Winning Old Asylum Cases

by Jason Dzubow

As you probably know, asylum applicants often wait years for their interview or court hearing. Some cases get stronger with time, but most do not. Sometimes, country conditions improve or change in a way that makes it more difficult to win asylum. Other times, the asylum laws or regulations change in a way that is unfavorable. More commonly, the very fact that an applicant has been away from her home country for a long time makes it seem less likely that she will be harmed if she returns. The Immigration Judge or Asylum Officer will want to know why anyone back home would still remember you, let alone want to harm you, after so much time outside the country.

If you’ve been waiting for a long time for your Asylum Office interview or Immigration Court hearing, and you think your case has become weaker, what can you do? (more…)

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LGBT Asylum and LGBT Rights

by Jason Dzubow

This Pride Month feels different than in years past. After decades where it felt like the moral arc of the universe was bending towards Justice and tolerance, gay and trans rights–and gay and trans people–are under assault by right-leaning politicians, media personalities, and members of the community. Hard-won progress now seems under threat. Republicans are using a time-tested strategy of falsely imputing power to a vulnerable community (for example, the power to “groom” children) and then attacking that community based on the false narrative. It reminds me very much of blood libels, where Jews were falsely accused of murdering Christian children, and this became an excuse for violence against the Jewish community.

But while sexual minorities are under threat, particularly at the state and local levels, LGBT asylum cases continue to be approved by the federal Immigration Courts. What explains this discontinuity? And should we feel hopeful for society that LGBT asylum seekers are still being accepted, or fearful that the retrenchment of rights will spread to the asylum system? (more…)

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The Logic of Making You Wait (and Wait and Wait and Wait…)

by Jason Dzubow

If you are one of the 3+ million people waiting for your case in Immigration Court or at the Asylum Office, you might ask yourself, Why is my case taking so long? Of course you know the basic reason: Too many cases and too few people to work on those cases. But why is the system designed this way? Why can’t we have enough Immigration Judges and Asylum Officers so that cases are processed in a timely manner?

Here’s my theory: The system was purposefully created to make you wait. (more…)

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The Initial Consultation: What to Expect When You First Meet With a Lawyer

by Jason Dzubow

Let’s say you’ve found a lawyer–either based on a friend’s recommendation, through an internet search or maybe from an ad you saw on the bus–and you’ve arranged for an initial meeting. How should you prepare for this meeting and what should you expect?

There are a few purposes for an initial consultation. First, the lawyer should evaluate your case, discuss strengths and (especially) weaknesses, and help you understand your options. Second, you need to know whether the lawyer can assist with achieving your goals. And finally, you need to decide whether the lawyer is right for you. Here, we’ll discuss the initial consultation (affectionately called a “consult”) and hopefully help you get the most out of that meeting. (more…)

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The Benefits and Burdens of Court-Appointed Lawyers

by Jason Dzubow

The Associated Press recently reported that DHS will implement a “limited experiment” to provide detained migrants at the border with “access to legal counsel.” The new approach will start with a “tiny number of migrants,” and then perhaps expand from there. DHS is partnering with an as-yet-unnamed organization to supply the attorneys, who will help with credible fear interviews (initial evaluations of asylum eligibility for newly arriving migrants). The program is part of DHS’s efforts to accommodate the end of Title 42, which had restricted the number of people eligible to seek asylum at the U.S.-Mexico border, and which is expected to wrap up in a few weeks.

This new “limited experiment” calls to mind the ongoing effort by advocates to create an immigration public defender’s service, which would provide everyone in Immigration Court access to a lawyer. These efforts have not made much progress, and currently, very few noncitizens in Immigration Court receive a government-appointed attorney.

Here, I want to discuss the benefits of universal representation for asylum seekers, including those in court and at the Asylum Office. I also want to suggest an alternative to representation by lawyers, who are expensive and relatively scarce. (more…)

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Adding a Dependent to an Existing Asylum Case

by Jason Dzubow

Here’s a common situation: A person files for asylum at the Asylum Office and her case is pending for years. During that time, she marries someone who does not have immigration status in the U.S., and she wants to add her spouse to her pending asylum application. And here’s another (less common) scenario: A person has a pending asylum application and the person’s child arrives in the United States and wants to join their parent’s case. Today, we’ll discuss how to add a dependent to an existing asylum case. (more…)

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Immigration Law and AI

by Jason Dzubow

If you follow tech news, you probably know about Chat-GPT, an artificial intelligence (AI) program that has been writing college essays, designing buildings, and even crafting condolence emails after mass shootings. Just last week, we learned that this program “can now outperform most law school graduates on the bar exam, the grueling two-day test aspiring attorneys must pass to practice law in the United States.” The test consists of multiple choice and essay questions, and Chat-GPT’s score placed it “in the 90th percentile of actual test takers,” which “is enough to be admitted to practice law in most states.”

Perhaps in an effort to make lawyers feel better, the “National Conference of Bar Examiners, which designs the multiple choice section, said… that attorneys have unique skills gained through education and experience that AI cannot currently match.” “Currently” being the operative word.

While I do not expect to lose my job in the immediate future, I can see areas of immigration law where AI would be able to assist attorneys and increase efficiency. And I can also imagine a future where AI takes over many, if not all, tasks performed by attorneys, Asylum Officers, and Immigration Judges. (more…)

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Some Reasons Why Asylum Is Denied — and What You Can Do About It

by Jason Dzubow

Much has been written about the inconsistent and unpredictable decision-making at our nation’s Asylum Offices and Immigration Courts. And while it is true that the officer or judge who decides the case makes a difference, for most asylum applicants, the strength of the case is the determinant factor. Here, we’ll look at some common reasons why asylum cases get denied, and we’ll explore what can be done to improve your chances for a successful outcome. (more…)

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Book Review: Asylum–A Memoir & Manifesto by Edafe Okporo

by Jason Dzubow

Growing up gay in Nigeria was dangerous, both physically and psychologically. Despite the obstacles, Edafe Okporo managed to build a life for himself, get an education, and find a job where he helped gay men access healthcare. During his years in Nigeria, Mr. Okporo watched as conditions worsened for members of the LGBT community. The country enacted anti-LGBT legislation, which criminalized homosexuality and encouraged community members to report sexual minorities to the police. In 2016, a mob attacked Mr. Okporo in his home and beat him into unconsciousness, chanting “Gay! Gay! Gay!” The last straw came later that same year when–ironically–Mr. Okporo received recognition for his activism by a U.S.-based NGO. The NGO posted an article about Mr. Okporo online, essentially “outing” him to anyone with an internet connection. He immediately fled his home and fled his country.

In his new book, Asylum–A Memoir & Manifesto, Mr. Okporo recounts his tale of persecution, his escape to America, and his experience with the U.S. asylum system. (more…)

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Disorder at the Border

by Jason Dzubow

The Biden Administration has proposed new regulations that restrict who is eligible to claim asylum at the U.S.-Mexico border. The new rules anticipate the end of Title 42, a public-health program that limited the number of people who could seek protection at the border. Advocates have condemned the new measure, labeling it a “transit ban” that is unworkable and a violation of U.S. asylum law. Whether the policy is illegal, I am not sure, but it certainly seems unworkable in the sense that it will likely not deter many asylum seekers from coming to the border to ask for protection.

Here, I want to talk about the new rule, and what impact it might have on asylum seekers at the border and in the interior. (more…)

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Crime and Asylum: A Guide for the Perp-plexed

by Jason Dzubow

If you have engaged in criminal conduct in the U.S. or overseas, it could affect your eligibility for asylum in the United States. But how do you know what type of criminality impacts an asylum application? The short answer is that it can be very difficult to determine the effect of a given criminal conviction. Also, even where there is no conviction, in some cases, a person’s eligibility for asylum can be compromised. Indeed, the intersection of criminal and immigration law is a confusing and complicated area, and there exists a whole legal field–known by the portmanteau “crimmigration”–devoted to its study.

It is of course impossible to cover an entire legal field in one blog post, and so here, we will discuss only the basics. But hopefully this will provide enough information to help you determine whether your asylum application is in jeopardy, and whether you need to seek more specific advice from a lawyer. (more…)

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Filing the I-589 Online

by Jason Dzubow

Not long ago, USCIS started accepted the I-589 asylum form online. Of course, I resisted filing online because (1) I don’t like learning new things, (2) I don’t like computers, and (3) I REALLY don’t like learning new things on computers. But I also don’t like waiting (literally) six months for my clients’ asylum receipts, all the while not knowing whether USCIS has lost their application. And so urgency and lawyerly duty have finally overcome inertia, and I filed my first I-589 online.

Here, I want to talk about the process of filing online and give some suggestions for improving the “user experience” (short answer: There are advantages to filing online, but there is also room for improvement). (more…)

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President Biden’s New Border Policy: Sound and Fury at the Border, Signifying Nothing for Those Who Wait

by Jason Dzubow

In response to record numbers of migrants arriving at our Southern border–2.2 million in FY2022–President Biden has announced some new rules designed to deter people from coming to our country to seek asylum. At the same time, these rules also open a new pathway for “up to 30,000 migrants from Venezuela, Nicaragua, Cuba and Haiti… to enter the United States on ‘parole’ each month if they have financial sponsors here and pass background checks.”

Today, we’ll discuss the import of these new rules. We’ll also look at how the rules might affect asylum seekers who currently have cases before the Asylum Office or Immigration Court. (more…)

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The Blessings of Resettling Refugees

by Jason Dzubow

Conventional wisdom holds that resettling refugees and asylum seekers is a burden on the host country. Indeed, many of our nation’s immigration policies are based on this premise: We make it difficult for asylum seekers to enter the country; once they are here, their cases often take many years to resolve and in a majority of cases, they are denied; politicians routinely malign asylum seekers as economic parasites, criminals, and terrorists. But why should this be? What is the evidence that refugees and asylum seekers have a negative impact on their host countries?

A new academic paper by Jennifer M. Chacรณn, Recounting: An Optimistic Account of Migration, challenges the idea that refugees burden their host countries. (more…)

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Judging the Judges in Immigration Court

by Jason Dzubow

To paraphrase Forrest Gump, Immigration Court is like a box of chocolates; you never know what you’re going to get. Also, some of the chocolate is poison.

For many applicants in Immigration Court, the most important factor in determining success is not the person’s story or the evidence or the quality of their lawyer. It is the judge who is randomly assigned to the case. According to TRAC Immigration, a non-profit that tracks asylum approval rates in Immigration Court, Immigration Judge (“IJ”) approval rates vary widely. For the period 2017 to 2022, asylum approval rates ranged from 0% (a judge in Houston) to 99% (a judge in San Francisco). Of the 635 IJs listed on the TRAC web page, 125 granted asylum in less than 10% of their cases. At the other extreme, nine IJs granted asylum more than 90% of the time.

Based solely on these numbers, there is a 20% chance (1 in 5) that your IJ denies at least 90% of the asylum cases that he adjudicates. That’s pretty frightening. But there is much more to the story, which we will explore below. (more…)

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