Fulbright Attorneys Successful in Getting Green Card For Young Zheng.

HOUSTON -- Young Zheng, who Fulbright & Jaworski L.L.P. attorneys began representing in 2005, received a letter this week from the U.S. Department of Homeland Security that the Chinese teenager waited four long years to receive. The letter informed Zheng that he is now a permanent U.S. resident and his Green Card is on the way.

"It has been a long road to permanent residency for Young and we are so pleased to have helped him achieve this milestone," Fulbright Partner John Sullivan said. "Young is a special young man, who is very studious and will go on to do great things. All of the lawyers who worked to help Young are ecstatic with the outcome."

Zheng, now 18, is still legally considered a juvenile and is receiving his Green Card based on an appeal Fulbright lawyers made claiming Special Immigrant Juvenile status. Special Immigrant Juvenile status is a form of relief for children who are abused, abandoned, or neglected by their parents in their home countries.

Zheng's family abandoned him and handed him over to smugglers when he was 14. In a desperate attempt to stay in the U.S. after his asylum claim had been denied, Young beat his head into a wall in April 2005 to avoid deportation back to China, where his unpaid smugglers awaited his arrival.

"`When your son return, we will have to break his arms or make him paralyzed for good or kill him,'" the smugglers reportedly told Young's father.

The threats, which had gone unreported until last year, were just the ammunition Fulbright attorneys needed to help Zheng, who was quickly detained at an airport when he arrived in the U.S.

Zheng was sent to a shelter for unaccompanied immigrant and refugee children. He spent about two years in the shelter before the U.S. Department of Homeland Security released him to his uncle in Ohio while an asylum case filed on Zheng's behalf was appealed.

While Young was living with his uncle, he attended school, made the honor role and impressed his teachers with his quest for knowledge and his studious, hard-working attitude. Young also made monthly visits to the Department of Homeland Security. He was eventually told he only needed to report every three months based on his diligence and good behavior.

However, the next time Zheng reported to the agency, he was handcuffed and shackled. Federal officials then took Zheng to Chicago with plans to deport him to his home country. Zheng, who was terrified for his life, ran from the officers. He hyperventilated and vomited and eventually banged his head against a wall until he lost consciousness. Once Zheng was treated, he was taken to a secure facility for unaccompanied immigrant and refugee children in Houston, where Fulbright attorneys became involved in his case.

"Lawyers from several of our offices, as well as summer interns, contributed to this amazing result for Young and collectively devoted well over 1000 hours of attorney time on a pro bono basis," Sullivan said. "Young now lives with a good family in the Houston area and is finishing up his high school education in an accelerated program. He is still making top marks."

Sullivan and the team of Fulbright lawyers he led filed motions with at least four courts and pursued every legal remedy possible to keep Zheng from having to return home to an uncertain future.

"It's a dream come true," Zheng said of his new status as a permanent U.S. resident. The Houston Chronicle, The New York Times and The Associated Press are among the publications that have documented Zheng's plight.

Zheng said his father paid the smugglers, known as `snakeheads,' a few thousand dollars and expected Zheng to pay off the balance of the $65,000 smuggling fee by working menial jobs in New York City's Chinatown.

His father no longer wanted him, Zheng said, because he was the family's second-born. Parents who have more than one child in China are taxed heavily and younger children do not receive the same educational and employment opportunities.

Fulbright attorneys have helped other unaccompanied immigrant children and the firm offers "Know Your Rights" seminars to help unaccompanied immigrant children navigate the legal maze they face when they enter the United States alone and attempt to negotiate immigration courts without legal representation.

The American Immigration Lawyers Association, which is made up of 10,000 attorneys and law professors, awarded Fulbright its Pro Bono Award over the summer based on the firm's work to help unaccompanied immigrant children.

"Some of these children have legitimate legal remedies, such as asylum or special visas for victims of crimes and children who have been abused, neglected or abandoned," Sullivan said. "These legal remedies are difficult to obtain without the assistance of a trained legal representative."