Immigration Clinic Wins Appeal

The Immigration Clinic won an appeal for an Armenian asylee who’d been detained for two and a half years after being placed in immigration custody for a theft crime. Prior to his detention, the asylee had lived in the United States for over ten years, but when he appeared before the Immigration Judge (IJ), his asylum status was terminated based on speculation of a conviction.

The man, acting on his own behalf without an attorney, asked to have his case reopened, arguing that the IJ had erroneously terminated his status and had failed to advise him of his right to a special waiver for asylees. As his deportation was imminent, he filed for relief from the district court with a request for an emergency stay. His case was transfered to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit, where it was transferred to a mediation program. The Immigration Clinic was then approached by court-appointed attorneys to assist with the remand to the Board of Immigration Appeals (BIA).

At the BIA, Erin Hernandez ’08 and Immigration Clinic Supervising Attorney Holly Cooper briefed whether the IJ had properly terminated the client’s asylum status; whether the IJ had properly used the plea colloquy to have the client admit to a removable conviction when he was not informed of the prejudicial impact of his admission; whether the client was given proper notice of the grounds of terminating his status; whether the client’s conviction met the grounds for termination of asylum status; whether the procedures used to terminate the client’s status violated the Fifth Amendment Due Process Clause; and whether the IJ breached his duty to inform the client of potential immigration remedies.

June 25, 2007, the BIA remanded the case back to the IJ for a full hearing.