Due to the tireless work of Shonnie Ball ’07, Jessica Heller ’07 and Ashwin Lewis ’07, the Safe Harbor Project received good news in two asylum cases this spring. Asylum was granted to a client from a West African nation who had been imprisoned with his family and tortured because of his political affiliation and his ethnicity, which was associated with a party in opposition to the government.  One of his children died while in prison due to the terrible conditions in which he was being held.  The client had been deeply traumatized by his experience and suffered from recurrent nightmares. Therefore, it was particularly gratifying to hear him say that, with his grant of asylum, he could now sleep in peace for the first time in months.

In the other case, Clara Altman ’07, Michael Almonte ’07 and Olga Miroshnichenko ’07 gathered a huge amount of evidence from family members, news sources and country condition reports that incontrovertibly showed that our client would be in danger if forced to return to China. The client was a very active member of a banned spiritual movement and would suffer imprisonment and torture if sent back. She was delighted to learn she was granted asylum and would be able to live and practice her religion safely in the United States. Almonte actually flew to New York from his summer job in Miami at one of the country’s leading immigration law firms just to accompany the client to the asylum office to pick up the decision.  His effort was rewarded not only by the good news, but by the special congratulations of the officer, who made a point of coming out to greet our client.

Betty Huang ’06 wins the “most determined lawyer of the year award” for locating a client, who speaks only Mandarin, who we lost touch with since his original hearing two years ago.  His case was remanded to Immigration Court so that the judge could enter an order of withholding of removal (i.e., nonrefoulement). However, if the client failed to appear in court, he faced an order of deportation. Huang, who speaks Mandarin, scoured the files and called every number she could find until she located the client, who made his court date.

Other students worked on a range of post-asylum issues involving petitions for immediate relatives, waivers of grounds of inadmissibility on adjustment applications, and petitions for adjustment based on marriage.  Several clients were able to welcome relatives to the United States after many years of separation. In addition, several long-term cases of persecution involving female genital mutilation and domestic violence were resolved favorably.

Kim Lopp-Manacherian ’99, a clinic alumna, has returned to supervise teams of students and will continue doing so this summer and fall.