Winston Secures Victory for Detained Asylee in Board of Immigration Appeals Decision

Winston Partner George Lombardi and Associate Dana Cook-Milligan secured asylum and release from detention for a Congolese immigrant who has been detained for over one year. The Winston team filed a brief urging the Board of Immigration Appeals (BIA) to uphold an immigration judge’s decision granting our client asylum from the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) and Angola. The Department of Homeland Security had appealed from the immigration judge’s decision, arguing that our client was firmly resettled in Angola and thus barred from asylum from the DRC. The BIA dismissed the government’s appeal and upheld the immigration judge’s decision to grant our client asylum.

Our client fled the DRC to Angola after DRC authorities wrongly identified him as a member of a protest group, beat him to the point of unconsciousness, and threatened to arrest and kill him. After arriving in Angola, our client was mistreated because of his Congolese nationality and the government implemented a program to expel Congolese nationals from Angola and strip them of their citizenship. Our client fled to the United States, seeking asylum.

During immigration proceedings, our client remained in detention. But after the BIA decision, he was released from detention on August 19, 2020, and reunited with his wife two days later. This grant of asylum and release from detention brings particular relief as the number of COVID-19 cases in detention steadily climbs.

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