Report from the AILA Conference

by Jason Dzubow

So, for the time since I struck out on my own as an attorney, I attended an AILA (American Immigration Lawyers Association) conference.  I had avoided it in the past because it was too expensive (about $800.00 for the conference fee alone) and I didn’t think I would get much out of it.  Turns out, I really enjoyed the conference–it is fun to meet and hear about people who are doing the same work as you and who speak the same “language,” though invariably I spent most of the time hanging out with people I already knew.  Although the fee was pretty steep, I’m glad I went, and maybe I will go again next year if I am feeling flush.

I also had an opportunity to speak on a panel with some very impressive people, including two professors, a USCIS employee, and another private attorney.  The subject was the UN Convention Against Torture (“CAT”).  More specifically, we talked about how the Torture Convention might apply to non-governmental actors.  My role was pretty easy–I presented some hypothetical examples for the audience and the panelists to discuss.  Since I am not so creative, my hypos were actual cases that I had litigated.  One “hypo” examined whether a woman who feared female genital mutilation in her country could gain relief under the CAT.  In real life, I lost that case, though I managed to convince the IJ that FGM was torture.  At least one federal court of appeals has found that FGM can constitute torture. See Tunis v. Gonzales, 447 F.3d 547 (7th Cir. 2006).  The other case involved an African drug smuggler who feared that corrupt police would kill him to retaliate for his cooperation with the U.S. authorities.  That case, I won, as there was strong evidence that he would be murdered if he returned to his home country.

The audience responds to my analysis of the UN Convention Against Torture.

Aside from that panel, there were a number of panels–and some informal meetings–relevant to the asylum practitioner.  Two that were directly related to asylum law were a panel on demonstrating harm in asylum applications, and another examining what constitutes a “particular social group.”  I thought both panels were helpful, and they featured some of the top people in the field, including speakers from law schools, USCIS, the United Nations, and various human rights groups (shout out to Human Rights First, who was there en mass). 

AILA is often perceived as an organization more relevant to business immigration than to asylum or Immigration Court practice.  Maybe it was the people I hung out with and met, but there seemed to be a lot of fellow travelers at the conference.  The fact is, however, that there is not a whole lot of crossover between business immigration and asylum/deportation defense.  One solution might be to have a conference targeted at the more public interest-oriented practitioners, and a second conference for the business practitioner.  Although my eyes glaze over at the thought of working on a business immigration case, I must confess that it was nice to attend a conference with all sorts of immigration attorneys.  There is certainly something to be said for not becoming over specialized, and the diverse topics at the AILA conference gave us a chance to learn about something new.  

Overall, it was a useful and energizing conference.  I hope to be back next year.

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Decision to Deny Asylum to “Son of Hamas” Is “Idiotic”

by Jason Dzubow

We’ve reported before about Mossad Hassan Yousef, son of Hamas founding member Sheikh Hassan Yousef.  The younger Yousef converted to Christianity, worked undercover to stop terrorist attacks against Israel, and wrote a book about his experience.  He has been living in California for the last few years and his application for asylum was recently rejected because he supposedly provided “material support” to Hamas, a designated terrorist organization.  Mr. Yousef claims any “support” he provided was done in the course of learning about the organization in order to prevent terrorist attacks.  His case is currently before an Immigration Judge, who will review his claim for asylum de novo.

Now, in an unprecedented move, a former Shin Bet (Israeli security) agent has come forward to verify Mr. Yousef’s claim.  The Jewish Journal reports that Gonen Ben-Yitzhak confirmed that Mr. Yousef provided information that “prevent[ed] attacks that saved countless Israeli and Arab lives.”  Mr. Ben-Yitzak will testify at Mr. Yousef’s upcoming asylum hearing. 

It is illegal for a former Shin Bet agent to publicly reveal his name, and Mr. Ben-Yitzak faces potential legal trouble in Israel when he returns:

“It’s my country, my land. I love the Shin Bet, and I love Israel. But I have to help my friend,” he said of the San Diego hearing. “This is my duty — to stand with him and say the truth. It’s something I need to do. He always stood beside me. In the harshest days of the second intifadah, I called and asked about his opinion because his understanding about Hamas is unbelievable.”

The two men received awards at a dinner sponsored by the Endowment for Middle East Truth, a pro-Israel organization.  Other muckety-mucks at the dinner included Senator Sam Brownback, Congressman Brad Sherman, and Congressman Doug Lamborn.  The event was held at the U.S. Senate, leading Mr. Yousef to joke, “How did security let a terrorist like me into this building?” 

Mr. Yousef’s asylum hearing is scheduled for next week.  There seems little doubt that he has a well-founded fear of persecution in the Palestinian territory–not just for his efforts against Hamas, but also for his apostasy (he has publicly referred to Islam as a religion of hate).  The issue is whether his “support” for Hamas will disqualify him for asylum.  Mr. Ben-Yitzak’s testimony should go a long way towards solving the “material support” problem.  And even if the Immigration Judge determines that Mr. Yousef supported Hamas, he should still qualify for relief under the United Nations Convention Against Torture, which would allow him to remain in the United States.

When asked about the U.S. government’s effort to deport Mr. Yousef, Mr. Ben-Yitzak, the former Shin Bet agent, said, “It’s hard for me to understand — very hard for me to understand.”  Former CIA director James Woolsey was less diplomatic.  “My view is that the decision to deny him political refugee status was incredibly idiotic,” Woolsey said.  “It’s hard to think of a worse immigration decision in history.  It’s fundamentally nuts.”

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The ICE Plan Cometh

by Jason Dzubow

Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) has announced a new five-year Strategic Plan.  The Plan’s top three priorities are: (1) preventing terrorism and enhancing security; (2) securing and managing our borders; and (3) enforcing and administering our immigration laws.  There is not a whole lot in the Plan that relates to asylum, perhaps because ICE does not view asylum seekers as a major concern.  However, a few sections of the Plan may impact asylum seekers:

One objective of the plan is to dismantle organized alien smuggling.  In my practice, I’ve seen a number of asylum seekers who have followed a smuggling route from Africa to the U.S. (via South and Central America).  My guess is, this operation is too small to garner much attention from ICE, though there certainly are examples of individual smugglers brought to justice.  We’ll see if ICE’s plan impacts these small-scale operations, and whether it does anything to stem the modest flow of asylum seekers entering at our Southern border. 

The report also states that “newly arriving aliens who do not successfully evade detection are apprehended, detained, and removed as appropriate by law.”  As long as these arriving aliens continue to have opportunities to request asylum and credible fear interviews at the border, this provision should not greatly impact asylum seekers.  The danger is that the practice of cajoling, threatening, and tricking arriving aliens into waiving their right to seek protection will become more common in a culture of stepped up enforcement.  Such behavior is not supposed to happen now, but I have heard many reports that it does.  Hopefully, ICE’s get-tough approach will not compromise our human rights obligations.

The plan continues:

To best protect the system, ICE will work closely with USCIS and the Department of State to identify, address, and prevent the many large-scale, organized frauds perpetrated on the government each year. In addition, ICE will pursue criminal cases against individuals who lie on applications, engage in fraud, and pose a threat to national security or public safety. As ICE attorneys have great insight into possible fraud, they will actively refer cases to ICE agents and, as possible, serve as Special Assistant United States Attorneys to assist with prosecutions. ICE will expand the number of document and benefit fraud task forces to every Special Agent in Charge office.  Following criminal cases, ICE will work closely with USCIS to address lingering administrative fraud.  Also to protect the integrity of the immigration system, ICE will remove aliens who receive final orders, with a focus on convicted criminals and those who have most recently received orders.

I’ve written before about methods to combat asylum fraud.  While ICE can target cases of individual fraud, I’ve always felt that the best policy is to pursue attorneys, notarios, and others who create fraudulent cases.  These people are the most culpable, and removing them from the scene will have a greater impact than removing an individual alien.  Plus, from my conversations with ICE attorneys, it should not be too hard to identify the fraudsters.  The danger, of course, is that legitimate asylum seekers will be intimidated by over-zealous attorneys looking for fraud.  In an atmosphere of increased enforcement, it will be more important than ever for ICE personnel to be sensitive to the situation of legitimate asylum seekers.

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Advice from a Court Interpreter

by Jason Dzubow

Without interpreters, the Immigration Court system could not operate.  One of the best interpreters I’ve worked with is Maria Raquel McFadden.  She is a freelance business, legal, and immigration interpreter with 10 years experience.  She has interpreted in various forums, including courts, immigration interviews, depositions, and business meetings.  She is registered with the State of Maryland and can be reached at: (202) 709-3602 (office) or (202) 360-2736 (cell).  Her email address is mcfadden.maria@gmail.com.  Ms. McFadden offers some advice on how best to utilize an interpreter:

Nicole Kidman makes interpreting cool

Many people who are scheduled for interviews before the asylum office or immigration court speak little or no English. Often they have never used the services of an interpreter before.

Being aware of the function of an interpreter can help the process go along more smoothly. The interpreter’s role is to remove the language barrier to the extent possible, so that the access to justice for a person with non- or limited English skills is the same as that of similarly situated English speakers for whom no such barrier exists.

When speaking through an interpreter, people should continue to speak directly to each other.  The interpreter serves merely as a mouthpiece. Interviews and conversations should flow as if the interviewer/judge, lawyer(s), and the asylum applicant are the only ones participating. Experienced interpreters know to use only the third person when referring to themselves.

In court, it is the job of the interpreter to interpret the questions asked into the alien’s language and interpret the answers into English.  At an interview, the interpreter will likewise interpret all questions and answers given.

Some interpreters are better than others and it’s necessary that both lawyers and clients learn how to best use an interpreter. Here are some tips to keep in mind:

1. Before the interview, the asylum seeker and interpreter should talk to each other to make certain that they speak the same dialect and/or understand each other.

2. Try to speak in short, very clear sentences. This will help because it can be difficult for an interpreter to accurately interpret more than a couple of sentences at a time.  

3. Look at and speak directly to the person to whom you are responding. Do not address the interpreter.

4. If you do not understand the interpreter, notify the judge/interviewing officer immediately.

5. Remember that the interpreter must keep all the information he/she learns during the interview/hearing confidential and may not share it with anyone. 

One should bear in mind that when an asylum-applicant goes before a judge, it is the court that will be make an interpreter available. However, asylum applicants must provide their own interpreter when interviewing before USCIS or the Asylum Office.  When hiring one’s own interpreter, one should take into account that a person related to the asylum-seeker may not interpret for them. It is better to have a neutral/disinterested party. The interpreter must take his/her government issued ID and be prepared to stay the entire duration of the interview. Sometimes, appointments are delayed and all parties should be prepared for long waits. 

By taking all the above factors into consideration, the asylum interview/hearing can be more manageable when working with an interpreter.

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Two Unpublished BIA Victories for Mentally Ill Respondents

by Jason Dzubow

Here are two recent decisions from the BIA involving mentally ill defendants who faced persecution in their homelands:

(1) Professor Muneer Ahmad of the Yale Law School Worker & Immigrant Rights Advocacy Clinic reports that the BIA has reversed a decision by the IJ denying Convention Against Torture relief to a mentally ill Haitian man.  The Haitian man argued that he would be jailed in Haiti and that he would not receive his medication.  Without medication, the man would not be able to comply or adapt to the conditions in prison.  As a result of this non-compliance, he would be beaten and tortured in prison.  The BIA found that it was more likely than not that he would be tortured.  The Board’s decision reversed the IJ and remanded the case for a grant of CAT relief.  The student attorneys on the case were Alice Hwang, Dale Kotchka-Alanes, Rebecca Scholtz, and Matt Vogel.

(2) Attorney Bob Jobe represented the respondent in another unpublished BIA decision.  In that case, the Board originally denied the claim, but the Ninth Circuit remanded to assess whether “Peruvians with serious chronic mental disabilities” constitutes a particular social group.  On remand, the BIA held: “Mental disabilities are clearly immutable characteristics in that those suffering from them cannot change their disability. Furthermore, people with serious and chronic mental disabilities are socially visible and the evidence of record establishes that [in Peru] they are often discriminated against and treated in an inhumane manner.” 

Mazel Tov to all on these successful outcomes.

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Immigration Court Backlog Keeps Getting Worse

by Jason Dzubow

A new report by TRAC, a group that collects information on immigration cases, finds that the backlog in Immigration Courts is worse than ever: 

The number of cases awaiting resolution before the Immigration Courts reached a new all-time high of 242,776 at the end of March 2010, according to very timely government enforcement data obtained by the Transactional Records Access Clearinghouse (TRAC). The case backlog has continued to grow — up 6.3 percent — since TRAC’s last report four months ago, and nearly a third higher (30.4%) than levels a mere 18 months ago.

"Is it time for my immigration hearing yet?"

The backlog has resulted in longer delays in Immigration Court:

Wait times have also continued to inch upward. The average time these pending cases have been waiting in the Immigration Courts of the Executive Office for Immigration Review (EOIR) is now 443 days.

The longest delays are in California, where the average wait time is 627 days.  TRAC blames the delays mainly on an insufficient number of IJs.  I’ve discussed that issue before (We Need More Judges).  In a recent exchange with the Federation for American Immigration Reform (FAIR), that group argued that aliens are largly to blame for delays since they abuse the system to prolong (or completely avoid) removal.  Maybe I will devote a future blog post to the reasons for delay, but for now, it seems the wait times are longer than ever and there is little relief in sight. 

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The Refugee Protection Act and Asylum Interviews

by Jason Dzubow

Under INA § 235(b), an alien who appears at the border and claims asylum or expresses a fear of persecution must be interviewed.  The Refugee Protection Act would require DHS to record these interviews.

A DHS employee demonstrates the agency's latest recording equipment

Currently, asylum interviews at the border (or the airport) are generally not recorded.  As a result, there are often disputes about what the alien said at the interview.  For example, I worked on a case recently where an Ethiopian asylum seeker entered the United States at the Mexican border.  He was immediately detained and requested asylum.  His friend and traveling companion served as my client’s interpreter.  The Border Patrol agent wrote down the client’s responses to the agent’s questions.  The written statement was not consistent with my client’s statements in court, and the IJ found the client’s testimony incredible; she denied asylum.  On appeal, the BIA reversed and remanded the case for, among other things, a more thorough examination of what happened at the border.  Had the border conversation been recorded, the IJ could have more definitively determined whether an inconsistency existed, and could have made a more accurate credibility determination.

IJs often rely on prior inconsistent statements to make adverse credibility findings, and I have worked on a number of cases where prior statements were used for impeachment purposes.  Such statements are often not recorded (neither the Border Patrol nor the Asylum Office records interviews).  Thus, the accuracy of the prior statements is frequently an issue.  If the interviews were recorded, we would have a more accurate record, and hence, more accurate credibility determinations.  The RPA provides for recorded interviews at the border.  It should also provide for recorded interviews at the Asylum Office.

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The BIA on Frivolous Asylum Applications

by Jason Dzubow

Biao Yang probably isn’t the first man to tell an exaggerated story about his courage in defense of a woman’s honor. Similarly self-aggrandizing stories have no doubt been told in countless bars and around hundreds of water coolers.

Narrative license of this sort usually carries little risk. A drinking buddy or co-worker might express disbelief by making reference to bovine excrement.

But the personal consequences of Yang’s embellishments are far more serious, as they will likely result in his deportation and the imposition of a lifetime bar to future immigration benefits. The consequences of Yang’s narrative excesses also had a broader effect, as they were the focus of a recent BIA decision that added to the administrative corpus of immigration law by clarifying the standards under which asylum claims are determined to have been made frivolously.

TOUGH GUY

Yang, a Chinese national, arrived in Chicago in 2002. After touching down, he told immigration officials at O’Hare that he had fled his country because “family planning authorities” – bureaucrats tasked with enforcing the country’s “One Child” policies – had forced his girlfriend to abort her pregnancy and that they wanted to arrest him.

Poster extolling the virtues of the one child policy

The embellishments would come in an asylum application filed 18 months later. In that application, Yang asserted that he got into a scuffle with and injured one of the abortionist bureaucrats who had come to his house to escort his girlfriend to the hospital. He further claimed to have been beaten and detained for his fearless acts. And then he claimed that he made a prison break and left the country.

IJ DECISION AND SECOND CIRCUIT REMAND

None of these details had been mentioned during the airport interview, however. This and other suspicious aspects of Yang’s story – including chronological discrepancies , “rank inconsistencies” within his testimony, and the sheer “implausibility” of his prison-break story – led an immigration judge to render an “adverse credibility determination.”

The result was denial of Yang’s asylum claim. But the IJ further held that these inconsistencies indicated that Yang’s asylum claim had been filed frivolously – which resulted in the imposition of a lifetime bar to future immigration benefits.

The IJ’s decision was affirmed by the BIA.  However, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 2nd Circuit remanded because the case exposed vagueness in the existing BIA standard for making a “frivolousness” determination. Those standards included:

[A] specific finding by the Immigration Judge or the Board that the alien knowingly filed a frivolous application … [and] … sufficient evidence in the record to support the finding that a material element of the asylum application was deliberately fabricated

The Second Circuit examined:

to what extent the IJ is required to set out his or her factual findings to support a frivolousness determination separately from the adverse credibility determination and to what extent he or she is permitted to incorporate by reference the findings made to support an adverse credibility determination.

BIA CLARIFICATIONS

On remand, Matter of B-Y-, 25 I&N Dec. 236 (BIA 2010), the BIA made the following clarifications:

Factual findings made in reaching an adverse credibility determination can be incorporated into the findings made in reaching a frivolousness determination … but will not be sufficient … the frivolousness determination requires additional, explicit findings of “materiality” and “deliberate fabrication.” 

The BIA stated:

In this case, as is often the situation, fact-finding regarding credibility overlaps with fact-finding as to whether an asylum application was frivolously filed. Both determinations involve the identification of inconsistencies and discrepancies in the asylum claim and consideration of any explanations offered for them. There may be circumstances where the pertinent facts do not overlap, and separate factual findings by an Immigration Judge will be necessary.

However, neither fairness nor clarity requires an Immigration Judge to separate and repeat those aspects of the credibility determination that overlap with the frivolousness determination.

… The frivolousness determination, however, requires explicit findings as to “materiality” and “deliberate fabrication” that are not required for an adverse credibility determination. As we indicated in Matter of Y-L-, 24 I&N Dec. at 156, “[T]he Immigration Judge must separately address the question of frivolousness, including a discussion of the evidence supporting a finding that the respondent deliberately fabricated a material element of the asylum claim.”

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Singh v. Holder: Is Attorney Error to Blame?

by Jason Dzubow

A recent decision by the Ninth Circuit reveals how attorney error can destroy an alien’s asylum case.

In Singh v. Holder, No. 08-70434 (9th Cir. April 19, 2010), the Ninth Circuit concluded that an IJ may require corroborating evidence even where an alien has testified credibly.  In the underlying case, the question before the IJ was whether Mr. Singh had filed for asylum within one year of his arrival in the United States (in general, an alien who does not file for asylum within one year of arriving in the U.S. is ineligible for asylum).  The IJ found that Mr. Singh testified credibly about his arrival date in the U.S., but the IJ concluded that Mr. Singh had failed to prove his entry date by “clear and convincing” evidence because he did not submit any additional evidence of his entry date.

The Ninth Circuit found that the IJ could require corroboration of the entry date.  The Court held:

With section 1158(b)(1)(B)(ii) [the REAL ID Act], Congress has expressly empowered the IJ to require corroborating evidence even when the applicant has provided otherwise credible testimony. Should the applicant fail to offer corroboration, the IJ may conclude that despite the applicant’s credible testimony, he has failed to meet his burden of demonstrating that he is entitled to asylum relief. Accordingly, the IJ’s conclusion that Singh’s uncorroborated testimony was insufficient to carry his burden to prove his date of entry was proper.

This result is not that surprising.  The REAL ID Act, which went into effect on May 11, 2005, provides that, “Where the trier of fact determines that the applicant should provide evidence that corroborates otherwise credible testimony, such evidence must be provided unless the applicant does not have the evidence and cannot reasonably obtain the evidence.”  In Singh, the Court concluded that evidence corroborating Mr. Singh’s entry date was readily available:

This is the sort of fact which is “easily subject to verification,'” whether by some form of official documentation or by supporting documents of a more informal variety, i.e., affidavits or letters from family, friends, or traveling companions.  Travelers typically accumulate paper as they move, such as receipts from gas stations, motels, and restaurants, and often take snapshots providing dating information, and reaching a refuge from persecution might well generate a particular desire to preserve souvenirs of arrival. Accordingly, it is eminently “reasonable to expect” an applicant to provide some corroborating evidence of his date of entry

While I am not sure I agree that people fleeing persecution “typically accumulate paper as they move,” Mr. Singh should at least have tried to get evidence concerning his entry.  Had he made an effort to obtain corroboration, he would likely have satisfied the REAL ID Act’s requirement to either obtain the evidence or demonstrate that the evidence is not reasonably available.

The REAL ID Act went into effect in 2005.  According to the Ninth Circuit decision, the IJ informed Mr. Singh’s counsel at an initial hearing to obtain evidence concerning the date of entry.  Either Mr. Singh’s attorney asked his client for the evidence or he did not.  If he asked and Mr. Singh failed to make any effort to obtain the evidence, then Mr. Singh is to blame for the loss.  If the attorney failed to instruct Mr. Singh to get evidence, then the attorney is to blame.

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An Asylee’s Story

by Jason Dzubow

Below is the story of an asylee from Eritrea.  She prefers to keep her name confidential:

I was born in 1979 in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. I was an Ethiopian at birth but I am an Eritrean national.

Eritrea is a little known country in East Africa of about 5 million people. Eritrea was forcefully annexed with Ethiopia in 1962. Freedom fighters struggled for Eritrea’s independence against the Derg, the Ethiopian government from 1974 to 1991. The struggle ended in 1991, when the freedom fighters won the fight. A referendum was held in 1993. Eritreans overwhelmingly voted to be independent from Ethiopia. My parents decided it was time to move to Eritrea. We moved to Eritrea for good in 1993.

The Beauty of Culture by Eritrean artist Yosief Indrias
I came to the U.S. on August 10, 2007, a year after I left my country. I left my country in August 2006. I won a scholarship to pursue higher studies in Geneva, Switzerland. While in Geneva, I received a tuition waiver to study at a university in Washington, DC.

I am an Evangelical Christian. While I went to Evangelical Christian churches since I was a child, I did not become a devoted Evangelical Christian until March 2005. Unfortunately, that was after the faith was banned in Eritrea and when hundreds of evangelical Christians were thrown in jail for their faith. In 2001, the government declared that only Orthodox, Catholic, Lutheran and Islam were complying churches. All other faiths, including Evangelical/Pentecostals, Jehovah Witnesses, Bahai, and Seventh Day Adventists, were declared non-compliant faiths and banned.

Going to Bible or Prayer cells in houses or even carrying the Bible could lead to arrest, detention or even death in some cases. That did not stop my desire to attend Bible study and prayer meetings. I was eager to learn God’s Word and become a mature Christian. I went to a friend’s house to pray and study the Bible.

At the time I left Eritrea, the government imprisoned hundreds of Evangelical Christians. The government did not show any signs of stopping the persecution against Evangelical Christians. I was too afraid to go back home when I finished my studies in the United States. I talked to a couple of my professors about my intention to apply for asylum. They strongly advised me against applying for asylum without legal representation. One of my professors talked to the Immigration Clinic of the Law School. The clinic contacted me and set up an appointment to interview me. Two interns at the clinic interviewed me and made copies of my documents.

About a week later, the clinic notified me that it would take my case and represent me in my asylum application. I was relieved to hear that news. My next concern was to get my asylum application filed before the one year dead line. I had only a few weeks to write my affidavit, gather documents and mail the package. I had more interviews with the interns at the clinic to write my affidavit. After the affidavit was ready, the package was mailed on August 1, 2008, just a few days before the one year deadline.

The next step was to wait for my fingerprint appointment. I had my fingerprints taken on August 21. Because the interns that prepared my application finished their internship at the end of August, the professor asked for a continuance of my asylum interview, which was originally set for the beginning of September. My interview was rescheduled for September 15, 2008. Another intern was assigned to be my student council. I had a moot interview with the clinic team a few days before my interview. The moot helped me to get prepared for the interview. I felt less anxious about the interview at the asylum office.

Then came September 15. I arrived at the asylum office early. I met the professor and the student counsel outside the building. My interview was scheduled at 9:00 AM. The three of us got up to the third floor. We sat in the waiting room. Almost three hours went by before the asylum officer called me. The long wait made me nervous.

Around 11:50, I was called by the asylum officer. We followed her to the interview room. After the oath was administered, the officer started to ask me questions. She typed my answers to her questions. She asked me questions for an hour and a half. I had not anticipated some of the questions but I had a feeling it went well. The officer told me the decision will be sent to me by mail in about two weeks.

A month and a half went by before I heard anything from the asylum office. I was very anxious to know the decision. When I get home from work, the first thing I did was to go to the kitchen table to see if anything came in the mail for me. I was so happy when I finally got the good news. It was a huge relief. I did not have to go back to my country and risks persecution from the government of Eritrea.

My getting asylum in the United States was wonderful news. However, my personal life got a little complicated because of it. My fiancé had proposed to me after I had left the country and I said yes! Now that I can not go back to Eritrea because of my asylum status, and because it is difficult for him to leave the country, we do not know when we will see each other again. We can only hope that it is sooner than we think. For now, I’m happy that I am safe until I meet the love of my life and start a new journey.

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Gang Membership May Be a Particular Social Group

by Jason Dzubow

A very particular social group
Joseph E. Langlois, Chief of the Asylum Division at USCIS, issued a memo declaring that within the Seventh Circuit, former gang membership “may” form a “particular social group.” The memo was prompted by a decision in the Seventh Circuit, Ramos v. Holder, 589 F.3d 426 (7th Cir. 2009), which held that former gang membership is a cognizable social group for asylum purposes.  Writing for the Court, Judge Posner notes that, “the term ‘particular social groups’ surely was not intended for the protection of members of the criminal class in this country, merely upon a showing that a foreign country deals with them even more harshly than we do.” 

The decision continues: “A gang is a group, and being a former member of a group is a characteristic impossible to change, except perhaps by rejoining the group.”

Judge Posner suggests that even where former gang members meet the requirements for asylum, they could be denied as a matter of discretion, or on statutory grounds:

We can imagine the Board’s exercising its discretion to decide that a “refugee” (that is, a person eligible for asylum) whose claim for asylum is based on former membership in a criminal gang should not be granted asylum [because, for example, he is not a person of good moral character and does not deserve a favorable exercise of discretion].

[In this case,] Ramos was a member of a violent criminal group for nine years. If he is found to have committed violent acts while a member of the gang (as apparently he did, although the evidence is not entirely clear), he may be barred from the relief he seeks for reasons unrelated to whether he is a member of a “particular social group”; for remember the bar for aliens who commit a serious nonpolitical crime.

The USCIS Memo states that within the Seventh Circuit, “former gang membership may form a particular social group if the former membership is immutable and the group of former gang members is socially distinct.”  Outside of that circuit, Asylum Officers should remember that criminal activity, “past or present, cannot form the basis of a particular social group.”  The memo also states that all Asylum Officers, regardless of jurisdiction, should note that past “gang-related activity may serve as an adverse discretionary factor that is weighed against positive factors.”

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The Ghost of Credible Fear Interviews Past

by Jason Dzubow

Inconsistency can doom an asylum application.

Asylum applicants must demonstrate that their stories of persecution are reliable, and few things set off judicial “reliability detectors” as much as a shifting narrative.

The problem is exacerbated by the fact that a refugee will typically go through a battery of interviews with many different authorities before her claim is adjudicated.  As the mound of interview transcripts grows, so too do the odds of conflicting testimony.   

Ming Zhang recently learned this the hard way.  Zhang, who entered the U.S. in 2003 and made a Chinese “family planning” claim – premised on protections offered for victims of China’s coercive family planning policies – was denied asylum on the basis of inconsistencies between her testimony before an immigration judge, in her “airport interview,” and in her “credible fear” interview.  Zhang’s appeal of this denial was upheld in an October 2009 decision that established new precedent in the Second Circuit on the issue of the extent to which reviewing courts may consider the record of “credible fear” interviews when evaluating an alien’s reliability. See Zhang v. Holder, No. 07-0327 (2nd Cir. Oct. 30, 2009):

[Zhang’s] asylum application emphasized that she had undergone two forced abortions and had been driven to attempt suicide.  [She] did not, however, discuss any of these events at her airport interview, or at her later credible fear interview.

Zhang, who does not speak English and was interviewed through a Mandarin translator, had told her airport interviewer that she immigrated because the Chinese government was forcing her to “have a birth control device” implanted in her, that she had been detained for refusing to submit to the procedure, and that if she was sent back she “would die.”  She repeated but did not add to those claims a week later, in a “credible fear” interview at an INS facility where she had been detained.

When asked why she did not discuss the forced abortions and suicide attempt at those interviews, Zhang said she was “confused” and did not know what to say.  She further asserted that she had mentioned “suicide” in her airport interview, and that the omission of that statement from the transcript was wrong.  This explanation did not sway the IJ, the BIA, or the federal court.

(more…)

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Northern Mariana Islands Court Ramps Up

by Jason Dzubow
Who wouldn't want asylum here?

The new Immigration Court in the Northern Mariana Islands is up and running.  An article in the Saipan Tribune reports that “The Department of Homeland Security’s Immigration and Customs Enforcement has filed 30 new removal cases, bringing to 51 the total number of cases that have been filed with the Saipan U.S. Immigration Court since the federalization law took effect on Nov. 28.”

From Tuesday until Thursday, Immigration Judge Philip L. DiMarzio heard the 51 cases, mostly Chinese nationals involved in human smuggling cases.  In what appears to be a blatant breach of confidentiality, the paper reported and named a Chinese asylum seeker who appeared before the court.  For more on confidentiality and Immigration Courts, click here.

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