Supreme Court Settles Circuit Split on Standard of Review for Asylum Persecution Determinations

For immigration practitioners, the message from the Supreme Court’s unanimous decision in Urias-Orellana v. Bondi is clear: winning your asylum case at the administrative level is critical. By resolving a circuit split and holding that the deferential substantial-evidence standard applies to the agency’s persecution determination in its entirety—not just to underlying factual findings—the Court clarified that appellate courts have limited grounds for reexamining asylum determinations on appeal.

Read the full blog post.