Mexican Tarjetas de Visitante por Razones Humanitarias and Firm Resettlement: A Practice Advisory for Advocates Mexican Tarjetas de Visitante por Razones Humanitarias and Firm Resettlement: A Practice Advisory for Advocates Anna Joseph, U.S. attorney Margarita Juárez Aparicio, Mexican attorney Allena Martin Design Miriam González Anna Joseph The authors wish to thank the following individuals for their invaluable contributions to this advisory: Natali Alcala, Tatiana Brofft, Christina Brown, Miriam González, Molly Goss, Susan Gzesh, Helen Kerwin, Gretchen Kuhner, Alma Levy, Leah Moat, Elizabeth Orem, Maura Reinbrecht, Jordan Shelton, William Silverman, and Robert Spiro. The Institute for Women in Migration, AC (IMUMI), is a Mexican NGO that advocates for women migrants and their families within the region of Mexico, the United States, and Central America. We address issues important to migrant women through legal strategies, research, communication, and policy reform. © Institute for Women in Migration, AC Mexico City, Mexico (52 55) 5211.4153 and 5658.7384 www.imumi.org [email protected] and [email protected] Twitter: @IMUMIDF Facebook: IMUMI AC Vimeo/YouTube: IMUMI, AC June 7, 2019 1 Table of Contents I. Introduction.................................................................................................................. 3 II. The Mexican Status of Visitor for Humanitarian Reasons.......................................... 5 III. Firm Resettlement Under U.S. Law............................................................................ 10 IV. The BIA’s Caselaw Defining Firm Resettlement........................................................ 11 V. Circuit Court Caselaw Defining Firm Resettlement................................................... 15 A. Circuits With Post-A-G–G– Case Law....................................................... 16 The Fourth Circuit: Explicitly Follows the BIA Approach ........................ 16 The Fifth and Sixth Circuits: Qualified Deference to the BIA ................... 16 The Ninth Circuit: Implicitly Follows the BIA Approach.......................... 17 The Eleventh Circuit: Does Not Follow the BIA’s Approach................... 21 B. Circuits With No Post-A-G–G– Case Law on Firm Resettlement............. 21 The First Circuit: Direct Offer of Permanent Resettlement....................... 22 The Second Circuit: The Totality of the Circumstances Approach............. 22 The Third Circuit: Direct Offer of Permanent Resettlement...................... 24 The Seventh Circuit: Direct Offer of Permanent Resettlement.................. 26 The Eighth Circuit: Direct Offer of Permanent Resettlement and Other Factors................................................................................................... 27 The Tenth Circuit: Soft Direct Offer of Permanent Resettlement Approach............................................................................................... 28 VI. Exceptions to Firm Resettlement............................................................................... 29 A. The Three-Pronged “Necessary Consequence” Exception...................... 30 The BIA................................................................................................. 30 The First Circuit..................................................................................... 31 The Second Circuit................................................................................. 31 The Fourth Circuit.................................................................................. 33 The Fifth Circuit..................................................................................... 33 The Eighth Circuit.................................................................................. 33 The Ninth Circuit................................................................................... 34 B. The “Restrictive Conditions” Exception................................................... 35 The BIA................................................................................................. 37 The Second Circuit................................................................................. 37 The Fourth Circuit.................................................................................. 38 The Eighth Circuit.................................................................................. 39 The Ninth Circuit................................................................................... 40 The Tenth Circuit................................................................................... 41 The Eleventh Circuit............................................................................... 41 VII. Conclusion…….......................................................................................................... 42 Appendix A: Declaration of Margarita Leticia Juárez Aparicio, Expert on Mexican Immigration Law Declaration Submission Instructions Statement of Gretchen Kuhner Regarding Expert Declaration Expert Declaration Appendix B: Translated Excerpts of the Mexican Law of Migration, Regulations of the Law of Migration, and Guidelines for Migration Processes and Procedures Translated Excerpts Certification of the Translations by Molly Goss 2 I. Introduction In the context of the Central American exodus (e.g., the “caravans” of people fleeing Central America and traveling in groups through Mexico and to the United States) and the election of President Andrés Manuel López Obrador, the Mexican government began granting the legal status of visitor for humanitarian reasons, commonly known as a “humanitarian visa,”1 to migrants from Honduras, El Salvador, Guatemala, Nicaragua, Haiti, Brazil, Cuba, and other nations.2 Recipients of the status are issued a formal migration document, a card known as the Tarjeta de Visitante por Razones Humanitarias (“TVRH” or “card of a visitor for humanitarian reasons” in English),3 with “visitante” written across the top.4 In late September of 2018, at an employment fair in Tijuana organized in anticipation of the arrival of the first multi-thousand-person group from Central America, the federal government started distributing TVRHs to those who solicited them through an abbreviated application, screening, and 1 While commonly called “humanitarian visas,” the visitor for humanitarian reasons status that the Mexican government has been providing to members of the Central American exodus is not a visa (which allows foreign nationals to enter a country). Visa, CORNELL L. SCH. LEGAL INFO. INST., https://www.law.cornell.edu/wex/visa (last visited May 31, 2019). 2 More Than 5000 Migrants Apply for Humanitarian Visa in Mexico, TELESUR (Jan. 22, 2019) (Venez.), https://www.telesurenglish.net/news/More-Than-5000-Migrants-Apply-for-Humanitarian-Visa-in- Mexico-20190122-0009.html; Jeff Abbott and Sandra Cuffe, ‘I do not want to die’: Central American Exodus Grows, AL JAZEERA (Jan. 21, 2019) (Qatar), https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2019/01/die- central-american-exodus-grows-190121220236278.html. See generally 9 Questions (and Answers) About the Central American Migrant Caravan, WASHINGTON OFFICE ON LATIN AMERICA (Oct. 25, 2018), https://www.wola.org/analysis/9-questions-answers-central-american-migrant-caravan/; MSF Pulse: Violence and Migration from Central America – Why Are People Seeking Asylum in the US?, DOCTORS WITHOUT BORDERS (Oct. 19, 2018) (Can.), http://www.doctorswithoutborders.ca/article/msf-pulse- violence-and-migration-central-american-—-why-are-people-seeking-asylum-us; Rocio Cara Labrador and Danielle Renwick, Central America’s Violent Northern Triangle, COUNCIL ON FOREIGN RELATIONS (Jun. 26, 2018), https://www.cfr.org/backgrounder/central-americas-violent-northern- triangle; Rachel Dotson and Lisa Frydman, Neither Security nor Justice: Sexual and Gender-based Violence and Gang Violence in El Salvador, Honduras, and Guatemala, KIDS IN NEED OF DEFENSE (2017), https://supportkind.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/05/Neither-Security-nor-Justice_SGBV-Gang- Report-FINAL.pdf; Alexander Betts, Clarifying Survival Migration: A Response, EUROPEAN POLITICAL SCIENCE (Nov. 28, 2014) (Eng.), https://www.rsc.ox.ac.uk/files/files-1/alex-book-review- symposium-response.pdf/@@download; Atlas of Migration in Northern Central America, ECON. COMM’N FOR LATIN AMERICA AND THE CARIBBEAN 5, 20-23 (2018), https://repositorio.cepal.org/bitstream/handle/11362/44288/1/S1801071_en.pdf. 3 This practice advisory uses “TVRHs” to refer to both the status of visitor for humanitarian reasons and the card documenting that status. Migrants with the status may replace lost or stolen cards. RLM art. 110; see also Preguntas frecuentes para solicitar la expedición de documento migratorio por renovación, NAT’L INST. OF MIGRATION (Jan. 1, 2018) (Mex.), https://www.gob.mx/inm/documentos/preguntas- frecuentes-para-solicitar-la-expedicion-de-documento-migratorio-por-renovacion. 4 See, e.g., Cecilia Sanchez and Liliana Nieto del Rio, Thousands of Immigrants Arrive in Mexico Seeking New Humanitarian Visas, THE SYDNEY MORNING HERALD (Jan. 25, 2019), https://www.smh.com.au/world/central-america/thousands-of-immigrants-arrive-in-mexico- seeking-new-humanitarian-visas-20190125-p50tm0.html (showing picture of VHR card, called the Tarjeta de Visitante por Razones Humanitarias, or TVRH, in Mexico); Amrit Cheng, Trump’s New Policy Is Stranding Asylum Seekers In Mexico, ACLU (Mar. 21, 2019), https://www.aclu.org/issues/immigrants- rights/trumps-new-policy-stranding-asylum-seekers-mexico (same). 3