David Olson, Newsday, Dec. 26, 2024
“Julio Zambrano was nervous as he walked right into a downtown Manhattan courtroom Nov. 13 and stood earlier than the immigration choose. He eliminated the backpack that carried three items of paper ordering the Ecuadorian migrant and his two younger sons to seem in courtroom to indicate why they shouldn’t be deported. Amid Zambrano’s anxiousness was hope that by following the principles — exhibiting up in courtroom, assembly repeatedly with immigration authorities and submitting a written asylum declare — he can be allowed to remain within the nation the place he had arrived with out authorized permission simply earlier than Christmas final 12 months. “I’m making an attempt to do the correct factor to offer them no purpose to ship me again,” he informed Newsday in Spanish. …Many asylum candidates haven’t any written proof of acts that would qualify them for asylum, mentioned Stephen Yale-Loehr, a professor of immigration regulation apply at Cornell Legislation Faculty in Ithaca and co-author of the 22-volume “Immigration Law and Procedure.” “It’s extremely arduous to get the paperwork from your private home nation proving that both you could have been persecuted, or you could have a well-founded concern of persecution,” he mentioned. “How many individuals can get a be aware from their torturer saying, ‘That is why I tortured you?’”… …Regardless of Trump’s promise to deport millions, Zambrano and his sons are “safer than different individuals” and can’t be deported till after a choose hears their circumstances, Yale-Loehr mentioned. One exception that would probably result in deportation earlier than a ultimate asylum listening to is conviction of sure crimes in the USA or overseas, he mentioned. Yale-Loehr mentioned many components decide whether or not Zambrano and different migrants win their asylum circumstances. The regulation requires they present they’ve suffered persecution of their homeland, or have a well-founded concern of persecution if they’re despatched again, resulting from their race, faith, nationality, political beliefs or “membership in a specific social group.” The latter is a class that may be interpreted otherwise by every choose, and by completely different presidential administrations….”
