Letter Signed by 17 Groups Challenges “Social Visibility” Requirement

Heartland Alliance’s National Immigrant Justice Center and 16 immigrant rights organizations across the country have asked U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder to review a high-profile immigration agency decision that denied asylum to three young siblings fleeing gang recruitment in El Salvador.

The Asylum Documentation Program has joined the National Immigrant Justice Center. The program, previously housed at the International Gay and Lesbian Human Rights Commission, collects and disseminates evidence to support cases of refugees seeking protection from human rights violations based on their sexual orientation, gender identity, or HIV status.

This past fall, a United Nations report denounced the extraordinary number of women who are victims of domestic violence — and for whom protection from the authorities is often nonexistent. In some nations, like Bangladesh and Ethiopia, the U.N. found that as many as 6 of every 10 women interviewed had been beaten or sexually assaulted by their husbands or partners. The report called for better protection for abused women, but it didn’t address how first-world nations like the United States should treat those women who manage to escape their abusers and flee their countries. Should victims of domestic violence be eligible for asylum, a protection that has traditionally been preserved for those persecuted as a result of political turmoil?

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"Every year, people from all over the world land at O'Hare airport seeking asylum. Many come with fake documents, fleeing persecution in their home countries. Over the past year, a new group of asylum seekers has arrived here: Tibetans. When they touched down, they were sent where others who ask for asylum at airports often go: to jail, while the government figures out who they are and whether they can stay."

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The many ways that attorneys can enhance access to justice for immigrant detainees who seek asylum range from providing direct legal assistance to advocating support for the federal Citizenship Promotion Act that was introduced last month.

Mary Meg McCarthy, director of the Chicago-based National Immigrant Justice Center (NIJC), outlined the needs and potential solutions to member of the North Suburban Bar Association during a dinner March 21 in Glenview.

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Vatcharee Pronsivakulchai’s case seeking political asylum in the U.S. is an unusual one. Unlike most asylum seekers, she never intended to leave her native country – Thailand. She was brought to the U.S. by the U.S. government, extradited to face trial on drug trafficking charges which were later dismissed.

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