Withholding of removal is a special type of order issued by a USCIS immigration judge. Judges grant this to someone who demonstrates more than a 50% chance that they will be persecuted in their home country. This can be due to their race, religion, nationality, membership in a particular social group, or political opinion.
Like asylum, withholding of removal protects a person from being deported to a country where they fear persecution. However, withholding of removal is a very limited benefit in many ways.
This is how withholding of removal is inferior to asylum:
- A person granted withholding of removal has no pathway to a green card or to U.S. citizenship.
- A person granted withholding of removal is required to pay a yearly renewal fee for an employment authorization document in order to maintain the legal right to work in the United States.
- People granted withholding are eligible to receive some, but not all, of the same government benefits as asylees.
- A person granted withholding of removal cannot travel outside of the United States. If they do, they are considered to have self deported and the order of removal the immigration judge issued will go into effect. This will make it very unlikely for that person to re-enter the United States.
- The government retains the legal right to deport people granted withholding of removal to a country other than the one from which they were granted withholding of removal. Practically speaking, this type of deportation to a third country is rare. However, Immigration and Customs Enforcement frequently issues “Orders of Supervision”. These require people granted withholding to check-in regularly with immigration either in person or by phone. They also must request prior permission before leaving the state. These required check-ins can sometimes last for years or indefinitely. For people who are granted withholding of removal while being incarcerated in an immigration detention facility, Immigration and Customs Enforcement will sometimes choose to continue to detain that person even after they have won their case.
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