In Fall 2019, the office of Mayor Bill deBlasio has bestowed a Mayoral Service Recognition Award on Professor Richard Storrow for his work representing an unaccompanied Guatemala minor who crossed the southwestern border at the age of 16 and was apprehended by Border Patrol.
Storrow obtained Special Immigrant Juvenile Status for his client through his representation in a series of hearings in Kings County Family Court and in Immigration Court as well as via a petition to the United States Citizenship and Immigration Services.
Throughout this period, the Trump administration has thrown up numerous hurdles meant to stymie the efforts of unaccompanied minors seeking legal status in the United States. Storrow commented, “There has been nothing straightforward about pursuing this Congressionally-mandated relief under a regime that is constantly changing the rules in its effort to prevent the entry into the United States of people who are prey to unimaginable dangers in their countries of origin. My client has exhibited tremendous courage and stamina in confronting a powerful but broken immigration system that seems determined to crush his dream of a better life.”
Storrow and his client are now at the fifth stage of the process, awaiting a visa, which the government has drastically limited specifically for citizens of Guatemala, El Salvador, and Honduras.
Storrow represents his client through the Safe Passage Project whose motto is that “No child should face the immigration process alone.”