“Please join me in congratulating Immigration Clinic client C-R, from Venezuela. His U nonimmigrant visa application, filed on April 30, 2014, was granted Wednesday. C-R will be eligible to adjust status to lawful permanent residence in three years. U nonimmigrant visas are available to aliens who within the USA have been victims of criminal activity, and who have been helpful to law enforcement in investigating and prosecuting that crime. C-R was a victim of domestic violence at the hands of his ex-wife. Reports are that there are at least 90,000 U visa applications pending at USCIS.
Jessica Leal, Jonathan Bialosky, Sarena Bhatia, Chen Liang, Mark Webb, and Paulina Vera have worked on this case.
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Alberto Manuel Benitez
Professor of Clinical Law
Director, Immigration Clinic
The George Washington University Law School
650 20th Street, NW
Washington, DC 20052
(202) 994-7463
(202) 994-4946 fax
abenitez@law.gwu.edu
THE WORLD IS YOURS…”
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Congrats to all involved!
I’m proud to say that Paulina Vera and Jessica Leal are “distinguished alums” of the Arlington Immigration Court Internship Program as well as “charter members” of the New Due Process Army (“NDPA”)!
These guys keep proving my point: with time and access to good representation, probably the majority of those who flee from the so-called Northern Triangle are eligible for immigration relief of some type.
Consequently, a rational Attorney General, committed to Due Process, would work to insure that such individuals are released after initial screening and able to go to locations where pro bono counsel are readily available and where cases are scheduled in a manner that they can be completely prepared and presented efficiently. Individuals with counsel reliably appear in Immigration Court as scheduled. He would also encourage the issuance of more favorable precedents leading to more expedited grants of relief and facilitate Immigration Judges working with DHS to have cases taken off the Immigration Court docket and granted by DHS, either at the Asylum Office or elsewhere in USCIS on an expedited basis.
Instead, Sessions treats refugees and asylum seekers as if they were criminals and seeks to use the detention system to prevent individuals from obtaining counsel and achieving due process. His misuse of the Immigration Courts as part of a DHS enforcement regime to discourage individuals from asserting their statutory and Constitutional rights is nothing short of reprehensible!
PWS
02-28-18