Major Disaster Vermont Severe Storms, Flooding, Landslides, and Mudslides Impacted Areas Frequently Asked Questions September 30, 2024 Major Disaster Hurricane Helene Impacted Areas Frequently Asked...
Meza Diaz v. Garland "Petitioner Briseyda Meza Diaz (“Meza Diaz”) and her minor daughter, Gabriela Segundo Meza (“GSM”), fled Mexico after suffering a home invasion by hooded...
Q & A and slides from Sept. 12, 2024 Stakeholder Engagement
Hamed Aleaziz, New York Times, Oct. 4, 2024 (gift link) "The Biden administration said Friday it would allow the temporary legal permission for migrants from Cuba, Venezuela, Haiti, and Nicaragua...
Singh v. Garland (2-1) "Jaswinder Singh, a citizen and native of India, appeals the Board of Immigration’s (“BIA”) decision affirming the Immigration Judge’s (“IJ”...
Perez Nagahama v. Garland (unpub.)
"We remand for the agency to conduct the required factfinding and analysis regarding the reasonableness of Perez Nagahama’s delay in filing her asylum claim following her changed circumstances. An asylum applicant must file an asylum “application . . . within 1 year after the date of . . . arrival in the United States.” 8 U.S.C. § 1158(a)(2)(B). There is an exception for “changed circumstances which materially affect the applicant’s eligibility for asylum.” Id. § 1158(a)(2)(D). Where there is such a change, the applicant must file an application “within a reasonable period given those ‘changed circumstances.’” 8 C.F.R. § 1208.4(a)(4)(ii). The IJ concluded and the BIA assumed that Perez Nagahama’s circumstances changed materially when she began living as openly gay in April 2015. What is a reasonable period for filing after a changed circumstance is a fact-specific inquiry: IJs should make specific “findings of fact with respect to the particular circumstances involved in the delay of the respondents’ applications” to determine the reasonableness of the delay. Matter of T-M-H- & S-W-C-, 25 I. & N. Dec. 193, 195–96 (B.I.A. 2010). ... Perez Nagahama has raised a reviewable question of law that the agency failed to apply the proper standard because it did not consider her specific circumstances before concluding that her delay was unreasonable. ... The agency did not conduct the required factfinding and analysis. ... Here, the IJ did not make findings of facts regarding the reasonableness of the delay in light of the attendant circumstances. The BIA should have remanded to the IJ to consider whether the delay was reasonable. ... Instead, the BIA made its own factual determinations that Perez Nagahama beginning to live as openly gay did not make her delay reasonable and that the other facts she pointed to were not related to this underlying changed circumstance. Compounding this issue, the BIA gave no reasoning for its conclusion that the relevant circumstance made her delay unreasonable."
[Hats off to Genet Getachew!]