Featured Issue: Asylum Under Trump 2.0
On the first day of his second term, President Trump suspended all entries at the U.S. Southern Border for asylum seekers. Since then, the Administration has implemented sweeping restrictions that shut America’s doors to people fleeing persecution. These policies violate federal law, erode constitutionally protected due process, exacerbate the asylum backlog, and give those seeking safety an increasingly narrow path to protection.
Left unchecked by Congress, these policies will have dire consequences for both asylum seekers and the integrity of our legal system. Asylum seekers—especially those without access to counsel—are at grave risk of being returned to harm.
It doesn’t have to be this way. The Administration can maintain order at U.S. borders and effectively manage migration without sacrificing fairness and adherence to the law. With more trained asylum officers, a streamlined legal process, legal representation for asylum seekers, and more effective coordination between relevant agencies, the U.S. can establish a safe, orderly, and humane asylum system.
Browse the Featured Issue: Asylum Under Trump 2.0 collection
Building a Force of Zealous, Creative Refugee and Asylum Advocates
According to UNHCR's 2015 Global Trends Report, one out of every 122 humans is now either a refugee, internally displaced, or seeking asylum due to wars, conflict, and persecution that are not ending, but being met with impunity by governments and the international community. No surprise then that
Report of the DHS Advisory Committee on Family Residential Centers
In this report, the DHS Advisory Committee on Family Residential Centers recommended that DHS to discontinue the general use of family detention, reserving it for rare cases, and that if continued custody is absolutely necessary, families should be detained for the shortest amount of time.
USCIS Provides TRIG Statistics from 11/15/16 Meeting
Statistics current as of 9/30/16, provided by USCIS at a TRIG stakeholder meeting held on 11/15/16, including statistics on exemptions granted by category, exemptions denied by type of application, and cases on hold by type of application.
Presidential Determination: Refugee Admissions for Fiscal Year 2017
Memorandum from President Obama for the DOS Secretary authorizing the admission to the United States of up to 110,000 refugees in FY2017. The memo includes numerical regional allocations to Africa, East Asia, Europe and Central Asia, Latin America and the Caribbean, and the Near East and South Asia.
AILA Notes from SCOPS Teleconference (9/28/16)
AILA notes from a teleconference with SCOPS on 9/28/16. Topics include premium processing cases, EAD renewals, DACA approval notices, the refugee admissions program and P-2 direct access for I-130 beneficiaries, and I-130 step-child petition RFEs.
DOS Fact Sheet on U.S. Humanitarian Assistance in Response to the Syrian Crisis
DOS fact sheet highlighting U.S. contributions to non-governmental organizations and countries, including Syria, Lebanon, Jordan, Turkey, Iraq, and Egypt, in response to the Syrian refugee crisis.
Senate Democrats Urge DHS To Release Children and Mothers in Detention
On 9/27/16, a group of senators urged DHS Secretary Jeh Johnson to release families that have been detained for prolonged periods at Berks County Residential Center in Pennsylvania, unless there is compelling evidence that they pose a specific public safety or flight risk.
No More Diapers in Detention
The beginning of a young lawyer's career is, naturally, a time of many first experiences. Many of these “firsts“ are so nerve-wracking they churn your stomach: the first time you step into court with the weight of someone's future on your shoulders, the first time you stand up next to a client
CA1 Upholds Adverse Credibility Determination and Denial of Asylum to Haitian Petitioner
The court upheld the denial of the Haitian petitioner’s asylum claim, finding that substantial evidence supported the BIA’s affirmance of the IJ’s finding that the petitioner’s testimony was not credible. (Legal v. Lynch, 9/23/16)
AILA: Government’s Plan to Resume Haitian Removals Could Endanger Asylum Seekers and Vulnerable Immigrants
AILA expressed serious concerns about the decision by DHS and ICE to resume regular deportations of Haitians; AILA President Bill Stock noted that “the decision to recommence removals to Haiti is impossible to reconcile with recent official recognition of the ongoing humanitarian crisis there.”
CA9 Finds Petitioner Who Supported Alleged Terrorist Organization Is Eligible for Withholding of Removal
The court reversed the BIA’s denial of withholding of removal to the Indonesian petitioner, concluding that substantial evidence did not support its determination that the organization petitioner supported, Jemaah Muslim Attaqwa, engaged in terrorist activities. (Budiono v. Lynch, 9/21/16)
CA3 Says It Has Jurisdiction to Review Petition Where BIA Reissued Decisions and Orders
The court held that because the BIA's reissued decisions and orders did not alter the challenged decisions and orders, it had jurisdiction over the petition to review. On the merits, the court upheld the denial of the petitioners’ asylum applications. (Ordonez-Tevalan v. Att’y Gen., 6/23/16)
White House Fact Sheet on the Leaders’ Summit on Refugees
The White House released a fact sheet on the Leaders’ Summit on Refugees hosted on 9/20/16 in New York by President Obama and UN Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon as well as leaders from Canada, Ethiopia, Germany, Jordan, Mexico, and Sweden.
USCIS 60-Day Notice and Comment Request on Revisions to Form I-589
USCIS 60-day notice and request for comments on proposed revisions to Form I-589, Application for Asylum and for Withholding of Removal. Comments are due by 11/18/16. (81 FR 64190, 9/19/16)
CRS Report on Syrian Refugee Admissions and Resettlement in the United States
A Congressional Research Service report details the U.S. refugee admissions process and the placement and resettlement of arriving refugees in the United States.
DOS Request for Comments on Affidavit of Relationship for Minors from El Salvador, Guatemala, and Honduras
DOS notice of request for emergency OMB approval and public comments on the Affidavit of Relationship for Minors from El Salvador, Guatemala, and Honduras (DS-7699). Comments are due by 9/26/16. (81 FR 63839, 9/16/16)
Solicitor General Apologizes to the Supreme Court, Again
The moral of this blog post is two-fold. First, stranger things have happened, and second, do not believe everything someone tells you because just saying it does not make it so. On August 26, 2016, Acting Solicitor General Ian Heath Gershengorn penned a letter to the Honorable Clerk of the Supreme
CA8 Upholds Adverse Credibility Determination Based on Inconsistencies in Petitioner’s Asylum Interview
The court held that the IJ identified, and the BIA adopted, specific, cogent reasons for making an adverse credibility determination as to the petitioner that were supported by substantial evidence. (Chakhov v. Lynch, 9/14/16)
EOIR OPPM 16-01: Filing Applications for Asylum
EOIR OPPM 16-01 from Acting Chief Immigration Judge Michael C. McGoings announcing that effective immediately, applications for asylum may be filed at the window or by mail. They are no longer required to be filed at a master calendar hearing. This applies to all Form I-589s.
CA8 Upholds Denial of Withholding of Removal to Guatemalan Brothers
The court upheld the BIA’s finding that petitioners’ family was no different from any other Guatemalan family who has experienced gang violence, and that there was no evidence petitioners’ mistreatment was associated with their membership in a social group. (Cambara-Cambara v. Lynch, 9/13/16)
When Pictures Are Worth More than a Thousand Words
I had heard stories about Border Patrol's mistreatment of immigrants. When I volunteered in Artesia, New Mexico, and Dilley, Texas, the mothers and children there told me what a horrible experience they'd had in Border Patrol custody. Over the years, I'd become familiar with the term hieleras, or ic
AILA Immigration Policy Update – “Catch and Release”
AILA issued an immigration policy update on “catch and release,” an unofficial term for the government practice that ended in 2006, where people apprehended at the border were released from detention while their cases were waiting to be heard before the immigration court.
NSC Liaison Q&As on Refugee and Asylee Issues (9/8/16)
The NSC Liaison Committee’s official Q&As from the 9/8/16 teleconference relating to refugee and asylee issues. Topics include processing times for (c)(8) EADs, common RFEs, obtaining biometrics appointments, and timeframe for the transfer of an I-730 from a USCIS field office to NSC.
Bring Hope Back to Berks
History is full of places designed to hide people. People like Alexandre Dumas' Man in the Iron Mask, imprisoned on an island in the Mediterranean with his identity concealed. Refugees subject to inhumane treatment by the Australian government on the island of Nauru. And, in the United States, for
Affirmative Asylum Scheduling Bulletin (9/7/16)
USCIS’s Affirmative Asylum Scheduling Bulletin as of 9/7/16. This Bulletin explains how the Asylum Division has prioritized the adjudication of affirmative applications for asylum.