The Ninth Circuit holds that abandonment recognized by a Mexican court constitutes a ‘legal separation’ for derivative citizenship under former 8 U.S.C. section 1432, granting a petition for review and finding the petitioner derived U.S. citizenship from his naturalized mother.
The Ninth Circuit held that a California conviction for assault with a firearm under Penal Code § 245(a)(2) is not a deportable aggravated felony, vacating a removal order and signaling that thousands of similarly situated non-citizens may have grounds for relief.
In a split decision, the Ninth Circuit remands an asylum case to the BIA after finding it failed to address substantial evidence that a Mexican woman’s family membership was a central reason for persecution by cartel-linked neighbors.
The Ninth Circuit applies the Supreme Court’s Urias-Orellana decision, holding that the highly deferential substantial evidence standard governs the entirety of the BIA’s asylum conclusions, including whether undisputed facts constitute persecution.
Ninth Circuit affirms the Central District of California’s refusal to dismiss an illegal reentry charge under 8 U.S.C. § 1326(d), holding that even assuming ineffective immigration counsel, the defendant’s extensive criminal record and lack of rehabilitation made it implausible that he w
The Ninth Circuit holds that DHS is not constitutionally required to translate the entirety of a Notice to Appear — including the obligation to update one’s address with the immigration court — into the alien’s native language.
The Ninth Circuit affirms the denial of a Mexican spouse’s visa application, holding that after Department of State v. Muñoz a U.S. citizen spouse can still invoke the Mandel exception based on her First Amendment right to receive information, but that the consular officer’s reason-to-be
The Ninth Circuit affirms denial of an I-130 spousal petition under the marriage fraud bar, holding that the bar applies to attempts to enter sham marriages even without follow-on benefits applications and that USCIS need not produce the ex-spouse for cross-examination.
The Ninth Circuit holds that a California rape conviction under Penal Code section 261(a)(2) is a categorical match for the federal generic definition of rape, qualifying as an aggravated felony and defeating an illegal-reentry defendant’s collateral attack on his prior removal order.