Elliot Spagat, Associated Press, Dec. 8, 2023 "A federal judge was poised Friday to prohibit separation of families at the border for purposes of deterring immigration for eight years, preemptively...
In an unpublished decision dated Dec. 4, 2023 a panel of the Ninth Circuit remanded for a new hearing. The facts are stunning...unless you practice immigration law: "Because Lead Petitioner credibly...
This document is scheduled to be published in the Federal Register on 12/07/2023 "The Department of State (“Department”) is amending its regulation governing immigrant visas by removing...
On July 10, 2023, a Fifth Circuit panel dismissed Mr. Argueta-Hernandez' petition for review for lack of jurisdiction, 73 F.4th 300. On Dec. 5, 2023 the panel (Higginbotham, Graves, and Douglas)...
Here is a look back at what I posted to this blog on Dec. 5, 2006 .
Kumar v. Garland
"Under the REAL ID Act, Immigration Judges (“IJs”) must base credibility determinations on “the totality of the circumstances, and all relevant factors.” 8 U.S.C. 1158(b)(1)(B)(iii). However, even after the passage of this Act, we continued to follow our historical rule that when an IJ made an adverse credibility finding based on multiple grounds, we would affirm that finding “[s]o long as one of the identified grounds [wa]s supported by substantial evidence and [went] to the heart of [the] claim.” Wang v. INS, 352 F.3d 1250, 1259 (9th Cir. 2003). We called this “the single factor rule.” Now all of that has changed following the recent en banc decision in Alam v. Garland, in which we held that the REAL ID Act abrogated the single factor rule and that we must affirm credibility findings only when they are supported by the totality of circumstances. 11 F.4th 1133, 1137 (9th Cir. 2021) (en banc). Hewing to the REAL ID Act and to the holding in Alam, we conclude that the bulk of the credibility findings in this case are infirm. We remand to the BIA to determine whether the few remaining factors are sufficient—in light of the totality of circumstances—to support such a finding."
[Hats off to Pardeep S. Grewal!]