Cyrus Mehta, May 29, 2023 "I write this blog in fond memory of Mark Von Sternberg who passed away on May 16, 2023. Mark was a brilliant lawyer, scholar and writer who worked very hard on behalf...
Portillo v. DHS "Gerardo A. Portillo petitions for review of a decision of the Board of Immigration Appeals ("BIA") affirming his order of removal and denying his application for adjustment...
State Department, May 30, 2023 "Document Submission to KCC suspended for DV-2024 and onward. Effective for the Diversity Visa (DV) program for fiscal year 2024 (DV-2024) and onward, selectees...
In this document , provided by a "veteran immigration practitioner," ICE claims that its attorneys need not be present in every case in Immigration Court. Read more at PWS's latest post ...
This document is scheduled to be published in the Federal Register on 06/01/2023 "This final rule (TFR) temporarily amends Department of State (Department) regulations to provide that Afghan nationals...
Arguijo v. USCIS
"The Violence Against Women Act added to the Immigration and Nationality Act a provision giving “immigrant status” (i.e., permanent residence) to an alien “child” who has suffered domestic violence at the hands of a U.S. citizen ... Arguijo was born in 1987. Her mother, like her a citizen of Honduras, married a U.S. citizen in 1999 and divorced in 2004 because of his violent behavior. Arguijo had run away the year before, when she was 15, to escape the abuse. The litigation presents a single issue: whether, after the divorce, Arguijo remained a “child” of her mother’s ex-husband. ... [USCIS] believes that a stepchild loses that status on the natural parent’s divorce from the stepparent. Because, in the agency’s view, Arguijo lost stepchild status in 2004, and only a person who “is” a child of an abusive parent may seek relief, the agency denied her application. On review under the Administrative Procedure Act, the district court agreed with the agency. 2020 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 6568 (N.D. Ill. Jan. 15, 2020). ... [S]omeone who is a stepchild during a marriage remains one after divorce, when termination of “stepchild” status would defeat application of the substantive rule that abused stepchildren are entitled to an immigration benefit. ... [W]e hold that in the context of the Violence Against Women Act “stepchild” status survives divorce. REVERSED AND REMANDED."
[Hats off to Emilie O'Toole and Megan Thibert-Ind!]