Our Role in the Case

Legal Momentum, together with the National Immigration Project of the National Lawyer's Guild and the National Network to End Violence Against Immigrant Women, submitted an amicus curiae brief in this appeal of a Board of Immigration Appeals ruling.

Summary of Brief

We argued that rape and attempted rape by a husband is battery and extreme cruelty, which qualify the abused immigrant spouse for relief under the immigration protection provisions of the Violence Against Women Act. We have been very successful in getting the BCIS (INS) adjudicators in the Vermont Service Center to broadly interpret the range of behavior that may constitute extreme cruelty in domestic violence cases in which there has been no physical abuse.

Case Outcome

The Tenth Circuit ruled that it did not have jurisdiction to review this aspect of the Board's ruling, and denied the plaintiff relief.