Jones Day wins asylum for Guatemalan woman and her three young children
Client(s) Client M
On January 25, 2018 a Jones Day team secured a final, non-appealable order granting asylum for client M and her three young children.
Client M's case was two and half years in the making. Jones Day lawyers first met with her in the fall of 2015 to learn about her escape from Guatemala, where she suffered sexual, physical, and verbal abuse at the hands of her common law husband. The team got right to work preparing her asylum application and supporting materials, which included declarations from witnesses in Guatemala, a comprehensive brief, and hundreds of pages of country conditions exhibits.
Before filing the client's application, however, Jones Day filed a motion to terminate her removal proceedings altogether, making a nuanced argument based on the requirements of the Immigration and Nationality Act and the Department of Homeland Security’s treatment of the client. The immigration court granted the motion and terminated the proceedings. But the Board of Immigration Appeals reversed, and the client's case was reinstated.
After filing client M's asylum application, Jones Day presented her testimony at a hearing on the merits, defended her during a difficult cross-examination by the government, and argued on her behalf. When the court made its order at another hearing six weeks later, client M cried tears of joy, and her lawyers delighted in the satisfaction of seeing hard work pay off for a very deserving client.
