USCIS rescinded automatic deferred-action protection for Special Immigrant Juvenile Status youth a second time via Policy Memorandum PM-602-0198

On April 10, 2026, U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services issued Policy Memorandum PM-602-0198, rescinding for a second time the agency's policy of automatically considering deferred action for youth holding Special Immigrant Juvenile Status (SIJS) who cannot yet adjust to permanent residence because of the visa backlog. Effective May 10, 2026, the memo ends automatic consideration for new SIJS petitioners going forward and requires them to affirmatively request deferred action, which USCIS evaluates case-by-case without treating an approved SIJS petition as a strong positive factor. USCIS also retains discretion to terminate existing recipients' deferred action, and any related work authorization, before it would otherwise expire.

Congress created SIJS in 1990 to protect immigrant children who suffered abuse, neglect, or abandonment, but a statutory visa cap has left more than 100,000 approved SIJS holders — many now adults — waiting years for a green card. USCIS's 2022 deferred-action policy bridged that gap, shielding an estimated 200,000 SIJS youth from deportation while they waited. USCIS first tried to eliminate the policy on June 6, 2025; a nationwide class of SIJS youth sued in A.C.R. v. Noem, and on November 19, 2025, the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of New York stayed the rescission, finding USCIS had likely acted arbitrarily and capriciously by disregarding the "serious reliance interests" of youth who had built their lives around the policy.

A January 14, 2026 clarifying opinion held the stay did not require USCIS to treat SIJS approval as a strong positive factor for petitions approved on or after June 6, 2025, creating a two-tier standard; plaintiffs appealed that limitation to the Second Circuit the following month. PM-602-0198 followed on April 10, 2026, with USCIS stating it had newly weighed the government's and affected parties' interests before again ending automatic consideration, this time through a 30-day notice period. USCIS's stated justification centered on a July 2025 internal review that found several hundred self-identified gang members, including more than 600 people it linked to MS-13, had filed SIJ petitions, with more than 500 approved — without addressing an alternative it considered, requiring biometric checks, that would have targeted that concern without eliminating automatic consideration for the broader SIJS population.