These summaries are not intended as legal advice. Please contact a licensed attorney to discuss the specifics of your case.
Viewing entries in
New Case Law
The Fifth Circuit has determined that a Notice to Appear that lacks the time and date of the first removal hearing is insufficient for the entry of an in absentia removal order.
The full text of Rodriguez v. Garland can be found here:
https://www.ca5.uscourts.gov/opinions/pub/20/20-60008-CV0.pdf
The Second Circuit has determined that Matter of Soram can be applied retroactively to pre-2010 child endangerment convictions. The court further held that it held no jurisdiction to review the agency’s reliance on uncorroborated arrest reports in its discretionary denial of cancellation of removal.
The full text of Marquez v. Garland can be found here:
The California Court of Appeals, First District, has determined that a defendant may vacate a conviction under section 1473.7 of the Penal Code even if she is on probation for another case.
The full text of People v. Rodriguez can be found here:
The California Court of Appeals, Fifth District, has determined that a judge may deem a 1473.7 motion timely even if it is not filed within a reasonable period of time of the issuance of an adverse immigration decision.
“Only when the condition is satisfied does the court have the discretion to deem a motion untimely. Thus, the lack of reasonable diligence does not automatically require the superior court to deem the motion untimely. Instead, the absence of reasonable diligence subjects the motion to the court’s discretionary authority and, in exercising its discretion, the court might deem the motion timely or might deem it untimely. Section 1473.7 does not provide any guidance for exercising that discretion, such as a list of factors that should be weighed by the court. Based on the lack of explicit statutory guidance, we conclude the well-established general rule governing grants of discretion applies. Thus, the discretion is abused when the court exceeds the bounds of reason, all of the circumstances being considered. In other words, before exercising its discretionary authority regarding the timeliness of the motion, the court must consider the totality of the circumstances.”
“A comparison of the September 2019 date with December 23, 2019—the date Perez filed his motion—shows it took Perez over two, but less than three, months to file his section 1473.7 motion.” “Here, Perez was physically removed from the United States and was at least 200 miles away from the county where the motion was filed. In such circumstances, we find as a matter of law that Perez acted with reasonable diligence in getting his section 1473.7 motion filed in less than three months after his removal to Mexico. Because Perez acted with reasonable diligence, his motion must be deemed timely pursuant to section 1473.7, subdivision (b)(1).”
The full text of People v. Perez can be found here:
The Ninth Circuit has determined that federal courts lack jurisdiction to stay a non-citizen’s removal during the pendency of the adjudication of his motion to reopen by the Board of Immigration Appeals. Such federal court intervention is precluded by 8 USC 1252(g), and is not restored by the Suspension Clause.
The full text of Rauda v. Jennings can be found here:
https://cdn.ca9.uscourts.gov/datastore/opinions/2021/08/13/21-16062.pdf
The Board of Immigration Appeals has determined that a respondent who previously received NACARA cancellation of removal is not eligible for a subsequent grant of non-lawful permanent resident or lawful permanent resident cancellation of removal.
The full text of Matter of Hernandez Romero can be found here:
The Eleventh Circuit has concluded that a Florida conviction for a felon in possession of a weapon does not match the definition of the firearms offense deportability ground because the statute includes carrying of non-firearm weapons and possession of ammunition. The statute is divisible between the possession of a prohibited item and the concealed carrying of a prohibited item. However, the possession prong includes possession of ammunition, which is not a firearm. In addition, the carrying prong includes non-firearm weapons, such as a dirk. Moreover, the statute is not divisible between the prohibited items.
The full text of Simpson v. U.S. Attorney General can be found here:
https://media.ca11.uscourts.gov/opinions/pub/files/201911156.pdf
The Ninth Circuit has determined that the Board of Immigration Appeals’ 2013 decision in Cortes Medina (finding that a California conviction for indecent exposure is a crime involving moral turpitude) presumptively cannot be retroactively applied to a 2011 conviction because the Ninth Circuit held in 2010 in Nunez that the conviction was not a crime involving moral turpitude.
The full text of Reyes Afandor v. Garland can be found here:
https://cdn.ca9.uscourts.gov/datastore/opinions/2021/08/25/19-72890.pdf
The Ninth Circuit has recognized the impact that the trauma of physical and sexual assault can have on the ability of an asylum applicant to accurately estimate the length of time of certain events in her narrative of persecution. “Ms. Munyuh set forth a reasonable and plausible explanation for the discrepancy between the four-to-five-kilometer estimate in her written declaration and the timeline of her account—namely, that she had been ‘brutally attacked, beaten multiple times, [and] raped within a span of less than about 24 hours.’ It is reasonable and plausible that the trauma caused by multiple physical and sexual assaults would impair Ms. Munyuh’s focus at the time on peripheral matters and therefore on her memory of those matters.”
The full text of Munyuh v. Garland can be found here:
https://cdn.ca9.uscourts.gov/datastore/opinions/2021/08/25/19-72890.pdf
The Ninth Circuit has determined that a non-citizen subject to a reinstatement order has a right to counsel in a reasonable fear review with an Immigration Judge. However, that right must be taken in the context of the regulation that requires that reasonable fear reviews be conducted within ten days of the issuance of the Asylum Officer’s negative reasonable determination. Thus, the agency did not deny the petitioner his right to to counsel when he requested time to find an attorney at his hearing, which was scheduled on Day 8 of 10.
The full text of Orozco-Lopez v. Garland and Gonzalez Martinez v. Garland can be found here:
https://cdn.ca9.uscourts.gov/datastore/opinions/2021/08/25/20-70127.pdf
The Ninth Circuit has determined that “female nurses” may be a particular social group for asylum purposes. “In contrast to Acosta, Plancarte cannot avoid compulsion by the cartel simply by changing jobs, because even if she ceased employment as a nurse, she would still be a nurse. Plancarte has received specialized medical training and has a professional license as a nurse. The cartel targeted Plancarte precisely because of her specialized nursing skills. It threatened her and her family with torture and death to force her to use those skills to provide medical treatment to the cartel.”
The full text of Plancarte Sauceda v. Garland can be found here: https://cdn.ca9.uscourts.gov/datastore/opinions/2021/08/20/19-73312.pdf
An amended opinion can be found here:
https://cdn.ca9.uscourts.gov/datastore/opinions/2022/01/14/19-73312.pdf
The Ninth Circuit has determined that a conviction under section 10851 of the CA Vehicle Code (taking a vehicle without consent, commonly referred to as “joyriding”) is overbroad and indivisible when compared to the generic definition of a theft offense. The court overruled its prior finding that the statute is divisible in Duenas-Alvarez.
The full text of Lopez-Marroquin v. Garland can be found here:
https://cdn.ca9.uscourts.gov/datastore/opinions/2021/08/18/18-72922.pdf
The Ninth Circuit has determined that an Interpol Red Notice, a Salvadoran arrest warrant, and the petitioner’s incredible testimony were sufficient to demonstrate serious reasons to believe that he had committed a serious nonpolitical crime.
The full text of Villalobos Sura v. Garland can be found here:
https://cdn.ca9.uscourts.gov/datastore/opinions/2021/08/17/20-71839.pdf
The Ninth Circuit has determined that it has no jurisdiction to determine if a non-citizen was deprived of his right to counsel in a credible fear review because it lacks the authority to review constitutional claims related to expedited removal proceedings.
The full text of Guerrier v. Garland can be found here:
https://cdn.ca9.uscourts.gov/datastore/opinions/2021/08/16/20-70115.pdf
An amended opinion was issued on November 9, 2021, and can be found here:
https://cdn.ca9.uscourts.gov/datastore/opinions/2021/11/09/20-70115.pdf
The Ninth Circuit has determined that an adjustment of status applicant was not given adequate notice that his past claims to citizenship could render him inadmissible and ineligible for permanent residence.
“We hold that Flores-Rodriguez was not put on notice that his alleged false claim of citizenship would be at issue in his 2014 hearing.” “At Flores-Rodriguez’s 2012 preliminary hearing, the IJ discussed false claims of citizenship only in the context of a possible DHS charge, telling him that if such a charge were sustained, he would not be eligible for adjustment of status. At Flores-Rodriguez’s 2013 preliminary hearing—during which the final IJ hearing was scheduled—the issue was not raised at all. In sum, by the time Flores-Rodriguez had his final hearing in 2014, his alleged false claim of citizenship had not been raised by the IJ for two years, and the last time it had been discussed the IJ implied it would only be dispositive if DHS sustained a false claim of citizenship charge against him. DHS never even brought such a charge.”
The full text of Flores-Rodriguez v. Garland can be found here:
https://cdn.ca9.uscourts.gov/datastore/opinions/2021/08/16/19-70177.pdf
The Ninth Circuit has remanded a case involving the proposed social group of imputed gang members. The court noted that its prior concerns that Congress would not have wanted to reward gang members for their behavior by recognizing them as a social group for asylum purposes do not apply when the membership is imputed only (i.e., based on an erroneous belief the persecutors that the applicant is a gang member).
The full text of Vasquez-Rodriguez v. Garland can be found here:
https://cdn.ca9.uscourts.gov/datastore/opinions/2021/08/05/19-71445.pdf
The Ninth Circuit has determined that a Hawaii conviction for fourth degree theft is not a crime involving moral turpitude because it does not require the defendant to intend to permanently deprive or substantially erode the owner’s property interests. The court further determined that the statute is indivisible.
The full text of Maie v. Garland can be found here:
https://cdn.ca9.uscourts.gov/datastore/opinions/2021/08/02/19-73099.pdf
The Ninth Circuit has rejected the derivative citizenship claim of a lawful permanent resident whose father naturalized before his 18th birthday. In doing so, the court noted that even assuming the petitioner’s parents entered into a de facto union in Peru (roughly the equivalent of a common law marriage), there was no proof of a legal separation between his parents. “Nothing about the Peruvian court’s determination that Hernandez had abandoned the family and lost her parental rights says anything about the type of relationship that existed between her and Walter, much less that it had been formally terminated.”
The full text of Giha v. Garland can be found here:
https://cdn.ca9.uscourts.gov/datastore/opinions/2021/09/02/15-73085.pdf
The Eighth Circuit has determined that the agency need not consider an applicant’s mental health in its particularly serious crime analysis when invoking the presumption in Matter of Y-L- that drug trafficking crimes are particularly serious crimes, unless the applicant first overcomes that presumption.
The full text of Gilbertson v. Garland can be found here:
The Eighth Circuit has determined that proposed group of “Mexican mothers who refuse to work for the cartel” is not sufficiently particularized or socially distinct.
The full text of Rosales-Reyes v. Garland can be found here:
