This class action lawsuit challenges the INS’ failure to adjudicate adjustment applications for asylees.

• Click here to see an update on Ngwanyia v. Gonzales, including follow up enforcement of settlement agreement.



• Click here to see the July 1, 2005 update on status of the settlement and implementation.
  
  
• The REAL ID Act eliminates the asylee adjustment cap. This is good for asylees. The change in law does not affect the Ngwanyia settlement. The Settlement Agreement is still valid and requires the government to adjust the status of a minimum of 61,000 asylees in this and the next two fiscal years. For more information, click here.
  
  
• Settlement of Asylee Adjustment Lawsuit! View the announcement. Read the final class notice and the settlement agreement.
  
  
• Settlement Agreement Signed! Details available by clicking here. --2/9/05
  
  
• For the past several months, the parties have been engaged in settlement negotiations in an attempt to resolve the case without the need for a decision from the 8th Circuit Court of Appeals. Should the parties reach a settlement, they will jointly ask the 8th Circuit Court of Appeals to return the case to Judge Kyle so that he can review and approve the settlement agreement. Judge Kyle is the District Court Judge who made the original decision in the case. We will update this website as soon as there is any news on the settlement negotiations. --1/19/05
  
  
• The parties are currently engaged in negotiations in an attempt to resolve the case without the need for a decision from the 8th Circuit Court of Appeals. Based upon these negotiations, the parties asked the Eighth Circuit to extend the filing deadline for the government's initial brief in its appeal to December 29, 2004. The Court granted this extension, and ordered that the parties either file documents related to a settlement agreement on December 29, 2004, or that the government file its appeal brief on that date.
  
  
• On April 9, 2004, the government appealed the favorable district court decision in Ngwania v. Ashcroft to the Eighth Circuit Court of Appeals. The case challenges the agency’s mishandling of the asylee adjustment program. This fact sheet will answer questions about the government’s appeal of the case and will discuss the next steps in the case. Click here to see the fact sheet.



• The federal district court in Minnesota ruled in favor of AILF's litigation on February 12, 2004! View our summary and read the full text of the decision.
  
  
• AILF reports that BCIS is processing more asylee adjustment cases in response to the class action Ngwania v. Ashcroft. Additionally, in a summary judgment motion sent out last week, the plaintiffs ask the court to order BCIS to use an additional 22,000 asylee adjustment numbers that were set aside in past years but never used. Click here to see the update.



• In response to the class action lawsuit Ngwanyia v.Ashcroft, No.02-CV-502(D.Minn.), the BCIS has begun approving a large number of asylee adjustment applications than in prior years. From an all-time low of 2,532 asylee adjustments in 1999, the agency adjusted 9,173 asylees in FY 2002.  Click here to see the August update.



• The District Court for the District of Minnesota granted the Plaintiffs' Motion for Class Certification and certified a national class and four subclasses of asylees awaiting adjustment.  Click here to see the Court order granting class certification.



• The District Court for the District of Minnesota denied the Defendants' Motion to Transfer Venue from Minnesota to the District of Columbia.  Ngwania v. Ashcroft will proceed in the U.S. District Court for the District of Minnesota. To see a copy of AILF's response to the Defendant's motion, click here.



• AILF filed an amended complaint in Ngwanyia v. Ashcroft adding 17 new plaintiffs to the class action litigation.



• AILF filed a motion for class certification in Ngwania v. Ashcroft.



• AILF filed a national class action lawsuit in federal court challenging the Immigration and Naturalization Service's misadministration of a law that provides persons granted asylum the right to live and work in the United States permanently.  View our press release.

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