Honduran woman and her two children obtain asylum based on religious persecution

Client(s) Client M.S., et al.

After a trial win and success in two appeals by the government to the Board of Immigration Appeals, Jones Day obtained asylum relief for a Honduran woman and her children.

Our clients fled Honduras to escape physical violence from their husband and father, who assaulted them after the mother refused to undergo an abortion based on her religious and political beliefs against abortion. In 2020, Jones Day submitted applications for asylum, withholding of removal, and CAT protection for the family and represented them before an Immigration Judge in Laredo, Texas. On March 26, 2020, the Immigration Judge granted each of their separate applications for withholding of removal, and the family was able to safely enter the United States. The Immigration Judge denied asylum based solely on the then applicable Third Country Transit Bar. On November 2, 2020, in light of intervening case law vacating the Transit Bar, the Board remanded the record. On November 30, 2020, the Immigration Judge granted our clients’ applications for asylum. The government appealed and on August 11, 2021, the Board dismissed DHS’s appeal and upheld our clients’ grants of asylum.