Under the Trump administration, the attorneys general used their authority to issue appellate decisions to rewrite asylum law and make it more difficult substantively and procedurally for asylum seekers to prevail. Three of these decisions seem designed to force adjudicators to deny asylum for some of the most common reasons asylum seekers flee their countries. Matter of A-B- severely limits asylum based on domestic violence. Matter of L-E-A- makes it more difficult to prove asylum eligibility based on feared harm because of family group membership. And Matter of A-C-A-A- limits asylum eligibility for those who have been harmed by private actors while increasing the burden on asylum seekers to brief every issue on appeal, even those that were not raised before the immigration judge.

CLINIC represents Mr. L-E-A- directly, the Center for Gender and Refugee Studies represents Ms. A-B-, and Pangea Legal Services represents Ms. A-C-A-A-. As counsel, we are calling on Attorney General Garland to vacate these decisions as the Department of Homeland Security and the Department of Justice respond to President Biden's Feb. 2, 2021 Executive Order, which requires the agencies to review asylum decisions that affect those fleeing domestic violence and gang violence and to promulgate regulations regarding "particular social group" as a protected characteristic.

Our three organizations have written to Attorney General Garland, calling on him to vacate these three decisions, and return asylum law to the status quo before their issuance, while the agencies comply with the executive order calling for new regulations. Without such a move by Attorney General Garland, countless asylum seekers will continue to be ordered removed based on the radical changes to asylum law brought about by the prior administration.