In the United States Court of Appeals For the Seventh Circuit ____________________ No. 18‐3471 DANIELA E. GUERRA ROCHA, et al., Petitioners, v. WILLIAM P. BARR, Attorney General of the United States, Respondent. ____________________ Petition for Review of an Order of the Board of Immigration Appeals. Nos. A208‐575‐411, A208‐575‐412 and A208‐575‐413 ____________________ ARGUED NOVEMBER 4, 2019 — DECIDED MARCH 4, 2020 ____________________ Before WOOD, Chief Judge, and BAUER and BRENNAN, Circuit Judges. WOOD, Chief Judge. Daniela Guerra Rocha has filed a petition for review of a decision of the Board of Immigration Appeals (BIA or Board). The BIA held that Guerra Rocha and her sons are subject to removal from the United States, despite the fact that she has made a prima facie showing of eligibility for nonimmigrant visa status. Because the BIA failed to render a reasoned decision that accords with its 2 No. 18-3471 precedents, we grant Guerra Rocha’s petition and remand for further proceedings. I Guerra Rocha openly entered the United States with her two sons, Jovany and Carlos, in June 2016. She presented herself at a point of entry in Arizona, asserting that she had fled from persecution at the hands of Mexico’s Los Rojos cartel. She sought asylum, and after passing a credible‐fear interview, she was paroled into the United States while she waited for an immigration hearing. During that period, the family went to stay with a friend named Lorenzo Torres, who lived in Chicago. As it turned out, Torres was a violent drunk. He began to threaten Guerra Rocha; later, the threats became abuse. During a particularly frightening incident, a drunken Torres brandished a machete at Guerra Rocha and her sons. A group of neighbors witnessed the attack and called the police, who arrested Torres. Because Guerra Rocha could no longer remain in Torres’s apartment and she did not know anyone else in Chicago, she and her sons relocated to Miami. Soon after she moved, however, the Chicago police asked her to return to assist the authorities with the case against Torres. She agreed to do so. Still knowing no one in Chicago, she stayed in a series of shelters for victims of domestic violence. Throughout that time, she cooperated with the police and ultimately testified at Torres’s criminal trial about his violent propensities and the events that led to the assault. In spite of Guerra Rocha’s testimony, the court acquitted Torres. No. 18‐3471 3 Guerra Rocha’s cooperation in the case entitled her to apply for a “U visa,” which is a nonimmigrant visa that allows a victim of a violent crime who provides assistance to law enforcement to remain in the United States for four years. 8 U.S.C. § 1101(a)(15)(U). United States Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS), a component of the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), administers the U‐visa program. The U‐visa application process moves slowly, with an average processing time of 52 months. Nothing happened with respect to Guerra Rocha’s asylum petition until, at a December 2016 hearing, an immigration judge (IJ) ...
Original document
Source: All recent Immigration Decisions In All the U.S. Courts of Appeals