UDC Law
Alert for Asylum Seekers – Consult with an Immigration Attorney if you Haven’t Filed your Case before January 11, 2020
Over the summer, the U.S. government proposed a set of regulations that will dramatically change asylum law. In response, the public and immigrant advocates submitted close to 90,000 public comments. The Government changed some of the proposed rules, slightly, but the new rules are set to go into effect on January 11, 2021. There will likely be legal challenges (lawsuits) to try to stop the regulations from going into effect. But, it’s always hard to tell what will happen. One of the changes made between July 15, 2020 and December 2020 to the proposed rules is that they will not be retroactive. This means that they will not apply to anyone who has filed their I-589 Application for asylum before January 11, 2021. The Government is saying that the new rules will apply now and despite any legal challenge to any sections that the Government views as simply codifying existing case law. But, it is likely much better for asylum seekers to have their applications filed prior to January 11, 2021. This is especially for people fleeing harm from non-government actors, for asylum seekers fleeing gender-based harm, and for individuals who have spent time in another country before coming to the U.S. If you are seeking asylum, please consult with an immigration attorney as soon as possible. An I-589 asylum application takes hours to properly fill out and you will need to have time to work with an attorney to prepare your application and get it mailed before January 11, 2021. If you are an asylum seeker in need of assistance, please contact Lindsay.harris@udc.edu, Vice-Chair of the American Immigration Lawyers Association’s National Asylum & Refugee Committee and Associate Professor and Director of the Immigration & Human Rights Clinic at the University of the District of Columbia David A. Clarke School of Law.
Lindsay M. Harris (she/her/hers)
Associate Professor of Law
Director, Immigration & Human Rights Clinic
University of the District of Columbia
David A. Clarke school of Law
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Thanks Lindsay, my friend!
One of the points that I can’t overemphasize is the importance of getting legal assistance to fully, carefully, and accurately fill out the asylum application (Form I-589).
Variances between the written application and supporting documentation and testimony before the Asylum Office or Immigration Court have always been problematic.
But, under the current White Nationalist restrictionist regime, Asylum Officers and Immigration Judges are encouraged to “fly speck” asylum applications for any variances, no matter how minor, that can be used to find the applicant “not credible.” While this is both a violation of the statute and the case law in most Circuits, it’s a reality that asylum applicants must deal with.
It’s a particular problem given the hiring of many new Immigration Judges with no expertise in asylum laws, no sympathy for asylum seekers, no experience representing asylum seekers, subject to production quotas that encourage them to use “any reason to deny” an asylum application, and basically imbued with the “propaganda” that most asylum applications are without merit.
My own experience, although now in the past, is that many asylum seekers incorrectly assume that the Form I-589 is just a “rough outline” of the claim and that they will be allowed to fill in blanks, obtain additional documentation, and explain problems in full at a later time. That wasn’t true in the past, and is even less so now.
What and how things are said in the written asylum application can have a determinative effect before both the Asylum Office and the Immigration Court! “First instance denials” by Immigration Judges are very hard to reverse on appeal, particularly when based on “adverse credibility rulings.”
So, preparing the application carefully with assistance from someone who understands exactly how the Immigraton Court system works (or doesn’t) is essential!
Due Process Forever!
PWS
12-14-20