Asylum Defense in 2026: How to Build the Trial Record and Plead PSG Claims After Urias-Orellana

Daniella Prieshoff, Managing Attorney | Tahirih Justice Center

Daniella Prieshoff is the Senior Managing Attorney at Tahirih Justice Center’s Maryland office, where she provides trauma-informed counsel and representation to immigrant survivors of gender-based violence. She represents survivors in defensive and affirmative asylum, withholding of removal, relief under the CAT, VAWA cancellation of removal, VAWA petitions, and T and U visa petitions before the immigration courts, the Board of Immigration Appeals, and U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services. She is adjunct faculty at the University of Baltimore School of Law, teaching trial advocacy, and is a native Spanish speaker.

• Education & Credentials

Daniella earned her J.D. from the University of Baltimore Law School in 2012 and her B.A. from the University of Maryland, College Park. She began her legal career in 2012 as judicial law clerk to the Honorable Glenn T. Harrell on the Maryland Supreme Court.

• Recognition & Leadership

Daniella serves on the Legal Advisory Council for the HEAL Refugee Health & Asylum Collaborative’s Forensic Evaluation Clinic.

• Professional Involvement

Daniella is adjunct faculty at the University of Baltimore School of Law, where she teaches trial advocacy.

• Experience

Before re-joining Tahirih in 2021, Daniella was a Senior Attorney at Kids in Need of Defense, where she supervised a team of attorneys and a paralegal and advocated for unaccompanied immigrant children in their asylum, Special Immigrant Juvenile Status, and T and U visa petitions. Earlier, she was a Senior Attorney at Tahirih’s Baltimore office, advocating for immigrant survivors of gender-based violence in their immigration and domestic relations matters, and a Staff Attorney at Farmworker Legal Services of Michigan, where she represented indigent immigrant farmworkers in immigration and employment cases, initiated an advocacy project to expand representation of workplace sexual assault survivors, and developed a community partners network sensitive to their needs.

Anne Peterson, Senior Counsel | Center for Gender & Refugee Studies

Anne Peterson is Senior Counsel at the Center for Gender & Refugee Studies (“CGRS”), where her work includes advocating for asylum seekers’ rights and protections through strategic litigation and amici support and by providing technical assistance and training to asylum practitioners. Anne has over sixteen years of experience representing clients before the immigration courts, the Board of Immigration Appeals, and the Federal District Courts and Courts of Appeals.

• Education & Credentials

Anne earned her J.D. from Golden Gate University School of Law and her B.A. in English/Socio-linguistics from The Evergreen State College. She is admitted to practice in California, Washington, and New York, and before numerous Federal District Courts and Courts of Appeals.

• Recognition & Leadership

Anne’s litigation advocacy has resulted in several positive precedential decisions. Most recently she was co-counsel in Alfaro-Zelaya v. Bondi, a nexus and Convention Against Torture challenge in a gender-based persecution claim, and O.C.V. v. Garland, which overturned Matter of M-R-M-S-, and was amicus counsel in Tipan Lopez v. U.S. Attorney General, which rejected the BIA’s restrictive nexus test.

• Professional Involvement

Anne advocates for asylum seekers through strategic litigation and amici support, regulatory analysis and policy advocacy, and developing practice advisories and presenting trainings for advocates. She provides technical assistance to attorneys and focuses on educating and mentoring other attorneys and collaborating to develop case strategies.

• Experience

Anne represents clients before the immigration courts, the Board of Immigration Appeals, and the Federal District Courts and Courts of Appeals, with litigation advocacy that has produced several positive precedential decisions. Before law school, she worked as a chef in San Francisco, California, and Seattle, Washington.

Anne Dutton, Senior Counsel | Center for Gender & Refugee Studies

Anne Dutton is Senior Counsel at the Center for Gender & Refugee Studies (“CGRS”), where she engages in strategic litigation on a range of asylum issues and provides technical assistance and training to other attorneys representing asylum seekers. Anne first joined CGRS as an Equal Justice Works Fellow. She is a Spanish speaker.

• Education & Credentials

Anne earned her J.D. from the University of Minnesota Law School and her M.S.W. from the University of Minnesota School of Social Work. She received her B.A. in Social Work, magna cum laude, from St. Olaf College. She is admitted to practice in California and Minnesota and clerked for the Honorable Gerard E. Lynch of the Second Circuit.

• Recognition & Leadership

At the University of Minnesota Law School, Anne served as Student Director of the Federal Immigration Litigation Clinic and Articles Submission Editor of the University of Minnesota Law Review, graduating magna cum laude.

• Professional Involvement

Anne engages in strategic litigation on a range of asylum issues and provides technical assistance and training to other attorneys representing asylum seekers. Prior to law school, she worked for Lutheran Immigration and Refugee Service’s policy advocacy office, covering issues related to unaccompanied children, immigration detention, and refugee and asylum law.

• Experience

Anne first joined CGRS as an Equal Justice Works Emerson Fellow, where her work focused on advancing children’s asylum claims in jurisdictions including Atlanta, Charlotte, and Kansas City, serving as lead counsel on model cases involving child applicants from Central America, monitoring and intervening in key appellate cases, and providing training and technical assistance to pro bono attorneys. Before assuming her Staff Attorney role, she clerked for the Honorable Gerard E. Lynch of the Second Circuit.

Morgan Weibel, Director of Client Advocacy | Tahirih Justice Center

Morgan Weibel is the Director of Client Advocacy, Legal Services at the Tahirih Justice Center, which she joined in 2010. In that role, she is responsible for the execution of Tahirih’s legal services nationwide, serving immigrant survivors of gender-based violence through offices across the country.

• Education & Credentials

Morgan was selected as a Graduate Research Fellow at the Center for Gender and Refugee Studies before joining Tahirih. Today, she leads the organizational implementation of Tahirih’s interdisciplinary representation teams and provides trauma-informed supervision to the organization’s managing attorneys and litigation counsel nationwide.

• Recognition & Leadership

At the University of Minnesota Law School, Anne served as Student Director of the Federal Immigration Litigation Clinic and Articles Submission Editor of the University of Minnesota Law Review, graduating magna cum laude.

• Professional Involvement

Working collaboratively with Tahirih’s program directors, Morgan oversees legal services program standards and facilitates best practices across the organization’s offices. During her fellowship at the Center for Gender and Refugee Studies, she assisted Professor Karen Musalo in updating sections of her course book on asylum based on membership in a particular social group.

• Experience

As a Graduate Research Fellow at the Center for Gender and Refugee Studies, Morgan drafted a protocol for the investigation of femicides. She also worked for three years as a paralegal at a San Francisco-based firm focusing on asylum and deportation defense, and during law school she interned in the Trial Chambers of the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia and the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda.

SESSION 1 – Building the Asylum Trial Record After Urias-Orellana | 1:00pm – 2:00pm

Examine how Urias-Orellana v. Bondi—holding substantial evidence governs the persecution determination—changes the trial record, how EOIR PM 25-28 and Matter of H-A-A-V- compress the window through pretermission, and how recent BIA decisions tighten corroboration and I-589 completeness.

BREAK | 2:00pm – 2:10pm

SESSION 2 – PSG and Gender-Based Claims After Matter of K-E-S-G- & S-S-F-M- | 2:10pm – 3:10pm

Examine how Matter of K-E-S-G- and Matter of S-S-F-M-, which resurrect Matter of A-B- I, reshape pleading particular social groups and domestic violence-based claims, and learn to formulate PSG definitions, argue around the revived dicta, and leverage conflicting circuit authority.