Federal immigration agency finalizes rules barring deportations to countries where a person faces a likely risk of torture

The Immigration and Naturalization Service issued final regulations implementing the Foreign Affairs Reform and Restructuring Act of 1998, which itself implemented the Convention Against Torture in U.S. law. The regulations established withholding of removal as the standard protection: immigration judges must order that a person not be removed to a country where they face more likely than not torture. The rules created a separate deferral of removal category for individuals who would otherwise be barred from relief due to criminal convictions.