The past few weeks have been troubling. From family separations at the border to the travel ban, immigrant communities across the country face increasingly difficult circumstances. HIRC is committed to advocating for the rights of asylum-seekers, refugees, and all others seeking safety in the U.S. We encourage our students, alumni, and the broader community to take…
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Attorney General Jeff Sessions recently upended decades of U.S. legal precedent by asserting that women fleeing domestic violence will not generally qualify for asylum. To do so, he challenged the principle that women victims of domestic violence are members of a “particular social group.” This phrase – “particular social group” – is critical to the work of immigration lawyers like myself.
Statement of Harvard Immigration and Refugee Clinical Program on Matter of A-B- issued by Attorney General Sessions on June 11 The June 11 decision issued by Attorney General Sessions in Matter of A-B- is deeply flawed and inconsistent with our domestic and international obligations under the 1980 Refugee Act and the 1967 Protocol to the…
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“Deborah Anker, a Harvard Law School professor who specializes in asylum, said Sessions’ office declined to identify the decision he was reviewing, initially leaving lawyers without a way to respond to his request for arguments.”
On February 23, HIRC’s assistant director Sabrineh Ardalan took part in the New York Law School’s Immigration and Asylum Conference. Sabi participated in a discussion on particular social groups. The conversation explored the BIA and federal court developments refining the concept of persecution on account of membership in a particular social group. She was joined by Dree Collopy,…
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“Panelist Sabrineh Ardalan, assistant director at the Harvard Immigration and Refugee Clinical Program and assistant clinical professor of law at Harvard Law School, said her work at the clinic gives her an up-close view of the burdens on asylum seekers to prove their eligibility for protection, demonstrate credibility, and provide corroborating evidence.”
Earlier this week, the Harvard Immigration and Refugee Clinical Program (HIRC) co-authored a brief to the Board of Immigration Appeals (BIA) on the “material support” bar to asylum, arguing that the word “material” must be given independent meaning in order to ensure that victims of terrorism are not unfairly denied humanitarian protection.
Despite the glaring absence of the U.S. government officials, we civil society organizations had productive conversations with the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights. Malene and I testified that the executive orders greatly curtail asylum seekers’ ability to meaningfully pursue their claims for protection and increase the risk of deportation to countries where they face persecution or torture.
The Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR) has granted a request filed by the Harvard Immigration and Refugee Clinical Program (HIRC) to participate in a hearing on the impact of President Trump’s Executive Orders on human rights in the United States.
The Harvard Immigration and Refugee Clinical Program (HIRC) filed on Thursday an amicus curiae brief in support of a lawsuit that seeks, among other things, to prevent the Trump administration from lowering the number of refugees that can be allowed into the country. The lawsuit, filed by the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) and the International…
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