California Immigration Lawyer Blog

It is funny; I was recently at a Social Security Disability hearing at the office in San Rafael. Prior to my hearing, the judge asked if I had seen TRAC. Trac, the acronym, stands for, "Transactional Records Access Clearinghouse. TRAC produces a number of reports on various federal government agencies: immigration, FBI, IRS, terrorism and Social Security.. TRAC obtains their data by filing Freedom of Information (FOIA) requests and then compiling the data. I had not seen the website until today although according to their website, they have existed for a number of years. Although I will eventually look at the Social Security reports, I am more intrigued by the immigration reports because there are so many of them.

I decided to find out the statistics of asylum approval and denial rates with a judge I have a hearing with in a few weeks. It is amazing how easy the website is to navigate and how you can focus your search. I decided to search for asylum approval/denial rates with one judge in San Francisco. In order to search, I chose the city, San Francisco, the judge by the last name and then requested the latest report. I received very specific data pursuant to this request. I can tell how many cases this judge approved and denied. The report also tells me the ranking of this judge with other judges across the United States. Finally, the report tells me the nationalities of the people who were in this judge's courtroom.

While no two cases are alike, it is helpful to have these reports to better estimate your chances in Immigration Court.

As a California immigration lawyer who files many asylum cases, I am used to thinking of a the United States as a place of refuge and to documenting the horrible country conditions of other countries. I have successfully represented applicants for asylum who feared staying in their countries because while serving in their countries' armies, they were harmed on account of their sexual orientation.

It is therefore rather surprising to come across a story of a U.S.soldier who is fleeing to Canada because she fears harm in the U.S. Army on account of her sexual orientation. According to CBC news, U.S. Army Pte. Bethany Smith fled Canada in September 2007 from a U.S. Army base in Fort Campbell, Ky. She applied for refugee status in October 2007, saying that she was harassed and threatened by fellow soldiers over her sexual orientation and feared that her life would be in danger if she were deported and returned to the army. The Canadian authorities initially rejected in her claim in February 2009. However, on appeal, the Federal Court of Canada held that the refugee board must reconsider the case again because the Board made several mistakes in initially reviewing her claim.

The Federal Court's decision noted that the refugee board failed to fully consider the evidence pertaining to the situation of gays and lesbians in the U.S. Army to determine whether Pte. Smith could have availed herself of protection in the United States. The Federal Court also noted that the Board failed to determine whether Pte. Smith would be persecuted on account of her social group - as a lesbian in the U.S. Army if forced to return. There were other errors mentioned in the decision.

It is sad that the U.S. policy of "Don't Ask, Don't Tell," is the basis of an asylum claim in Canada. Pt. Smith was only 19 years old when she fled to Canada. From everything I read, it appears that she wanted to serve in the U.S. Army and no real desire to leave the United States. At a time when we apparently need people to serve in the Armed Forces and in fact give non-citizens a way to immigrate to the United States faster for their service, it seems ridiculous that an American citizen should have to leave. It it is time to eliminate the "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" policy.

While it may sound odd for an immigration attorney to talk about free legal assistance, I am devoting this post to that very topic. Sometimes it is just not possible for to pay for legal services - especially when trying to file for political asylum in the United States. Political asylum applicants have it the hardest. They have escaped from their country of persecution with little money. They may have been tortured in their country and just needed to get out. They do not have money to hire an attorney, yet, it is difficult to win asylum in the United States without a lawyer. Understanding the asylum laws and how to meet your burden of proof are difficult and complex concepts such that I would strongly urge an applicant to hire an attorney. Fortunately for us in the San Francisco Bay Area, there is an organization that can help.

The Lawyers' Committee for Civil Rights of the San Francisco Bay Area has an asylum program in which they will help an applicant find an attorney to take on the case. First, the Lawyers' Committee staff will interview potential applicants. If the potential applicant has a legitimate case and really no source of income, the asylum program staff will then find a volunteer attorney to take on the case. The volunteer attorney may or may not have experience in asylum law but the Lawyers' Committee staff will assign a mentor attorney to the volunteer attorney so the volunteer will have someone whom to direct questions. It is a terrific system. Applicants receive great quality representation.

For those of us who are immigration attorneys, most of us started out our career by taking pro bono asylum cases through the Lawyers' Committee. It was a terrific resource for me when I first began. I received free training, great resource materials and I was paired up with a volunteer mentor attorney and interpreter. It was exciting to work on a real case and feel that I had a great deal of support.

If you are interested in obtaining free legal help for your asylum case and you live in the San Francisco Bay Area, you may call the Lawyers' Committee and ask to speak to someone in the asylum program. Their phone number is (415) 543-9444.

On May 11, 2009, the Department of State released a list of "countries of particular concern." The governments of these countries have committed or tolerated particularly severe religious human rights violations. The countries include: China, Burma, Eritrea, Iran, North Korea, Saudi Arabia, Sudan and Uzkebistan.

Also contained in the announcement is a list of sanctions/restrictions that the U.S. government has imposed on each country due to their religious freedom violations. This document would be useful in a political asylum case should the applicant be from one of the above-mentioned countries as the U.S. has now recognized that the governments in these countries commit or permit severe human rights violations based on religion.