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This post originally appeared in the July 20 Morning Report.
On Thursday, Immigration Judge Phillip Law decided to terminate Andrey Federovskiy’s case, allowing him to continue seeking asylum in the United States.
VOSD’s Maya Srikrishnan delved into Federovskiy’s unique case – he’d been arrested during an Immigration and Customs Enforcement operation in March.
Federovskiy, who is an evangelical Christian from majority-Muslim Kazakhstan, had come to the United States on a tourist visa and months before it expired, submitted an asylum application, seeking refuge from religious and political persecution.
Law – yes, the judge’s name is Law – questioned why the case was before him if Federovskiy had an asylum application pending.
Kazakhstan had put out an international warrant for Federovskiy’s arrest, which Federovskiy said is related to fabricated charges that are evidence of the government’s vendetta against him.
The government of Kazakhstan has been known to use misuse international arrest warrants.
The Department of Homeland Security attorney opposed terminating Federovskiy’s case.
“All the defense is asking is to terminate so the respondent can have his asylum application adjudicated,” Law said, before announcing he would terminate the case.