The Big Sister
Nati is tightly grasping her big sister’s hand. She doesn’t let go even when Dayana leans forward to give Katie one of the required forms.
“I want to keep Nati here with me so I can protect her,” Dayana explains to Katie. “Because nobody in that house will protect her. And nobody,” she adds darkly, “in that country will, either.”
When Dayana found out that her little sister—just 13 years old—was being sexually abused by family members in her own parent’s house, she knew she had to bring Nati to her home in Kentucky. Her parents wouldn’t lift a finger to stop the abuse. And the police would do even less.
Dayana makes a visible effort to tamp down the rage in her heart. She left her home country years ago, but nothing there has changed for girls like Nati. Nothing.
So Dayana and Nati have come to Katie Taylor, legal director for Neighbors Immigration Clinic (NIC), our ILJ affiliate in Lexington, Kentucky, to ask for help.
Kentucky is Difficult
Children like Nati, who cannot be reunited with their parents due to abuse, neglect, or abandonment, are eligible for SIJ (Special Immigrant Juvenile) status. There is a long backlog of these cases throughout the United States, but SIJ status can lead to a green card (permanent residency) for these minors and provide safety and stability to their lives.
The difficulty in Kentucky starts with the nationwide requirement that applicants must first receive a “predicate order” from the state juvenile court, where the attorney presents evidence of the abuse or neglect through family court hearings and documentation.
“It’s become very contentious, “says Katie. “I’m regularly writing seven-page memos in family court and trying to explain to the judges why we need these predicate orders.”
Peculiar to Kentucky, it’s up to each judge—in each of the state’s 120 counties— to decide on their own whether to provide the necessary findings so the SIJ case can proceed. Unlike other states, Kentucky has no legal mechanism to force the judges to provide the order, even when there is clear and copious evidence of abuse.
The judge presiding over Nati’s case either does not understand or is not comfortable with SIJ and appears reluctant to grant the predicate order. Without it, Nati could be deported back to a nightmare situation and away from the safety and stability of her sister’s home.
The stakes are incredibly high.
“If Nati were in a home in Kentucky and we knew she was being sexually abused, and that the parents knew about it and weren’t doing anything to stop it, we would remove her as quickly as possible and put her in foster care or with a responsible family member,” Katie argues.
“It should be the same in this case,” she continues. “Because Nati is already here in Kentucky, and Kentucky law should apply, not the law in her home country.”
Dayana has fought very hard to keep her sister with her.
Katie is fighting, too. Just last week, she was at yet another court hearing for the sisters. However, she still hasn’t received an answer on whether the judge will give them the court order they need to keep Nati safe.
December 12, 2024: Late-breaking news and just in time for Christmas! Katie just contacted us to let us know that Nati’s case has been approved and she will be allowed to stay with her sister in Kentucky!
Congratulations and much joy to Nati, Dayana, Katie, and everyone at Neighbors Immigration Clinic!
Not because it is easy, but because it is necessary
Neighbors Immigration Clinic can help clients with a broad range of immigration cases, including U Visas (for victims of crimes), T Visas (for labor trafficking survivors), and citizenship. But Katie’s priority remains SIJ and asylum cases.
Her SIJ cases can be frustrating, but her asylum cases are on an entirely different level of difficulty. The asylum denial rate in Kentucky is 95%.
Although NIC works with three other organizations providing services to immigrants and refugees, there is currently no other nonprofit in the state taking on these demanding cases. Either they don’t have the capacity, the expertise, or the willingness to stick it out for the long haul.
Luckily, for the vulnerable immigrants living in distressingly underserved Kentucky, Katie has all these qualities and something more—an unshakable belief that fairness has a place in this world.
“The people who come to us for help deserve representation not because they’re going to win,” she says, “but because they deserve a chance—a chance to tell their story, pursue their legal rights, and fight for their own justice.”
About Katie Taylor
“I always knew I’d go into nonprofit practice,” says Katie. “And I always wanted to do asylum.”
With two adopted siblings—one from Ukraine and the other from Thailand—Katie grew up very involved in the international community in Louisville, Kentucky.
While attending Harvard Law School, she volunteered at a Boston asylum clinic to learn the process and loved the experience.
She also gained fame on campus as the only person from Kentucky her East Coast classmates had ever met.
Katie has been back home for seven years now and has dedicated her career to serving the immigrant and refugee communities of Kentucky. We are proud of her outstanding abilities and steadfast commitment to her clients, and grateful that she is a part of our ILJ Network.
A few immigration facts about Kentucky and Neighbors Immigration Clinic:
- There are an estimated 202,000 immigrants currently living in the state. That’s 4.5 % of the population. Some 46, 000 of them are undocumented.
- The majority of NIC’s asylum clients have come here from Peru, Turkey, Cameroon, Guinea, and other African countries.
- Kentucky is fourth in the nation for refugee resettlement per capita, with refugees from Cuba, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Afghanistan, and Ukraine.
Katie notes that Kentucky also attracts many “secondary refugees.”
“These are people who were resettled someplace else, come to Kentucky for its affordability, the factory jobs which don’t require a full command of English, and, most importantly, because of the emphasis on families.”
And they’ve all found a home in Kentucky.