The Fourth Circuit has scolded the Board of Immigration Appeals for failing to take note of a woman’s testimony that she made three unsuccessful attempts to get a protective order against her abusive partner, and that the chief of police refused to speak with her. “Orellana testified that during her third attempt to obtain a protective order in 2009, the Salvadoran family court refused to offer aid and instead directed her to the police station, which also turned her away. Yet the IJ gave this evidence no weight.” “Nor did the IJ or the BIA address Orellana’s testimony, which the IJ expressly found credible, that she called the police ‘many times’ during a twelve-year period, calls to which the police often did not respond at all. This testimony, too, was uncontroverted.”

The full text of Orellana v. Barr can be found here:
http://www.ca4.uscourts.gov/opinions/181513.P.pdf

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