Sathanthrasa v. A.G. — immigration — reversal — Krause

No litigant in recent memory has gotten clobbered in the Third Circuit the way the DOJ’s Office of Immigration Litigation has over the past couple of years. It’s frankly astonishing. I mentioned it back in February, when they’d lost seven precedential appeals in a row, and since then they’ve lost at least five more. Today, another.

The Third Circuit granted another petition for review and vacated another Board of Immigration Appeals ruling that had denied relief. This time, the court held that the immigration judge failed to follow the controlling regulations that required it to consider specific factors when it reconsidered a Sri Lankan immigrant’s asylum request after granting him withholding of removal. Adopting from other circuits, the opinion sets out a list of factors immigration courts are required to consider in assessing asylum applications, as well as additional points they must consider reconsidering such applications.

Joining Krause were Jordan and Greenaway, Jr. Arguing counsel were Visuvanathan Rudrakumaran of New York for the immigrant and Todd Cochran of the DOJ OIL for the government.