In this video, I share few final reflections on my time in Dilley as a volunteer attorney working with refugee mothers and children:
Viewing entries tagged
family detention
I am learning new and unexpected skills during my time in Dilley. For example, today I drafted my first civil rights complaint, to be filed with the Department of Homeland Security. Tomorrow I will begin outlining requests for re-interviews for women who were found to not have a credible fear of persecution during their initial interviews with the Asylum Office, but who were later identified by lawyers as having viable asylum claims. The goal is for experienced asylum attorneys to outline the legal and factual arguments ("mentor outlines") supporting the asylum claim, and for newer attorneys and law students to turn those outlines into formal requests for re-interviews. I'll be drafting the first mentor outlines tomorrow, which will hopefully serve as a template for the remote teams working on these requests. As my time in Dilley draws to a close, I am sad to realize that family detention exists, and is likely to continue existing into the foreseeable future. But I'm also hopeful that the members of the CARA Pro Bono Project and the volunteers who come to Dilley each week will fight back against this injustice, and will assist these women and children - who have already suffered horrendous and unspeakable violence - to apply for the protection that they so desperately need.
The prevalence of gender-based violence in Central America is beyond shocking. What is even more shocking is the acceptability of this violence. The number of women we interview who believe that domestic violence and sexual assault is normal is staggering. Many do not even think to tell the asylum officers conducting their credible fear interviews about this widespread violence, committed with impunity. I only hope that the work we do will help some of these women to find a better, safer life.
Today was my second day volunteering in the detention center. I accompanied a client to her re-interview with the asylum office. The asylum office had originally found that she did not have a credible fear of persecution or torture, and an Immigration Judge affirmed that finding. After her interview, she learned of new threats to her safety in her home country from her family. As a result, the asylum office agreed to interview her again, and to consider this new information. It was an emotional experience. My client was traumatized by her experiences, and her young child cried when she left him to attend the interview. It's heartbreaking to watch the children in the detention center suffer, but it was reassuring to observe the professional and compassionate manner in which our asylum officer conducted the interview. Though I firmly believe that a detention center is not an appropriate place for children and that the concept of family detention is inherently unjust, I have hope that the hard work of volunteers and the compassion of some government officials can still bring about a just result for these women and their children.
I am spending one week volunteering with mothers and children who are being held in an immigration detention center while they seek asylum. Today was my first day on the ground in Dilley, Texas. I met with several mothers who are at different stages of their proceedings. I found myself remarkably frustrated at how poorly gender-based asylum claims have progressed. While the law recognizes domestic violence claims, threats of sexual assault from non-relatives, absent other factors, are often insufficient to make out an asylum claim. Women seeking such horrifying harm should qualify for protection under our asylum laws.