Case Explained: JOSUE ARIEL FUENTES; CRISTIAN AYALA RIVAS v. UNITED STATES CITIZENSHIP AND IMMIGRATION SERVICES

Court: United States Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit Filed: 2026-07-27 The Fourth Circuit affirmed the district court’s judgment denying immigration benefits to the parents of naturalized citizens who previously held Special Immigrant Juvenile (SIJ) status. The court held that the plain text of 8 U.S.C. § 1101(a)(27)(J)(iii)(II) creates a permanent bar preventing any natural or adoptive parent of an individual granted SIJ status from receiving immigration benefits based on that parentage, regardless of whether the parent abused, neglected, or abandoned the child. The court found that USCIS’s implementing regulation, 8 C.F.R. § 204.11(i), faithfully carries out this statutory prohibition and is consistent with the statute’s language and purpose to protect children from their parents. Furthermore, the court ruled that the exclusion clause survives equal protection review under the Fifth Amendment’s Due Process Clause because the classification is rationally related to the legitimate government interest of preventing harm to abused or neglected children by excluding potentially abusive parents from obtaining immigration benefits through their children. Consequently, the plaintiffs’ claims challenging USCIS’s interpretation and the constitutionality of the statute were rejected, and the lower court’s decision in favor of the government was upheld. Do It For The Case Law is a news reporting service. Nothing in this episode constitutes legal advice.