Professor Alberto Benitez reports:
Please join me and Professor Vera in congratulating Immigration Clinic client, K-H-, from Indonesia, and her student-attorneys, Jordan Nelson, Julia Yang, and Alex Chen. The client’s asylum application was filed on December 3, 2018, she had two interviews at the Asylum Office, on November 10, 2021 and March 2, 2022, and she was granted asylum on May 24, 2022. We received the notice today. The above-captioned is what K-H- said upon learning about her asylum grant.
K-H- is a lesbian woman. Throughout her life, she has had to hide her identity for fear that her family would disown her and that she would be arrested, physically harmed, or even killed if she was outed in her country. K-H- came to the U.S. in 2017 to work as a nanny. During that time, her host family was also hostile towards members of the LGBTQ+ community. Afraid once again, K-H- moved households and with the support of that host family and the Immigration Clinic, she decided to apply for asylum so that she could live her life openly as a lesbian woman. K-H- now volunteers for several LGBTQ+ initiatives, including a theater program for LGBTQ+ people of color. She finds that sharing her story is therapeutic. When Professor Vera asked how K-H- planned to celebrate, she replied that she will be celebrating with her new girlfriend.
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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
THE WORLD IS YOURS…
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Congrats again to my friends Alberto and Paulina and their talented students!
The Asylumist
Proving the “Dzubow Rule:” “The winners are out here! We just have to get them represented and to merits determinations before competent adjudicators in a hopelessly backlogged system.”
How many refugees like K-H- have been arbitrarily and illegally returned to danger and harm by the Biden and Trump Administrations with no process at all, let alone due process of law? Cutting off the right to make and be fairly heard on claims to asylum and mandatory legal protection is a major human rights violation by our Government!
🇺🇸 Due Process Forever!
PWS
06-02-22