Practice Alert: What J.O.P. Class Members Need to Know About the April 22, 2022 Deadline for Asserting Rights Under the Mendez Rojas Settlement Agreement

This practice alert describes how some members of another certified class – of certain asylum seekers with prior “unaccompanied alien child” determinations, certified in J.O.P. v. DHS, 338 F.R.D. 33 (D. Md. Dec. 21, 2020) – may also be Mendez Rojas class members. It also addresses why it might benefit some J.O.P. class members to assert rights under the Mendez Rojas agreement by the April 22 deadline, and offers thoughts on how to do so. Note that because the Mendez Rojas agreement provides relief for the failure to meet the one-year deadline, this practice alert is not relevant for J.O.P. class members who filed their asylum applications within one year of arriving in the United States.