The Mendez-Rojas asylum settlement resolved a class action against the federal government for failing to tell asylum seekers about the one-year deadline to file their applications. Under the settlement, qualifying class members were entitled to have late-filed asylum applications treated as timely. The window to assert class membership closed on April 22, 2022, and no new claims can be filed under the settlement today.
What the Settlement Did and Why It Existed
Federal law requires anyone seeking asylum to file within one year of arriving in the United States, and the applicant must prove timely filing by clear and convincing evidence. Missing the deadline normally bars asylum entirely, with only two narrow exceptions: changed circumstances that affect eligibility, or extraordinary circumstances that explain the delay.1Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 8 USC 1158 Asylum
For years, border officials released asylum seekers into the country without telling them this deadline existed. People who intended to apply simply didn’t know a clock was running. By the time many connected with a lawyer, the one-year window had already closed, and the government was using its own failure to notify people as a reason to deny their claims.
A federal court found that this practice violated the immigration statute, the Administrative Procedure Act, and the Fifth Amendment’s due process guarantee. The resulting settlement made the fix binding across the system: both USCIS and the Executive Office for Immigration Review are required to treat qualifying class members’ asylum applications as timely filed, and immigration judges and asylum officers cannot deny an application solely because of the missed one-year deadline when the applicant falls within a class definition.2U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services. Notice of Proposed Settlement and Hearing in Class Action Lawsuit Involving Individuals Who Have Filed, or Will Be Filing, an Asylum Application More Than One Year After Arriving in the United States The legal hook is the extraordinary circumstances exception already written into the asylum regulations; the court’s ruling established that the lack of notice was exactly the kind of circumstance the exception covers.3eCFR. 8 CFR Part 208 – Procedures for Asylum and Withholding of Removal
Who Was in the Class
All class members shared three basic requirements: they were encountered by the Department of Homeland Security at the border or within fourteen days of entering without authorization, they were released from custody, and they never received individualized notice of the one-year asylum filing deadline. From there, the settlement split people into two groups based on how DHS processed them after that first encounter.
Class A: Credible Fear Screened
Class A covers people who went through the formal credible fear screening process and were found to have a credible fear of persecution or torture before being released. It has two subclasses: those not placed in removal proceedings (A-I) and those placed in removal proceedings (A-II).2U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services. Notice of Proposed Settlement and Hearing in Class Action Lawsuit Involving Individuals Who Have Filed, or Will Be Filing, an Asylum Application More Than One Year After Arriving in the United States
Class B: Fear Expressed Without Formal Screening
Class B covers people who expressed a fear of returning to their home country and were released after being issued a Notice to Appear, but who did not go through the credible fear screening. Like Class A, it splits into those not in removal proceedings (B-I) and those in removal proceedings (B-II).
Date Restrictions
Not everyone who came through the border during this era qualified. For subclasses A-II and B-II, only individuals issued Notices to Appear or placed in removal proceedings on or after June 30, 2016 were eligible. On the other end, the practical cutoff was June 5, 2020, when the government began using a revised Notice to Appear that included the one-year deadline. Anyone who received the revised form already had the individualized notice the case was about, and so fell outside the class.
The April 22, 2022 Deadline
This is the fact that governs any current inquiry about the settlement. Every claim for relief under Mendez-Rojas had to be submitted on or before April 22, 2022.4Executive Office for Immigration Review. PM 21-01 Guidelines for the Implementation of the Settlement Agreement in Mendez Rojas v Wolf That single deadline applied to everything the settlement authorized: notices of class membership, asylum applications filed with USCIS, filings with the immigration court, and motions to reopen prior removal orders. The original deadline was March 31, 2022, and the parties agreed to a single extension to April 22, 2022. No further extensions were granted.
If you did not assert your class membership by that date, the settlement’s automatic protection is no longer available to you.
If You Missed the Deadline
The extraordinary circumstances exception in the asylum statute still exists independently of Mendez-Rojas. If you were never told about the one-year deadline and can document why your late filing was beyond your control, you can still raise that argument to an immigration judge or asylum officer. The difference is that you would be making an individual case rather than benefiting from a class-wide ruling that automatically excused the late filing.3eCFR. 8 CFR Part 208 – Procedures for Asylum and Withholding of Removal
The same is true for anyone with a prior removal order who did not file a motion to reopen under the settlement. Other grounds for reopening may still exist, but they fall outside the Mendez-Rojas framework and its automatic relief. Speak with an immigration attorney about which arguments apply to your situation.
Keeping a Filed Case on Track
If you did file under the settlement and your asylum case is still pending, the usual applicant obligations apply, and a procedural slip could undo the protection you preserved.
You must report any change of address to USCIS within 10 days of moving, most easily through your USCIS online account or by filing Form AR-11.5U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services. AR-11, Aliens Change of Address Card If you also have a case pending in immigration court, updating USCIS is not enough. You must separately file Form EOIR-33/IC with the immigration court within five business days of moving.6Executive Office for Immigration Review. Change of Address Form EOIR-33/IC The court will not update your contact information any other way, and if it mails a hearing notice to an old address and you miss the hearing, the judge can enter an in absentia removal order against you.7Department of Justice. 5.9 – Motions to Reopen In Absentia Orders
Any document you submit that is not in English must be accompanied by a full English translation, along with a signed certification from the translator stating that the translation is complete and accurate and that they are competent to translate between the two languages. The certification should include the translator’s name, signature, address, and the date. A professional service is not required, but the certification is.