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1 1 (September 23, 2020)

handle is hein.crs/govdbxj0001 and id is 1 raw text is: ~* or 101 ' Researh Service Asylum and Related Protections for Aliens Who Fear Gang and Domestic Violence Updated September 23, 2020 Update: After this Sidebar's initial publication, the federal district court for the District of Columbia ruled that several U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) policies discussed in this Sidebar, issued after the Attorney General's decision in Matter of A-B-, were unlawful. The court enjoined USCIS from applying these policies with respect to credible fear determinations. On July 17, 2020, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit afirmed in part and reversed in part. While the opinion was wide- ranging, the end result is that USCIS remains barred from implementing certain policies that were adopted after the Matter of A-B- decision, such as those requiring applicants to show their home country's government condoned or was completely helpless in responding to private acts of persecution, and policies requiring asylum officers to apply the judicial precedent of the circuit in which a credible fear interview occurs. But USCIS's asylum eligibility policies may be injbried by the conclusion that gang and domestic violence claims generally fail to show asylum eligibility, though the court construed this conclusion as not indicative of a categorical ban to such claims. The agency must still assess the claims 'merits on an individualized basis. And USCIS may also apply the circulariv rule, which requires applicants claiming a fear ofpersecution on account of their membership in a particular social group to show that the purported social group is not defined solely by the harm the applicants would suffer. The original post from October 25, 2018, follows below. Over the past year, non-U.S. nationals (aliens) from Central America (primarily Honduras, El Salvador, and Guatemala) have comprised an increasingly larger share of asylum applicants in the United S tates. And more recently, a caravan of thousands of individuals from Honduras has been traveling north across the Guatemala-Mexico border, with many reportedly seeking to escape widespread gang and domestic violence in Honduras. Previously, federal courts and immigration authorities have considered when such circumstances may raise a viable claim for asylum or other forms of relief from removal. In June 2018, Attorney General (AG) Jeff Sessions ruled in ,Matter fJA-B- that aliens who fear gang or domestic violence in their home countries generally do not qualify for asylum based on those grounds-a ruling that is binding upon immigration authorities within both the Department of Justice (DOJ) and Department of Homeland Security (DHS). The decision may foreclose some claims of relief by asylum seekers, and subject more aliens apprehended along the border to expedited removal in lieu of the more formalized removal process available to aliens whose asylum claims are deemed sufficiently credible to Congressional Research Service https://crsreports.congress.gov LSB10207 CRS LegM Sideba Prepai-ed for Mernbei-s and Comrm ttees of Coqgr ss ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

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