Public Counsel eNews

A Green Christmas

There was no snow in sight this Christmas Eve as an unlikely team of Santa’s helpers made their way through Compton, Bell Gardens, Gardena and Highland Park. Kristen Jackson, an attorney with Public Counsel’s Immigrants’ Rights Project, and her boyfriend, Jacob Forman, did not wear Santa hats, but they did come bearing very special gifts. They came to deliver green cards – lawful permanent residency cards (actually, they’re beige with a green strip and holographic imagery) – for Kris’ Special Immigrant Juvenile Status (SIJS) clients. All five of her surprised clients, ranging in age from 5 to 20, were home to receive the cards, to which Kris had affixed tiny red bows before placing them in card-sized stockings.

Public Counsel is a premier provider of legal assistance to Special Immigrant Juveniles – children under the jurisdiction of the juvenile court because their parents have abused, abandoned or neglected them. Each month, Public Counsel attorneys accompany their young clients to interviews at the U.S. Citizenship & Immigration Service, which typically grants their applications for lawful permanent resident status under the SIJS law. Green cards follow in the mail to Public Counsel, but, last December Kris received a whole crop on December 23rd, just before the holidays. “I could have waited until after the holiday season and then called my clients in to come pick up their cards,” says Kristen, “but, then again, I couldn’t imagine a nicer holiday gift for my clients.”

The grandmother of the five year old couldn’t agree more as she exclaimed, “This is the best Christmas present ever.”