Asylum
Asylum grants legal protection to foreign nationals already in the U.S. or arriving at the border who can’t go back to their home country because of persecution. Learn more about the asylum system in the United States, including how asylum is defined, eligibility requirements, and the difficult and complex application process.
Court Ensures That Asylum Seekers Will Receive a Fair Opportunity to Apply for Asylum
A federal court judge in Seattle ordered the government to notify asylum seekers that they are required by law to file their asylum applications within one year of their entry, and to adopt and implement a procedure that will ensure that applicants are able to file their asylum applications… Read More
A New Official ICE Policy Calls for the Detention of Pregnant Women
Immigration and Customs Enforcement announced on Thursday that it was ending its general practice of releasing pregnant women from immigration jail. Under its new policy, pregnant women will only be released from detention on a case-by-case basis, ending the presumption of release. Now, ICE will detain “only those whose… Read More
District Court Issues Favorable Nationwide Ruling on Behalf of Thousands of Asylum Seekers
A federal district court judge in Washington State ruled today that the federal government’s failure to notify asylum seekers that they must apply for asylum within one year of arriving in the United States violated their right to due process, and ordered the government to provide such notice. Read More
USCIS Is Withholding Records Showing That Border Agents Are Abusing Asylum Seekers
As thousands of Central American families arrived at the U.S.-Mexico border asking for asylum in 2014, human rights organizations raised alarms about asylum seekers’ treatment by Customs and Border Protection officials. But these organizations were not the only ones expressing concern—asylum officers within U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services… Read More
Lawsuit Challenges the Government’s Policy of Indefinitely Detaining Asylum Seekers
A class action lawsuit was filed on March 15, 2018 challenging the U.S. government’s practice of detaining asylum seekers indefinitely and argues the practice is an attempt to deter future asylum seekers from seeking safety in the United States. The suit claims that the Department of Homeland Security has… Read More
Immigrants Rights Group Sues U.S. Government Over Family Separation at the Border
The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) filed a lawsuit this week to demand the immediate release and reunification of an asylum-seeking Congolese mother and her 7 year-old daughter, who had been forcibly separated by Department of Homeland Security (DHS) officers at the U.S.-Mexico border last November. Read More
USCIS Changes to Asylum Interview Scheduling Allows Long-Pending Cases to Languish
U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) made abrupt and sweeping changes to how the agency will schedule interviews for affirmative asylum applications. Rather than interviewing those who have been waiting months or years for their interview, asylum offices will now prioritize brand new filings ahead of all others waiting in… Read More
AG Jeff Sessions is unfit to decide immigration case, say immigration groups
The American Immigration Council, joined by several other immigration groups, submitted an amicus brief that argues that due process requires an impartial adjudicator and that Sessions’ anti-immigrant statements and actions prevent him from acting as one. The brief lays out Sessions’ decades-long public record of anti-immigrant statements, including specific statements evidencing prejudgment of issues in the case, and urges Sessions to either vacate the referral order or recuse himself from the case. Read More
Matter of Castro-Tum
In the case, Attorney General Jeff Sessions referred to himself questions related to administrative closure. This move by Sessions could signal an attempt to end administrative closure altogether—which could force over 350,000 immigrants back into immigration court, exacerbating the challenges of an already overburdened immigration court system. Read More
Immigrant Women and Girls Often Face Abuse, Homelessness After Arriving to the United States
Immigrant women and girls face unique challenges in navigating the U.S. immigration system, their dire circumstances often exacerbated by the gender-based violence they encounter on the journey and upon their arrival to the United States. These struggles were captured in a new report from the Tahirih Justice Center, which surveyed… Read More
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