Visa Bulletin For January 2025
Platino-Bargas v. Garland (unpub.) "After reviewing the record, briefs of the parties, and previously filed joint motion of the Government and Petitioner to remand, we grant the motion to remand...
Bouarfa v. Mayorkas (9-0) "JUSTICE JACKSON delivered the opinion of the Court. A common feature of our Nation’s complex system of lawful immigration is mandatory statutory rules paired with...
Federal Register / Vol. 89, No. 237 / Tuesday, December 10, 2024 "This final rule makes updates to reflect a statutory change to the class of individuals who may qualify for Special Immigrant Visas...
USCIS, Dec. 10, 2024 "The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) announced a final rule that will support U.S. employers, foster economic growth, and improve access to employment authorization documents...
Alvarez Lagos v. Barr
"Sindy Marilu Alvarez Lagos testified credibly that she and her then-seven-year-old daughter, natives and citizens of Honduras, were threatened with gang rape, genital mutilation, and death if they did not comply with the extortionate demands of a Barrio 18 gang member. Unable to meet those demands and fearing for their lives, Alvarez Lagos and her daughter fled to the United States, where they sought asylum, withholding of removal, and protection under the Convention Against Torture. Now, almost five years later, an immigration judge and the Board of Immigration Appeals have issued a total of three separate decisions denying Alvarez Lagos’s claims. The government defends none of those decisions, including the most recent, which came after we agreed, at the government’s request, to remand the case for reconsideration. Instead, the government admits that errors remain, but argues that we should leave them unaddressed and simply remand once again so that the agency may have a fourth opportunity to analyze Alvarez Lagos’s claims correctly. We decline that request. A remand is required here on certain questions that have yet to be answered, or answered fully, by the agency. But we take this opportunity to review the agency’s disposition of other elements of Alvarez Lagos’s claims. For the reasons given below, we reverse the agency’s determination with respect to the “nexus” requirement for asylum and withholding of removal. And so that they will not recur on remand, we identify additional errors in the agency’s analysis of the “protected ground” requirement for the same forms of relief, and in the agency’s treatment of Alvarez Lagos’s claim under the Convention Against Torture."
[Hats way off to the pro bono team at Akin Gump: Martine Elizabeth Cicconi, Steven H. Schulman, David M. Coleman, Lauren Connell and Kate Powers!]