Katharine Van Dusen and Eleanor Hicks Succeed in Asylum Case

Coblentz associates Katharine Van Dusen and Eleanor Hicks successfully received a favorable outcome for a husband and wife seeking asylum based on the threat of persecution in Guatemala due to the husband’s Mayan ethnicity. The case was taken over after the Board of Immigration Appeals determined they were not eligible for asylum because of a procedural bar. Van Dusen convinced the government to grant a favorable exercise of discretion and close the removal proceedings, allowing the couple to remain in the U.S. with their two young U.S. citizen children.