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Mark Stevens

Member

Mark Stevens focuses on litigating immigration matters against federal government agencies.

While the law provides a variety of immigration benefits and legal protections to immigrants, their employers, and their families, those benefits are often delayed, denied, or withheld in practice. Mark believes litigation is the best tool for challenging government overreach and delay.

Mark regularly sues immigration agencies regarding delayed or denied applications for permanent residence, naturalization, visas, asylum, EB-5 investor visas, employment authorization, and other benefits. He has secured court-ordered relief or favorable settlements in hundreds of delay lawsuits.

Mark also uses litigation to challenge the legality of immigration detention. He won the leading trial-level decision on constitutional protections against prolonged immigration detention, a decision that has often been relied on by other courts. Portillo v. Hott, 322 F. Supp. 3d 698 (E.D. Va. 2018). Mark served as class counsel in a class action lawsuit that resulted in bond hearings and release from detention for hundreds of immigrants, though the decision was later reversed by a divided Supreme Court. Diaz v. Hott, 297 F. Supp. 3d 618 (E.D. Va. 2018), rev’d sub nom. Johnson v. Guzman Chavez, 141 S. Ct. 2271 (2021).

Mark’s litigation practice is grounded in deep experience with the agencies he sues. He has represented clients before the full range of immigration agencies, including DOL, USCIS, ICE, CBP, DOS, ORR, and the immigration courts. He has helped companies hire foreign workers, assisted individuals and families with permanent residence, visas, asylum, naturalization, and other benefits, and defended immigrants against deportation. He has managed high volume practices in areas including labor certification, consular processing, waivers of inadmissibility, and special immigrant juvenile status. Mark has won appeals at high rates before the BIA, AAO, and federal circuit courts. Mark draws on his knowledge of agency practice to craft aggressive and creative litigation strategies when those agencies aren’t following the law.

*Admitted only in Virginia; practice limited to matters before federal agencies and courts

Education

J.D., cum laude, George Mason University School of Law, Arlington, Virginia, 2013, Homeland and National Security Law Concentration
B.A., Boston University, Boston, Massachusetts, 2005, Philosophy and English

Recognitions

2017 – 2021: Super Lawyers – Rising Star, Immigration

State Bar Licenses

Virginia

Court Admissions

U.S. Court of Appeals, 3rd Circuit
U.S. Court of Appeals, 4th Circuit
U.S. Court of Appeals, 9th Circuit
U.S. District Ct., E.D. of Virginia
U.S. District Ct., District of Columbia
U.S. District Ct., W.D. of Virginia
U.S. District Ct., C.D. of Illinois
U.S. District Ct., N.D. of Illinois
U.S. District Court for the District of Maryland

Organizations

  • Board member of AILA Law Journal, 2025 – present
  • AILA Benefits Litigation Committee, Member, 2024 – present
  • AILA New England, Member of Litigation Committee, 2022 – 2024
  • AILA-DC, Member/Chair of Litigation Committee, 2018-present
  • AILA-DC, Chair of Unauthorized Practice of Immigration Law Committee, 2016 – 2018
  • AILA-DC, Member of Conference Committee, 2016 – 2018
  • Volunteer at CARA Family Detention Pro Bono Project in Dilley, Texas, Oct. 2016
  • Advisor, Immigration Law Society at George Mason University, 2013 – present
  • Youth Group Leader, Fairfax Presbyterian Church, 2016-2020

Publications

Speaking Engagements

  • AILA-DC 2025, “Habeas Corpus Roundtable”
  • AILA Latin America Chapter Conference 2025, “Surviving the Storm Outside: Let’s Litigate”
  • AILA-DC Fall Conference 2025, “Habeas Corpus Nuts and Bolts”
  • BARBRI 2025, “Legal Strategies to Challenge Detention and Expedited Removal”
  • British-American Business Council 2025, “Navigating U.S. Immigration and Global Mobility: What You Need to Know Now”
  • AILA Annual Conference 2025 – “Fighting for Clients in the New Trump Era: Jurisdictional Considerations for Federal Court”
  • AILA Annual Conference 2025 – “Habeas Corpus Refresher”
  • Litigation Convening of the American Immigration Council, June 2025 – “Immigration Benefit Delays”
  • AILA Federal Court Litigation Conference and Webcast 2025 – “Using the Administrative Procedure Act to Stop Abrupt Policy and Regulatory Shifts”
  • American Immigration Council Webinar 2024 – “Litigation for Business Immigration Practitioners”
  • National Immigration Project of the National Lawyers Guild 2024 – Federal court litigation moot court judge
  • American Immigration Council Discussion Leader 2024 – “EB-5 Litigation”
  • AILA-NE Webinar 2023 – “Employment-Based Federal Litigation”
  • AILA-DC Conference 2023 – “Asylum in the Fourth Circuit”
  • AILA Seminar 2023 – “Fourth Circuit Law on Asylum, Withholding of Removal, and CAT”
  • AILA-DC Webinar 2023 – “Federal Litigation Basics”
  • AILA-NE Brown Bag 2023 – “Updates on Recent Cases from the Federal Courts”
  • AILA-DC Webinar 2022 – “Employment Authorization Document Litigation Roundtable”
  • First Circuit Immigration Litigators Group 2022 – “Fourth Circuit Immigration Law”
  • AILA-DC Conference 2022 – “Solving Stuck Cases with Mandamus”
  • AILA-DC Panel 2021 – “Virginia Legislative Changes: U Visas, SIJS, Marijuana, and More”
  • AILA Annual Conference 2020 – Federal Court Litigation for Family-Based Practitioners
  • AILA Annual Conference 2019 – Prolonged Detention
  • AILA-DC Conference 2018 – Habeas Corpus Overview
  • AILA-DC Webinar on Volunteering at Dilley, Texas, July 2017
  • Frequent speaker & guest lecturer, George Mason University School of Law, 2015 – present

Media Appearances

Representative Experience

U.S. Courts of Appeals

  • Rodriguez de Estrada v. Barr, No. 18-71326, 2019 WL 1779438 (9th Cir. 23, 2019) – holding that Board of Immigration Appeals erred in denying asylum and Convention Against Torture relief to Salvadoran woman who feared persecution by gangs on account of family membership.
  • Ul Zaman v. Sessions, No 17-2142 (4th Cir. July 11, 2018) – vacating removal order because client’s abduction conviction no longer qualified as an aggravated felony.

U.S. District Courts

  • Horne v. Edlow, No. CV-26-1917, 2026 WL 1197775 (D. Ariz. Apr. 30, 2026) – Won first injunction against USCIS policy suspending the Diversity Visa program.
  • Sangster v. Rubio, No. 3:25-CV-447, 2026 WL 222316 (D. Nev. Jan. 28, 2026) – Won first in the nation injunction against Department of State’s unprecedented ban on all immigration from 75 countries.
  • Alduaij v. Noem, No. 2:25-CV-538, 2025 WL 1180743 (W.D. Pa. Apr. 23, 2025) (temporary restraining order issued against termination of student visa status)
  • Portillo v. Hott, 322 F. Supp. 3d 698 (E.D. Va. 2018) – holding INA § 236(c) unconstitutional as applied and ordering a bond hearing for noncitizen in prolonged mandatory detention.
  • Diaz v. Hott, 297 F. Supp. 3d 618 (E.D. Va. 2018), rev’d sub nom. Johnson v. Guzman Chavez, 594 U.S. 523 (2021)
  • Guevara v. Zanotti, 399 F. Supp. 3d 494 (E.D. Va. Aug. 5, 2019) – holding that the immigration court retains jurisdiction over an application for lawful permanent residence filed by noncitizen who was placed into removal proceedings and later traveled on advance parole.

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