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Asylum cases are considered affirmative when the applicant applies through USCIS. They are not in immigration court proceedings because they came into the country on a valid visa or have not yet had any contact with immigration officials that would place them in immigration court proceedings. Affirmative asylum cases are decided by asylum officers, not judges.

Defensive Asylum

Asylum cases are considered defensive when an immigration court judge decides the outcome of the case. Cases can end up in court if they were referred from the asylum office or the person was already in immigration court proceedings because they came to the United States without a valid visa.

VAWA (Violence Against Women Act)

Initially passed in 1994 and recently reauthorized. It established a federal Office on Violence Against Women to track gender-based crimes and provide funding for education and prevention.

U-VISA

A commonly used term for U Nonimmigrant Status which is a special form of status created by the Victims of Trafficking and Violence Protection Act. It was passed in 2000 and allows survivors of certain violent crimes who have assisted law enforcement to obtain legal status for four years.

Terms

Adjustment of Status (AOS)

Process for changing one immigration status, or undocumented status, to the status of a lawful permanent resident. Allows foreign nationals already in the United States who are eligible to receive an immigrant visa and for whom an immigrant visa number is immediately available, to apply for immigrant status with the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS). Almost any asylee, VAWA client, and all SIJ clients are eligible to adjust.

Affirmative Asylum

This is when an alien applies for asylum before he/she is in removal proceedings. These clients are not on immigration’s “radar” at the time of application. If denied, these cases are almost always “referred” to the immigration courts. This begins the defensive stage. Asylum is a legal status that an asylum officer or immigration judge can grant in his discretion if he finds that the person has suffered past persecution and/or maintains a well-founded fear of future persecution on account of his or her race, religion, nationality, membership in a particular social group, or political opinion.

Art Auction

Art, produced by local artists pairing up with HRI’s former clients, is auctioned at HRI’s signature fundraising event, Rock Your HeART Out.

Board of Immigration Appeals (BIA)

The first body of appeals for most immigration court decisions. HRI appeals denied defensive asylum cases to this body. The BIA is part of the Executive Office for Immigration Review-a separate federal agency that is a component of the Department of Justice.

Cancellation of Removal

Available to certain individuals who have been present (illegally) in the United States for over ten years. If the person can prove ten years’ continuous physical presence, good moral character and exceptional and extremely unusual hardship to applicant’s spouse, parent or child upon their removal from the United States, the person may qualify for permanent residence. Extreme hardship is a difficult standard. This tool in HRI’s arsenal is rarely used.

Defensive Asylum

A defensive application for asylum occurs when a person requests asylum as a defense against removal from the U.S. For asylum processing to be defensive, the person must be in removal proceedings in immigration court with the Executive Office for Immigration Review (EOIR).HRI inherits many cases at this phase (when either the person has applied on his/her own affirmatively or when a person has been caught at the border, given a credible fear interview, and released on bond). Hearings take place in Dallas immigration courts and are adversarial with attorneys for both the client and the government.

Deferred Action

A semi-legal status issued to certain HRI clients. In effect, the government acknowledges that a person is in the United States illegally but “defers action” on the case, i.e. does not plan to attempt to remove the person at this time. Typically renewable annually and results in the ability to apply for and receive work authorization.

Employment Authorization Document (EAD)

Popularly known as a ‘work permit.” Issued by the United States Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) and authorizes its holder to legally work in the United States. Asylees, their family members, U and T Visa recipients and persons granted under VAWA all can typically apply for and receive an EAD. This may also be the person’s only U.S. issued identification document.

The Executive Office for Immigration Review (EOIR)

Is the entity that governs immigration courts, and the Board of Immigration Appeals (BIA). It is housed in the Executive branch, not the judicial branch. Immigration courts are not Article III federal courts.

J-1 Waiver

HRI must file this waiver in order to obtain permanent residence for asylees who are former recipients of “J” visas (a special type of student visa). The J visa has a requirement that the recipient return to his/her home country to work for a certain number of years prior to being eligible to obtain any further status in the United States. In the case of an asylee, returning home is obviously impossible and a waiver is necessary.

Managing Conservator

The Texas family court term for an adult who can make the legal decisions for a child. The first phase in a Special Immigrant Juvenile (SIJ) case is to have an adult declared as the child’s managing conservator in Texas family courts.

Nunc Pro Tunc Asylum Application

Literally, “now for then.” In other words, it involves retroactively making known now what was assumed at the time of an asylum application. Rarely necessary these days, but refers to a special type of asylum application in which a person who was granted asylum as a derivative on someone else’s application files to have themselves “re-granted” asylum as the principal applicant. This process is routine but time consuming.

Out of Status

A person has overstayed whatever permission he or she may have once had to be in the United States. In other words, the person is outside of the status he or she had. For example, if a person enters on a visitor’s visa and is granted a six month stay, when that person enters the 7th month, he/she becomes out of status. At this point the U.S. government will place the person in removal proceedings if the government becomes aware that the person is still in the country.

Prosecutorial Discretion

When a trial attorney elects not to pursue removal for a client (typically asylum) for discretionary reasons. This results in deferred action for the client. This is a rare form of relief to obtain.

Removal of Conditions (I-751)

When a spouse is granted permanent residence as the result of marriage, he or she is first given “conditional permanent residence” for a period of 2 years, at the end of which the married couple has to file to “remove conditions,” thereby converting the conditional permanent resident into a full permanent resident whose rights cannot be revoked except under extraordinary circumstances. When HRI handles a removal of conditions case, it is to convert the conditional permanent residence of victims of domestic violence into full permanent residence without the assistance of the abusive spouse.

Rock Your HeART Out (RYHO)

HRI’s signature fundraising event that brings artists, musicians and our clients for a night of Art and Music.

Special Immigrant Juvenile Status (SIJS)

Available to children who are victims of abuse, abandonment, or neglect by BOTH parents. The death of a parent also qualifies. In order to proceed, a managing conservator must be located. If the juvenile applies for this status and is successful, she may remain in the United States, work legally, qualify for in-state tuition at college, and in five years apply for U.S. citizenship.

Storytellers

Artists, who pair up with HRI’s former clients to tell the clients’ story through a unique piece of art produced for RYHO, are called Storytellers.

Supervised Removal (SR)

Occurs when a child voluntarily accepts an order of removal (deportation). However, per local immigration policies, the government does not attempt to actually remove children under 18 to their country of origin. In this way these children are able to remain here with their parents until their 18th birthday, though they never receive any legal status. The child is required to occasionally report to the immigration service (hence, supervision).

Trial Attorney

The government attorney in asylum cases–equivalent to a “prosecutor” in immigration courts. Trial attorneys work for Immigrations and Customs Enforcement (ICE), a subagency of the Department of Homeland Security (Immigration Judges work for the Department of Justice).

U-visa

Visa for victims of violent crime who have assisted in the investigation or prosecution of those cases. USCIS can only grant U-visa status to 10,000 non citizens in each fiscal year. Persons granted U-visa status can remain in the United States for a period of up to 4 years, with possible extensions in certain cases. After three years, U-visa holders may apply for lawful permanent residence. The U-visa holders automatically qualify for employment authorization.

Violence Against Women Act (VAWA)

VAWA is a larger congressional act aimed at remedying domestic violence. The part that concerns HRI has to do with obtaining work authorization, and possibly permanent residence, for spouses or children who have been the victims of domestic violence at the hands of a U.S. Citizen or Permanent Resident spouse or child without the assistance of their abusive spouses. To file under VAWA, the victim must prove that she married in good faith either a U.S. citizen or LPR (someone with a green card) and that she was abused and subject to battery or extreme cruelty during her marriage. The process for VAWA allows the victims to file without their spouse’s knowledge. VAWA approval goes far in helping the victims and their children in starting a new life. When VAWA protection is granted, the victims get employment authorization, qualify for certain government benefits, and may qualify to file for LPR status.

Voluntary Removal (VR)

When a client agrees to return to her/his country of origin, usually within 90 days, in return for having his/her immigration record “wiped clean” by the U.S. government, thereby allowing for future legal entry to the United States if possible.

Volunteer of the Month or Volunteer Spotlight (VOM)

HRI celebrates a volunteer every month, by way of our newsletter and social media, spotlighting their service to our organization.

Withholding of Removal

“Asylum-light.” All asylum applicants automatically apply for withholding. The standards are slightly different than for asylum (e.g. no one-year filing deadline), but the feared persecution must be even more likely to happen (i.e. more likely than not). Withholding provides fewer rights than asylum: e.g. no ability to adjust status, and no ability to bring over spouses and children. Clients may also obtain Withholding of Removal under the Convention Against Torture (“CAT”) if they can show that it is more likely than not that their home country’s government would torture them if they were returned there. These clients do not have to show persecution based on a protected ground, just a likelihood of torture.

U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS)

The entity that adjudicates immigration applications like visas, work permits, permanent resident (green card) applications, citizenship applications and affirmative asylum applications. Separate from immigration courts. USCIS officers are not judges and do not have to be lawyers.

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