On September 5, 2014, the Ninth Circuit issued a very important decision, Torres-Valdivias v. Holder. The decision held that when seeking a discretionary benefit, an alien who committed a violent or dangerous crime will not receive that benefit except in extraordinary circumstances, such as those involving national security or foreign policy considerations, or cases in which an alien clearly demonstrates that the denial of status adjustment would result in exceptional and extremely unusual hardship. Moreover, depending on the gravity of…

There was immigration-practice-related developments in the main stream news this week. First, the President announced that any executive orders he will make about immigration law will be after the November (2014) elections.  Also, it was reported that the immigration court backlog has reached 400,000. The popular wisdom is that the President needs to issue executive orders to placate the pro-immigration forces that are part of his base. As the President cannot run for president again, why he has to keep…

A few months ago I attended a talk by a judge on the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals. She stated that about two thirds of immigration appeals before the court are resolved before the cases are briefed. Because of active efforts by the court to reduce the docket, by compelling mediation, by reviewing cases initially to see if they are properly filed, and by ruling on initial motions to dismiss, the court is working to control its docket. Recently, I…

I have written previously about how the Board of Immigration Appeals, the courts of appeal, and the Supreme Court have been struggling over how to determine whether an individual’s crime is a crime or moral turpitude or an aggravated felony. I wrote  three years ago about the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals’ en banc adventure in creating a missing element rule in trying to determine if a particular crime was a crime of moral turpitude or an aggravated felony in…