Jorge Guevara-Martinez v. Alexandria Department of Community and Human Services

This Court has ruled that the parent-child relationship is a fundamental liberty interest under the Due Process Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment; that until the State proves parental unfitness, child and parent share a vital interest in preventing erroneous termination of the natural relationship; and that this fundamental liberty interest pertains to citizens and aliens alike since Due Process applies to all persons within the United States, including aliens, whether their presence here is lawful, unlawful, temporary, or permanent. The question presented is: Did terminating the parental rights of Guevara, an alien parent, violate his Due Process rights under the Fourteenth Amendment to the Constitution, where no clear and convincing evidence showed he was an unfit parent, and delays caused by the mother’s abduction of the child and moving said child illegally to the United States shortly before the onset of a pandemic, by Guevara’s refusal to enter the United States until he could do so legally, and by the time taken by appeals in this case were not culpable acts on his part and cannot be used to conclude that the child’s need for finality requires termination.