BIA Amicus Invitation 2016-0609 Amicus Curiae Brief of National Immigrant Women’s Advocacy Project and The Lutheran Immigration and Refugee Service submitted this amicus brief to the Board of Immigration Appeals discussing the brain development and neuroscience of how having experienced or witnessed trauma impacts the brain development of children and adolescents. The brief argues that in cases of child asylum applicants’ waivers of the one-year deadline based on extraordinary circumstances must be presumed for children under the age of 21. The brain science also supports waivers of the deadline for older youth in their 20s who can demonstrate based on the totality of the circumstances of their case and the impact of the trauma they suffered on their lives that they meet the extraordinarily circumstances test. (Crowell and Moring: September 1 2016)