Alicia Triche and Sheryl Hurst at a volunteer Community Legal Center event in 2012
On October 31, the Clerk for the Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals issued an extraordinary order. The Court directed a temporary, “administrative” prohibition of removal while the underlying Motion for Stay is adjudicated.
Ms. M, the Petitioner, is a 55 year old Mexican grandmother with no criminal history and no record of illegal entry to this country. After she became a widow, she and her minor daughters experienced repeated threats of physical and sexual violence, until they finally fled Mexico in 2015. Ms. M’s asylum application was still on appeal when she was unexpectedly detained at a voluntary Memphis ICE check-in in May, 2025. At that time, her daughter’s US citizenship application already provided a viable route to her own future status, and her BIA proceedings had been administratively closed. But, after detaining her in Louisiana, the government re-calendered her appeal, dismissed her asylum claim, and ordered removal. It is this order that Ms. M has appealed to the Sixth Circuit.
Unlike other circuits, such as the Third and Ninth, the Sixth has no formal mechanism or criteria for administrative stays. In a sua sponte determination, however, the Clerk found Ms. M’s circumstances compelling enough to issue a reasoned administrative decision, in order to “preserve the status quo.” In Ms. M’s stay request, she had explained (and objectively documented) that the temporal imminence of her physical removal was honestly unknown, because her attorney’s written inquiry to the deportation officer had gone unanswered.
This victory occurred due to the extremely dedicated, constant work of Ms. M’s attorney, Sheryl Hurst (with a little behind-the-scenes drafting support from Dr. Triche). The two met when Dr. Triche was the Immigrant Justice Program attorney at the Community Legal Center. A copy of the decision, redacted for privacy, is linked below. _6th Circuit Stay Order_Redacted