“I was in shock,” Judith says about the moment she was told she could apply for residency. “I didn’t even know what to feel. I was nervous. I cried. It was a moment that I waited so long for. So many years of appointments and court dates…it was a great excitement.”
When Judith* was eight years old, her life in Honduras changed forever when her father was murdered.
The loss of her father shook Judith’s family. They tried to rebuild their lives. Three years later, Judith’s sense of safety was shaken once more when word spread that the man who had murdered her father was about to be released from prison, and he had been asking around about her and her siblings. Every day, Judith felt in danger.
Judith was the oldest daughter, making her the most visible and vulnerable. Fearful for Judith
and in hopes of keeping her safe, her mother made a heart-wrenching choice and sent her to live with her aunt. Judith remembers having to leave her mother and siblings as one of the most painful moments of her life.
At her aunt’s home, she hoped to find safety, but things soon got worse. While living there, she suffered abuse that her aunt didn’t know about.
By the age of 14, Judith had been living in fear for years and had no one who could help her. She had nowhere else to go and was forced to make the impossible decision to leave in pursuit of safety.
Living under constant threat, Judith saved up for her trip by babysitting and helping her aunt sell food until she was able to leave Honduras. Alone, she headed for the United States, travelling by foot, and sometimes getting rides from people she met along the way. “It was difficult, but I always gave it my all,” Judith recalls. “I wanted to arrive to the U.S., so I could be well.
At the border, Judith was detained by Border Patrol officials and sent to a holding cell known as
a “hielera” or “icebox” because of its freezing cold temperatures, where she slept on the floor, with a plastic blanket, among adults and other children. Then, she was transported to a government-run shelter for immigrant children.
“Being locked up, seeing the same people every day affects you,” she recalls. “Being a minor, without a lot of life experience and having your family far away, really affects you a lot.”
After months in a children’s detention facility, Judith was reunified with a cousin in Arizona. At the time of her release, she was provided with a list of organizations that could help her with her legal case, including our team at the Florence Project.
In 2019, Judith called us.
Our Children’s Program immediately got to work. Judith would turn 18 in just two months. The neglect Judith had experienced made her eligible for Special Immigrant Juvenile Status (SIJS), a status for children who have been abandoned, abused or neglected. However, filing for that status meant gathering documents from Honduras, translating everything into English, learning what she had experienced, speaking with her family, filing various documents to initiate a court hearing in the U.S., going to court, and getting findings back from the court regarding that neglect. The importance of SIJS is life changing; it provides a pathway to become a Legal Permanent Residence.
“To do that in two months, we really had to hustle,” recalls Jimmy Leyva, now the Children’s
Legal Program Manager at the Florence Project, who worked on Judith’s case. It was long-shot,
one we were willing to try to stand by Judith. But her case was far from over.
We still had to file the application for SIJS, which was subsequently approved. Unfortunately, because there are a limited number of visas available each year to children deemed in need of protection as a Special Immigrant Juvenile, the government would not accept her application for
legal resident status for years, leaving Judith in legal limbo.
Understanding that she had not yet received permanent legal status, she feared being detained or returned to danger in her home country. Our legal team assured her that if she was picked up by ICE or re-detained, we would be there for her. At the same time, our social services team checked in on Judith’s wellbeing, connecting her to medical care.
“[The Florence Project] always treated me well, always explained the process to me very well,
every step,” shared Judith.
Finally in 2024, five years after submitting the application for SIJS, she was notified that she was able to apply for Legal Permanent Residency!
“Judith was very happy to see her residency card, to actually see it and hold it,” Alexia Carrera, Florence Project Accredited Representative, shared, remembering the day she got to hand Judith her green card. “[The legal team and I] were always rooting for her. We just wanted her to be safe and happy.”
Since being in the United States, Judith has not only found safety but also love! She married last
year. “It was a beautiful experience,” Judith shared about her wedding. “It was at our home. It was nice to feel the support from my husband’s family who is now my family too.”
Judith also missed her mother and siblings that day, saying “It’s sad because it was a special moment, and I wish I could have shared that with them.” But they were with her in spirit and tuned in virtually to a live stream of the special day.
Now with the safety and stability she feels with her Legal Permanent Residency, Judith dreams of having a family, owning a house, and starting a business with her husband. After years of fighting to simply be safe, she is finally free to plan a future. “I feel calm, I feel relieved,” Judith shared about no longer having the weight of her legal case on her shoulders. “I feel safer [in the U.S].”
“I am so thankful that the Florence Project took the time to help me through all these years, being attentive and providing services, calling, and attending court with me,” she shares about her legal team. “I am so grateful for all you have done for me. Thanks to [my Florence Project legal team], I now have my legal permanent residency.”
We are thrilled to celebrate Judith, her journey, and her dreams! We extend her gratitude to you!
Judith is one of the hundreds of Florence Project clients that we continue to represent amid escalating violations of the rights and wellbeing of our immigrant communities. We will continue to stand with every single one of our clients, no matter the challenges and no matter the length of their case.
*Pseudonym used to protect privacy.