Lisa K. Swartzfager will be awarded the 2024 Pro Bono Award at the Hawai‘i Access to Justice Commission’s Annual Pro Bono Celebration. The celebration honors attorneys who perform volunteer work in support of community non-profit legal services providers, indigent parties, and individuals who do not have a lawyer. Lisa was recognized for the pro bono work she is doing in relation to obtaining Special Immigrant Juvenile Status (SIJS) for children in Hawai‘i.
Since her time practicing as an attorney in Washington, D.C., Lisa Swartzfager has represented a number of pro bono immigration matters, predominantly for juveniles, offering them a pathway to citizenship. Although immigration law falls outside the scope of Lisa’s primary practice of civil litigation (primarily in the areas of construction, health care, insurance, real estate, and land use), her dedication and willingness have made her one of the most prominent figures for this type of representation in Hawai‘i.
Lisa is particularly experienced in cases related to SIJS, a crucial immigration status designed to protect children who have experienced abuse, abandonment, or neglect from one or both parents. An order from a state family court making certain predicate findings is required for SIJS. Several years ago, Lisa was representing a 19-year-old client seeking to remain in Hawai‘i. There was concern because although the federal statute provided for SIJS for immigrants under the age of 21, the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services had begun denying SIJS to immigrants who were 18-20 years old, based on the assertion that state family courts did not have jurisdiction over individuals over the age of 17, rendering the predicate orders for those individuals invalid.
As a result, Lisa and her colleague worked together to draft a bill that would align Hawai’i with the Federal SIJS requirements by providing that the family courts in Hawai’i have jurisdiction over all individuals under the age of 21 for purposes of SIJS findings. She attended committee and legislature meetings to push the bill forward, and through their efforts managed to get the bill passed. Consequently, she was able to obtain SIJS for her client and a dismissal of the removal proceedings against him. This legislation is also helping other minors who have been mistreated and/or are in danger receive immigration status that can lead to citizenship.
Since the bill passed and her initial representation in Hawai‘i, Lisa has helped obtain the predicate state court order for SIJS status for two minors, with two matters pending. She is currently working for The Legal Clinic (where she serves as the Secretary), a non-profit ensuring justice for low-income immigrants and migrants in Hawai‘i through high-quality immigration legal services, as well as the William S. Richardson School of Law Refugee and Immigration Law Clinic (RILC), assisting with similar cases. She has also brought in several Cades Schutte attorneys to represent similar matters.
Lisa will be recognized at a ceremony at the Hawai‘i Supreme Court on October 30, 2024. Congratulations Lisa!
