now able to lawfully live and work in the United States. Ms. T’s case was referred to Cleary by Sanctuary for Families.