The Immigrant’s Thanksgiving (Some Reasons to Be Thankful)

Thanksgiving is the immigrant holiday because it is a day to remember and celebrate new arrivals in a new land, and friendship between immigrants and indigenous people. It is also the anti-immigrant holiday, since things did not end too well for the indigenous people in the original T-Day story.

These days, though, we need to take our good news where we can get it, and so in that spirit, I want to focus on the positives of Thanksgiving. In particular, I’d like to discuss some reasons for asylum seekers to be thankful. And yes, there are a few. (more…)

In Defense of Palestinian and Muslim Refugees

The war between Hamas and Israel has prompted some American politicians to call for a ban on refugees from Gaza. Other politicos want to deport student protesters who express pro-Palestinian sentiments, or exclude Palestinians from the U.S. altogether.

I suppose that in a time of war, there’s an impulse to pick a side. Israel or Palestine. Muslim or Jew. Us or Them. And so in theory, I can understand why some leaders would want to punish those who appear to be supporting our adversaries. But as I see it, painting all Palestinians or all Muslims as Hamas supporters is counterproductive and harmful to our national interests, not to mention untrue. (more…)

Asylee Walks 300 Miles in Support of Kurdish Rights

One hundred years ago, in the aftermath of World War I, Britain, France, Turkey, and other nations signed the Treaty of Lausanne, which divided Kurdistan between what are today Turkey, Syria, Iraq, and Iran, and blocked the national aspirations of the Kurdish people. Since then, Kurds have endured persecution, war, cultural genocide, and mass killings.

As a result of these conditions, many Kurdish people have fled their homeland, and some have received asylum in the United States. One such asylee is Kani Xulam, who is now the director of the American Kurdish Information Network.

To call attention to the 100th anniversary of the partition of Kurdistan, Mr. Xulam recently walked from the Lincoln Memorial in Washington, DC to the United Nations in New York City. His journey covered more than 300 miles and took 24 days. (more…)

Great Asylum Seekers, Great Americans

Every year on the Fourth of July, Carnegie Corporation of New York–an organization devoted to advancing democracy, education, and international peace–celebrates naturalized U.S. citizens who have “enriched and strengthened our nation and our democracy through their contributions and actions.” This year, the 35 honorees come from 33 different countries, and have all benefited the United States in important ways.

Several honorees on the list are forced migrants, and I want to highlight a few of their stories. While the Carnegie honorees are extraordinary, in many respects, their stories and their contributions are not so different from other immigrants and refugees, including many of my own clients. Every day, I am amazed by what my asylee clients have overcome and what they accomplish once they are here. As our nation celebrates its 247th birthday, it is worth reflecting on the contributions that immigrants–including refugees and asylees–have made. And so, without further ado, here are a few Carnegie honorees who were forced to flee their home countries, and who have enriched our nation by their presence. (more…)

Book Review: The Refugee System by Rawan Arar and David Scott FitzGerald

Perhaps you’ve heard the parable of the blind men and the elephant. A king summons blind men from his kingdom and asks each one to examine an elephant. One man feels the elephant’s head and says that he’s touching a pot. Another man feels the elephant’s side and describes a wall. A third man touches the elephant’s leg and talks about a tree trunk. One lesson of this story: Unless we have enough information, it’s difficult to determine the truth.

That’s also the lesson of a new book, The Refugee System, by Professors Rawan Arar and David Scott FitzGerald. The book argues that many academics and policymakers view the refugee system too narrowly. Instead of seeing the bigger picture, they focus only on the elements of the refugee system that relate to their area of interest. This type of “siloed” approach has real-world implications for those seeking protection and for the nations that host them. (more…)

Affirmative Asylum Backlog Grows at Unprecedented Rate

USCIS recently released some new information to Congress about the affirmative asylum backlog, and–surprise, surprise–the news is not good. The backlog continues to grow at a record-setting pace, meaning that under the agency’s last-in, first-out (LIFO) policy where new cases receive priority over old cases, those waiting for an interview are falling further and further behind. Worse, USCIS has indicated that they do not have the resources to reduce the backlog, and they don’t expect to receive those resources any time soon. (more…)

Confusing New Rule Seems to Allow Asylees to Get Their Green Cards More Quickly

I don’t mean to be a Negative Nelly, but why is it that when USCIS tries to make things better, it often creates more problems? The latest difficulty involves a (presumably) well-meaning effort to allow asylees to adjust status (i.e., get their Green Cards) more quickly. The problem is that the memo creating the new policy is confusing, and leaves us (or at least me) wondering about how best to conform to the new system. (more…)

The Blessings of Resettling Refugees

Conventional wisdom holds that resettling refugees and asylum seekers is a burden on the host country. Indeed, many of our nation’s immigration policies are based on this premise: We make it difficult for asylum seekers to enter the country; once they are here, their cases often take many years to resolve and in a majority of cases, they are denied; politicians routinely malign asylum seekers as economic parasites, criminals, and terrorists. But why should this be? What is the evidence that refugees and asylum seekers have a negative impact on their host countries?

A new academic paper by Jennifer M. Chacón, Recounting: An Optimistic Account of Migration, challenges the idea that refugees burden their host countries. (more…)

Are Asylum Seekers in the United States Safe from Their Persecutors?

The United States has long been a haven for political refugees. But there are examples of operatives from the home government tracking, harming, and killing political opponents who have come to the U.S. for protection.

Probably the most famous example occurred only a few blocks from my office, in Sheridan Circle in 1976, when Chilean dissident Orlando Letelier and his American assistant Ronni Moffitt were killed by a car bomb. Mr. Letelier held a number of top government jobs in Chile during the Salvador Allende government, but after President Allende was ousted in a coup (and murdered along with thousands of others), Mr. Letelier was detained and tortured by the new government, led by Augusto Pinochet. Thanks to international pressure, Mr. Letelier was released and made his way to the U.S. Here, he worked and lobbied against the Pinochet regime. These activities brought him to the attention of Pinochet supporters and the Chilean secret police, who organized the assassination with help from several anti-Castro Cubans. Mr. Letelier and Ms. Moffitt were killed when a bomb planted in their car exploded. Ms. Moffitt’s husband was injured. Ultimately, a number of Chileans and Cubans were charged in relation to the murders, though none served more than a few years in prison. (more…)

Traveling With Your Passport When You Have Asylum

A common question for asylees (people who have been granted asylum) is whether they can travel using their home country passport. If all were right in the world, this would never be an issue. Asylees and Green Card holders who received their status based on asylum are eligible for a Refugee Travel Document, and it is best to use the RTD instead of your home country passport.

Unfortunately, the RTD is valid for only one year, takes 10 or 11 months to renew, and is not accepted by many countries. For these reasons, asylees (and people who received a Green Card based on asylum) are often unable to use the RTD and are left with a difficult choice: Either skip the trip or travel using the home country passport, which can potentially have negative implications for a person’s status in the United States.

In this post, we will talk about the RTD and then discuss travel using a passport from your home country. (more…)

Russian Asylee Puts Bounty on Putin’s Head

In the late 1990s, I was a law clerk in the Arlington, Virginia Immigration Court. My most memorable case involved a wealthy Russian businessman named Alex Konanykhin and his wife, Elena Gratcheva. Mr. Konanykhin made his fortune–around a quarter billion dollars–in the Wild West of post-Soviet Russia, but was then chased from his country by former KGB agents and criminals intent on stealing his money. The Individual Hearing that I attended took a full week, which is almost unheard of in Immigration Court. Mr. Konanykhin’s attorney was the legendary Michael Maggio, who I got to know a bit during the trial. My role was to sit in the courtroom and take notes. After the hearing, I helped the Immigration Judge write up the decision granting asylum.

There was more to this case, including an appeal to the BIA, improper behavior by several U.S. government officials that resulted in a $100,000 payment to Mr. Konanykhin, an unsuccessful attempt by the couple to evade border authorities and enter Canada, and several different federal court cases. When the dust finally settled from this ten-year odyssey, Mr. Konanykhin received asylum in the U.S. (around the same time, his wife–who was a dependent on his case–passed away). (more…)

Preemptive Asylum for Ukrainians

Vladimir Putin has had a gun to the head of Ukraine for years. The most recent troubles began in 2014, when a pro-Russian president of Ukraine fled to Russia, rather than submit to an impeachment vote (he was impeached anyway). Several regions of Ukraine declared loyalty to the former president, and fighting broke out. Ultimately, parts of Ukraine came under Kremlin control, including the Crimean peninsula, which Russia annexed after an “election” by that region’s residents. Since then, fighting and allegations between the two nations have waxed and waned, but the Russians did not move towards a major escalation–until recently.

The current buildup began last fall, and there are now more than 100,000 Russian soldiers and Ukrainian separatists deployed for war. Analyst have suggested that a large-scale invasion is likely in the coming days or weeks. What does this mean for Ukrainian citizens in the United States who face possible persecution if Russia takes over or installs a pro-Russian puppet? Can such people file for asylum now, even though a Russian invasion is still speculative? (more…)

Want to Save Democracy? End Asylum at the Southern Border

As an attorney who represents asylum seekers, I believe our country has a moral duty to help those coming to us for protection. I also believe that we as a nation benefit from our asylum system. Aside from enriching our country with patriotic, hard-working individuals, the asylum system makes manifest our highest ideals–freedom of religion and speech, democracy, equality, and women’s and minorities’ rights.

Unfortunately, those of us who support a robust humanitarian immigration system have not convinced enough of our countrymen on that point. Indeed, a poll of Trump voters found that their #2 and #3 most important issues are more secure borders and a more restrictive immigration system (the #1 issue for these voters was preservation of individual rights). Contrast that with Biden voters, who feel less strongly about reducing barriers to migration (ranking “being open to immigration” as the #27 most important issue facing our country, out of 55 issues surveyed).

There is little doubt that these views find expression in the voting booth–President Trump based his 2016 campaign on anti-immigration themes and we know how that turned out. (more…)