Category: Deborah Anker

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.

The History and Future of Gender Asylum Law and Recognition of Domestic Violence as a Basis for Protection in the United States

HIRC Founder Deborah Anker’s article “The History and Future of Gender Asylum Law and Recognition of Domestic Violence as a Basis for Protection in the United States” was published in the latest issue of the American Bar Association’s Human Rights Magazine.

Federal Court Recognizes Gender as Basis for Asylum Claims

Years of Advocacy by HIRC Culminate in Landmark Decision by First Circuit In a major development in U.S. asylum law, a federal appeals court Friday recognized gender as a legal basis for granting asylum, making it possible for the petitioner in this case, and many other women fleeing violence in their home countries, to find…
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HIRC welcomes new faculty assistant

The Clinic is thrilled to announce that we have a new faculty assistant joining our team!  Sophie Jean will be working part-time as a faculty assistant for HIRC Founder Deborah Anker. Sophie is a recent graduate of McGill University (Montreal, QC) where she majored in Psychology and Behavioral Neuroscience. Sophie previously worked as a research…
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HIRC files amicus briefs on asylum

Asylum seekers continue to face legal hurdles in their pursuit of safety here in the U.S., and the Harvard Immigration and Refugee Clinical Program (HIRC) has been busy working on litigation to protect their rights. Within the first month of 2020, HIRC submitted two amicus briefs regarding immigration and asylum law. The first brief, submitted…
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Prepared for the Challenge

Read the stories of four HIRC alumni who are continuing to advocate for the rights of asylum-seekers and immigrants.

Professor Deborah Anker seeks research assistants

HIRC’s Director, Professor Deborah Anker, is currently seeking research assistants to work on the newest edition of her treatise, Law of Asylum in the United States, in the 2020-21 academic year. The treatise is updated every year and is a leading resource on U.S. asylum law with a comparative and international perspective. The Law of…
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Ask a Feminist: Deborah Anker Discusses Gender and US Asylum Law with Aziza Ahmed

Check out this conversation between HIRC Founder & Director Deborah Anker and Aziza Ahmed that was aired on the podcast “Ask a Feminist.”

As a Guatemala Asylum Agreement Fades, a New Trump Rule Threatens Migrants

“Deborah Anker, a professor at Harvard who specializes in asylum, said that what the Trump administration has been doing on asylum policy reflects ‘the dismantling of the whole refugee protection system that was established after World War II.’”

The Republican proposal to change the U.S. asylum system, explained

“International law says that a signatory to the United Nations Refugee Convention/Protocol (Article 33) cannot return a refugee to a country where he or she faces persecution on account of race, religion, nationality, membership in a particular social group or political opinion, said Deborah Anker, a clinical professor of law, founder and director of the Harvard Immigration…
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