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
BIA Says Predictive Findings of What May Occur in the Future Are Findings of Fact
The BIA held that an IJ’s predictive findings of what may occur in the future are subject to a clearly erroneous standard of review, but whether an applicant has established an objectively reasonable fear of persecution is reviewed de novo. Matter of Z-Z-O-, 26 I&N Dec. 586 (BIA 2015)
CA3 Finds There Is No Duress Exception to the Material Support Bar
The court upheld the BIA’s denial of petitioner’s asylum application, finding that voluntary as well as involuntary material support, even when provided under threat of death, bars an immigrant from receiving asylum or withholding of removal. Amended on 6/1/15. (Sesay v. Att’y Gen., 5/26/15)
There’s Something Happening Here
I haven't heard immigration lawyers called heroes many times before (though I know a lot who are). And I'm pretty sure it's the first time I've ever heard it from a sitting member of Congress. But that's what happened Thursday when Congressman Beto O'Rourke (D-TX) said that AILA member Dree Collopy
House Members Hold Press Conference to #EndFamilyDetention (5/21/15)
Members of the House held a press conference to demand that DHS end family detention. Watch video of this moving and impactful press conference.
Approaching Liberty
It was some months ago, which seems like yesterday, that volunteers representing the detained children and women in Artesia, New Mexico, were confronted with immigration judges in Arlington, Virgina who said no. There were hearings before one Immigration Judge who would go on and on and on about nat
AILA Offers Reality Check on ICE Family Detention Announcement
This document highlights the key aspects of the new plans by Immigration and Customs Enforcement for “enhanced oversight for family residential centers,” and points out the difference between what ICE says and what AILA knows from our ongoing efforts to end family detention.
USCIS PowerPoint Presentation on Female Genital Mutilation
USCIS provided a PowerPoint presentation on female genital mutilation (FGM), including information that FGM could be sufficiently serious to rise to the level of persecution and that testimony alone is sufficient to adjudicate all asylum claims, including FGM. Special thanks to David Cleveland.
AILA: Little Meaningful Change in ICE Announcement on Family Detention
AILA President Leslie A. Holman responded to the announcement of plans by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) for “enhanced oversight for family residential centers” saying the plans do “almost nothing to address the fundamental issue that there is no humane way to detain families.”
NSC Liaison Q&As on Refugee and Asylee Issues (5/14/15)
The NSC Liaison Committee’s unofficial Q&As from the 5/14/15 teleconference on refugee and asylee issues, and other issues with NSC. Topics include: document production, I-765 a(5) and c(8), I-730s, I-485s, I-589s, and waivers.
BIA Remands Petitioner’s Asylum Claim in Light of Recent PSG Decisions
Unpublished BIA decision finding remand is warranted for the IJ to reconsider the issue of whether the petitioner, who was abused as a child by her mother’s live-in boyfriend, was harmed on account of her membership in a particular social group (PSG). Courtesy of Diana M. Bailey.
Segura
Driving out of the Dilley detention center last Friday, an awareness hung over me as certain and cloudy as the sky itself. I'd just spent the week volunteering with the CARA Family Detention Pro Bono Project. As we pulled onto I-35 towards San Antonio, I scanned the open road and considered that mos
AILA Quicktake #125: First Asylum Win in Dilley
AILA member and CARA Family Detention Pro Bono Project volunteer Kim Hunter shares the news of her client's asylum victory after her client was detained in the Dilley family detention facility.
Accessing Justice Requires a Guide
The three-year-old boy was a charmer, no question, so it was disorienting to encounter him in a detention facility in Texas. He loved being pushed in a stroller by his 19-year old mother, barely out of childhood herself. How did they get there? D- is an indigenous woman who married very young in Gua
USCIS Statistics on Asylum Applications Filed by Nationals of Syria
USCIS provided statistics on asylum applications filed by nationals of Syria, with data from FY1993 through FY2015, with FY2015 data through 3/31/15.
A Look Back to Artesia, and a Look into Karnes: Part 6
I last visited E- on Saturday, May 2nd; sadly, we met again at Karnes, the scene of all prior visits. It was, I think, our twelfth meeting, and our first since the IJ's oral decision back on April 13th. E- was initially crushed by the decision, to the point where she couldn't bear the thought [
USCIS Memo on Implementation of Discretionary Exemption for Certain Limited Material Support
USCIS policy memorandum (PM-602-0112) providing adjudicators guidance on the implementation of the discretionary exemption authority under §212(d)(3)(B)(i) of the INA for the provision of certain limited material support.
USCIS Memo on Implementation of Discretionary Exemption for Insignificant Material Support
USCIS policy memorandum (PM-602-0113) providing adjudicators guidance on the implementation of the discretionary exemption authority under §212(d)(3)(B)(i) of the INA for the provision of insignificant material support.
CRS Report on In-Country Refugee Processing
A Congressional Research Service (CRS) report on the Central American Minors (CAM) program, which allows certain minors in El Salvador, Guatemala, and Honduras, with a parent who is lawfully present in the U.S. to be processed in-country for refugee resettlement.
USCIS Asylum Office Workload for January 2015-March 2015
USCIS asylum offices’ workload, broken down by office, stage of the asylum case and nationality to applicants, for January 2015 through March 2015.
Immigration Law Advisor, April 2015 (Vol. 9, No. 4)
Immigration Law Advisor, a legal publication from EOIR, with an article on corroboration requirements under the REAL ID Act, as well as summaries of circuit court decisions for March 2015, the A.G.’s vacated decision in Silva-Trevino, and summaries of recent BIA and AAO precedent decisions.
DOJ OIL May 2015 Litigation Bulletin
The DOJ OIL Immigration Litigation Bulletin for May 2015, with articles on Mellouli v. Lynch and Texas v. United States and a report on the Adverse Credibility Project, as well as summaries of circuit court decisions for May 2015.
CA4 Says Petitioner Eligible for Asylum Due to Threats Over Son's Refusal To Join a Gang
The court held that petitioner’s maternal relationship to her son was at least one central reason for her persecution, and that the BIA abused discretion in concluding that death threats were not made "on account of" her membership in her nuclear family. (Hernandez-Avalos v. Lynch, 4/30/15)
Fighting to #EndFamilyDetention
I was on a flight to San Antonio Sunday morning and a short while after that was making my way across open farmland to Dilley, Texas, about an hour and half southeast. For this week, I'll be heading up a team of legal volunteers for CARA at the euphemistically named “South Texas Family Residential C
CA7 Reverses Due to Flawed Adverse Credibility Determination
The court remanded, holding that if an IJ explicitly premises a demand for corroborating evidence on an adverse credibility determination that is flawed, then there must be a reassessment of credibility, which may turn out to remove the need for corroboration. (Nadmid v. Holder, 4/21/15)
CA8 Affirms Asylum Denial for Mungiki Opposer in Kenya
The court held that “individuals openly opposed to the Mungiki,” the largest criminal organization in Kenya, was not a particular social group, because such a description was too large and diffuse a segment of society to be perceived with particularity by society. (Kanagu v. Holder, 2/9/15)