The U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) has revealed widespread fraud within the Special Immigrant Juvenile (SIJ) process, with nearly 19,000 petitioners from Fiscal Years 2013 through 2025 found to have criminal arrest records. DHS General Counsel James Percival urged state court judges to enhance efforts against this fraud, which he said risks allowing dangerous criminals into the country.
A report by USCIS’s Fraud Detection and National Security Directorate detailed that among SIJ petitioners, 120 had records for murder, at least 200 approved petitioners were convicted of sex offenses, and over 500 were known or suspected MS-13 members, with more than 100 linked to the 18th Street gang.
Examples include an MS-13 leader in New York who pleaded guilty to racketeering for eight murders, and a Trinitarios gang member whose SIJ petition was approved after he committed a drive-by shooting that killed two people. Additionally, four MS-13 members in Virginia were indicted for racketeering and multiple murders, including a 19-year-old woman shot 16 times.
Percival emphasized that the SIJ program, while serving important objectives, is at significant risk due to a lack of underlying child protective services investigations. He noted that aliens can obtain orders without meaningfully demonstrating eligibility because judges are often unaware of the need to vet claims, leading to criminals gaining lawful status.
Much of this fraud occurs because state court judges grant predicate orders in a non-adversarial and pro forma manner, sometimes without a hearing. By eliminating such fraud, the DHS aims to restore the SIJ program to its original purpose of assisting genuinely vulnerable children with legitimate claims of abuse, neglect, or abandonment.