Lutin Law Group

11/05/2022

11/05/2022

07/17/2021

This week the Justice Department finally granted asylum to our client Ms. A.B., the woman at the center of the Trump administration’s attack on refugee survivors. This puts an end to Ms. A.B.'s painful, years-long legal battle.

“I want everyone to know that I feel so blessed to finally know that I will be safe, and that one day I will be reunited with my children and meet my grandchildren who are still in danger,” Ms. A.B. says. “I am praying for the other women who will be helped by my case and for the women who were never able to escape and lost their lives as a result.”

“In the face of profound injustice, Ms. A.B. has continued to fight for her right to protection, and to speak out for other survivors seeking safety," our Legal Director Blaine Bookey says. "We celebrate this long overdue resolution in her case, which will allow us to finally bring her family to safety, too.”

Click the link below to learn more about what this means for refugee survivors, and what’s next.
https://cgrs.uchastings.edu/news/justice-department-grants-asylum-salvadoran-woman-center-illegal-trump-policy

08/12/2020

🎉 Victory! We are very happy to share that this week the Ninth Circuit overturned three lower court decisions denying asylum to women seeking refuge from domestic violence in the United States.

In all three cases, the Board of Immigration Appeals had relied on former Attorney General Jeff Sessions' Matter of A-B- ruling to summarily deny the women asylum without conducting an independent evaluation of their claims.

The Ninth Circuit's decisions affirm that Matter of A-B- does not impose a categorical ban on asylum for domestic violence survivors and send the cases back to the Board for fair consideration.

CGRS provided amicus ("friend of the court") support in the women's cases, with our Legal Director Blaine Bookey presenting oral arguments in support of one of the applicants, Maria Fuentes Reyes, back in March.

“The Ninth Circuit’s decisions place these courageous women one step closer to the safety they deserve,” Blaine said today. “We are gratified that the court adopted our arguments, affirming unequivocally that the Trump administration cannot use Matter of A-B- as justification to single survivors out for discriminatory treatment."

Read our full statement. ⬇️

https://cgrs.uchastings.edu/news/cgrs-applauds-ninth-circuit-decisions-upholding-asylum-survivors-domestic-violence

08/05/2020

Today, the Second Circuit upheld a prior injunction on the DHS public charge rule that the Supreme Court had stayed, but limited its applicability to New York, Connecticut, and Vermont. This injunction does not impact the nationwide injunction of the public charge rules related to COVID-19 issued on July 29, 2020, by the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York. As of now, the nationwide injunction remains the law of the land and USCIS will apply the 1999 public charge guidance that was in place before the public charge rule was implemented on February 24, 2020, to the adjudication of any application for adjustment of status on or after July 29, 2020.

07/28/2020

DHS Acting Secretary Chad Wolf issued a memo today stating that, pending his full reconsideration of the DACA policy, instructs DHS to reject all pending and future initial requests for DACA, reject all pending and future applications for advance parole absent exceptional circumstances, and limit the period of DACA renewals to one year.

07/28/2020

The Hill reports that late Friday, during a telephonic federal court hearing in Maryland, the Trump administration announced that all new applications for DACA will be marked as "pending" as officials mull another attempt to scrap the program. Immigration advocates, including AILA, have said that the government must resume accepting new DACA applications in light of the Supreme Court's ruling blocking the administration's rescission of the program.

The Trump administration announced late Friday that all new applications for the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program will be marked as “pending” as officials mull another attempt to scrap the program.

07/18/2020

Victory! Today a federal appeals court rejected the Trump administration's attempt to turn domestic violence survivors seeking refuge away at the border - upholding the lower court's block on this cruel policy in CGRS's lawsuit with the ACLU.

"This ruling recognizes that women and others fleeing domestic violence and gang brutality cannot be cast aside as undeserving and must have their claims considered fairly," CGRS Co-Legal Director Blaine Bookey said today.

https://cgrs.uchastings.edu/news/federal-appeals-court-strikes-down-trump-policies-restricting-asylum-immigrants-fleeing

06/18/2020

The Supreme Court ruled against President Donald Trump on Thursday in a set of cases over his effort to end the Obama-era immigration program known as Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals, or DACA.

05/22/2020

Extension of Trump administration order barring entry of unauthorized migrants at the border will remain in place indefinitely