Mullin v. Al Otro Lado · ¶161
“[T]o bring United States refugee law into conformance with” the 1967 Protocol, Congress passed the Refugee Act of 1980. INS v. Cardoza-Fonseca, 480 U. S. 421, 436 (1987). To comply with the nonrefoulement obligation, the Act prohibited the “deport[ation] or return [of] any alien . . . to a country” if that person would be persecuted on account of protected characteristics, a mandatory form of relief called withholding of removal. Id., at 429–430, n. 9 (citing 8 U. S. C. §1253(h)(1)). It also standardized the asylum-eligibility criteria by enacting §1158(a)(1), which at the time permitted noncitizens to apply for asylum if they were “physically present in the United States or at a land border or port of entry, irrespective of [their] status.” Refugee Act of 1980, §201(b), 94 Stat. 105. Although these two forms of relief are distinct, they were (and still are) accessible through the same…Read in context ›
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