Category: Asylum

Ninth Circuit Court reverses Board in gender-based asylum case

On August 27, the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals granted the appeal of Kenia Martinez-Mejia, a woman from El Salvador who came to the United States after fleeing gender-based and gang violence. Clinical students Benjamin Antillon Fernandez ’21 and Madeline Kane ’21 worked on an amicus brief submitted by the Harvard Immigration and Refugee Clinical Program on October 25, 2019.…
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HIRC files amicus brief on so-called Migrant Protection Protocols

On August 8, our program submitted an amicus brief on behalf of legal service providers, law school clinics, and community organizations regarding the so-called Migrant Protection Protocols (MPP). This inhumane policy forces asylum seekers to remain in Mexico as they wait to proceed with their asylum claims in the United States. Despite its name, the…
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Urgent: submit your comments on new asylum rule today

The Trump administration has proposed yet another new rule that will be detrimental to the asylum system if it goes into effect. In this rule, the Department of Justice and Department of Homeland Security declare that any individual coming from or passing through countries with COVID-19 cases will be barred from asylum and withholding of removal protection. …
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Safe Third Country Agreement is ruled unconstitutional

On July 22, a federal court in Canada ruled that the Safe Third Country Agreement (STCA) between Canada and the United States violates the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedom, the equivalent to the U.S. Bill of Rights in its constitution. Under this agreement, in effect since 2004, Canada has refused to consider refugee claims presented…
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Refugee Eligibility: Challenging Stereotypes and Reviving the ‘Benefit of the Doubt’

HIRC Director Sabi Ardalan breaks down the many issues with the new proposed rule on asylum.

Second Circuit releases decision in favor of Guatemalan asylum-seeker

Today, the Second Circuit Court of Appeals released a favorable decision in the case of Mario Ordonez Azmen, an asylum-seeker from Guatemala who was represented by HIRC Albert M. Sacks Clinical Teaching & Advocacy Fellow Zachary Albun. Stacy Taeuber and Benjamin Casper Sanchez of the Federal Immigration & Litigation Clinic at the University of Minnesota Law School, and Chuck Roth of the…
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New regulations could dismantle the U.S. asylum system – please take action!

On June 15, the Trump administration proposed regulations that attempt to eviscerate the asylum system, making it nearly impossible for people fleeing persecution to be granted humanitarian relief in the United States. These regulations radically depart from the statutory and internationally accepted refugee definition and impose new bars to asylum. The regulations would also worsen…
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Troubling proposed asylum rule released today

Today, the Trump administration released a new proposed rule that would ban those seeking asylum due to “public health concerns.” We at the Harvard Immigration and Refugee Clinical Program are deeply troubled by this latest attempt to deny asylum seekers their right to seek safety in the United States. The proposed rule aims to block asylum in…
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Amicus brief challenges public health asylum limits

HIRC Founder Deborah Anker joined Gerald L. Neuman, Co-Director of the HLS Human Rights Program, and other immigration and refugee scholars in submitting an amicus brief that challenges the Trump administration’s restriction of asylum procedures during the COVID-19 crisis.

HIRC applauds federal court decision striking down “third country asylum rule”

On June 30th, a federal court judge ruled against the Trump administration’s “third country asylum rule,” which unlawfully required people to apply for asylum in “safe” third countries they passed through before seeking protection in the United States. In his decision, Judge Timothy Kelly wrote: “[the Court] holds that Defendants unlawfully promulgated the rule without complying with the APA’s…
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