Young immigrants who suffered abuse sue over changes to special protection program

When Alex thinks about her childhood in Guerrero, Mexico, she remembers the abuse.

There was the time her mother threatened to burn her hands on the stove because she had cried after being hit. And the time her mother didn't get her medical treatment after she caught her finger in a steel gate. Or the many times she had to beg neighbors for food because her mother punished her by not feeding her.

Now a 22-year-old Cal State Fullerton student studying animation, Alex moved to San Diego at age 7 to live with her paternal grandmother. For decades, young immigrants like her have benefited from a legal classification called Special Immigrant Juvenile Status, which allows them to live in the United States and embark on a path to U.S. citizenship.

Nationwide, SIJS is available to immigrants under age 21 who have been abused, abandoned or neglected by one or both parents if a state court finds that it's against their best