Where a Honduran native’s first application for asylum was denied as untimely, but he then filed a second application after his brother’s murder, the Board of Immigration Appeals or BIA, erred by refusing to reopen the application. The murder constituted ...

Tagged with: 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals Immigration Judge A. Marvin Quattlebaum Jr.

Where the record showed that an asylum applicant was not targeted because of her membership in a particular social group but because the assailant attacked anyone who aided his former wife, the asylum claim was denied. Background Veronica Toledo-Vasquez petitions ...

Tagged with: 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals Immigration Judge A. Marvin Quattlebaum Jr.

Where a regulation requires the Department of Homeland Security, or DHS, to notify an applicant of the need to provide biometrics, such as photographs and fingerprints; provide the applicant with a biometrics notice; and provide instructions for producing biometrics, the ...

Tagged with: 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals Immigration Judge Paul V. Niemeyer

Where a native of Ghana reported that he had no children when, in fact, he had three, and this information was material to his efforts to obtain permanent residence in the United States, his citizenship application was denied. Background Petitioner ...

Tagged with: Immigration Judge Rossie D. Alston Jr. U.S. District Court - Eastern District

In an issue of first impression, where the government argued that an immigration judge’s decision should be upheld so long as it was based on a “facially legitimate and bona fide reason,” the court joined two circuits in rejecting this ...

Tagged with: 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals Immigration Judge Pamela A. Harris

Where a Honduran man argued that he should not be removed from the United States because his status as a “prosecution witness” would result in threats to his life or freedom in Honduras, the claim failed because that social group ...

Tagged with: 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals Immigration Judge A. Marvin Quattlebaum Jr.

Where a district court directed the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services, or USCIS, to adjudicate the plaintiff’s naturalization application within 45 days and retained jurisdiction to hear the case if the agency failed to comply, the plaintiff did not qualify ...

Tagged with: 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals Immigration Judge Paul V. Niemeyer

Where the term “relating to obstruction of justice” is ambiguous about whether an ongoing or a reasonably foreseeable proceeding must be obstructed, the court deferred to the reasonable interpretation of the Board of Immigration Appeals, or BIA. Background Jean Francois ...

Tagged with: 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals Immigration Judge Julius N. Richardson

Where former U.S. Attorney General Sessions opined that immigration judges and the Board of Immigration Appeals, or BIA, lack authority to administratively close cases, but his opinion was at odds with the plain meaning of the regulations and the government ...

Tagged with: 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals Immigration Judge Stephanie Dawn Thacker

Where the immigration judge focused on why a Honduran gang targeted the petitioner’s family, rather than petitioner herself, that was wrong. Because the record showed that the gang leveraged her familial relationship to her husband, as well as their familial ...

Tagged with: 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals Immigration Judge James A. Wynn Jr.