DENVER, CO – The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Tenth Circuit has ordered the reinstatement of asylum for Modesta Ramos Ramos and her two minor children after determining that the Board of Immigration Appeals (BIA) misapplied the legal standard in overturning an immigration judge’s decision.
Ramos, a native of Honduras, was first granted asylum by an immigration judge in 2014 after credible testimony that she and her children were threatened by a gang member following the murder of her partner. The judge found that Ramos faced persecution due to her membership in the nuclear family of Arturo Robles, the children’s father. However, the Department of Homeland Security appealed, and the BIA remanded the case. A second immigration judge again granted asylum in 2019, but the government appealed once more.
In 2023, the BIA reversed the decision, ruling that the immigration judge had committed clear error. Ramos filed two petitions for review, and the Tenth Circuit consolidated the proceedings to address the BIA’s 2023 decision. The government did not defend the BIA’s ruling on appeal and instead requested a remand for reconsideration.
In its Oct. 15, 2025 decision, the Tenth Circuit found that the BIA had misapplied the “clear error” standard by improperly reweighing evidence and disregarding factual findings made by the immigration judge. The court concluded that each of the judge’s determinations—regarding the motive for persecution, the impossibility of safe relocation within Honduras, and the Honduran government’s inability to offer protection—was supported by the record.
Calling the decade-long asylum proceedings “unusually prolonged,” the court held that a remand would be futile. It vacated the BIA’s decision and instructed the agency to reinstate the 2019 asylum grant, ending the removal proceedings against Ramos and her children.
