Criminal Defense of Immigrants

The category of conviction that most often affects asylum applications is the “particularly serious crime.”  Although the same term is used when describing a bar to asylum and the bar to withholding of removal under the INA,[243] and Convention Against Torture, [244] the term is defined somewhat more broadly in the asylum context, more convictions will be considered PSCs to disqualify applicants in the asylum context than in the withholding context.[245]

[243] See § 24.31, infra.

[244] See § 24.7, supra.

[245] INA § 208(b)(2)(B)(i), 8 U.S.C. § 1158(b)(2)(B)(i).