Willenken Secures Pro Bono Victory in Immigration Case

Willenken’s partner Kenneth Trujillo-Jamison secured a pro bono immigration victory before the U.S. Board of Immigration Appeals (BIA), on behalf of a Guatemalan woman seeking asylum following persecution suffered in her home country.

On September 1, 2022, a BIA panel granted our client’s appeal. The panel held that the Immigration Judge erred by denying our client’s claims for immigration relief by relying only on our client’s asylum application and a declaration, without first conducting a full evidentiary hearing at which oral testimony could be delivered. In so holding, the BIA reiterated longstanding case law that “allowing an applicant to provide testimony in support of his or her application for asylum is pivotal to a full and fair hearing.”

With this decision, the BIA vacated the Immigration Judge’s removal order and remanded for the full evidentiary hearing to which our client is entitled under the law.

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