LCHR | Asylum in the U.S.

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Attention Pro Bono Attorneys:
Survey to Help Improve INS and Immigration Court Cooperation with Pro Bono Attorneys

Urge Secretary Ridge to Repeal Policy of Blanket Detention Based Upon Nationality

Urge Attorney General Ashcroft to Protect Women Refugees

Urge the U.S. Government to End Discriminatory Treatment of Haitian Asylum Seekers

Haitian Asylum Seekers Targeted for Indefinite Detention

Gender and Asylum Seekers in the U.S.

The Department of Homeland Security, Refugees, and Asylum Seekers

Department of Homeland Security Targets Haitian Refugees (3/21/03)

Refugee Women Face New Risk from Justice Department (2/21/03)

LCHR Report: Refugee Women Fleeing Persecution Face Unfair U.S. Laws

US-Canada "Safe Third Country" Agreement will Hurt Asylum Seekers (12/04/02)

Haitian Refugees Targeted by Discriminatory Policies (11/06/02)

Refugee Fleeing Religious Persecution Treated Unfairly (11/02/02)

Detention Survey: A Country by Country Review of Detention Procedures and Practices (9/18/02)

LCHR Comments to INS Denounce Expansion of Unfair Deportation and Detention Procedures (12/16/02)

Haitian Asylum Seekers: Amicus Brief Filed in 11th Circuit Court

International Refugee Program

The Asylum Program

Since 1978, the Lawyers Committee for Human Rights has worked to protect and promote fundamental human rights and to ensure protection of the rights of refugees, including the right to seek asylum. The Lawyers Committee’s Asylum Program is committed to advancing the rights of refugees. We accomplish this objective by ensuring that refugees have access to asylum, by advocating for fair asylum procedures, by pressing for U.S. compliance with international refugee and human rights law, and by helping individual refugees to win asylum through our pro bono Asylum Legal Representation Program.

Our asylum advocacy is informed by the experiences of our refugee clients and their pro bono lawyers. Often, it is these refugees and their pro bono lawyers who first flag for us specific problems in the U.S. asylum system that need to be remedied. We work to improve the U.S. asylum system in many ways: by advocating for fairness in U.S. laws and policies, by filing comments on proposed changes to regulations, by educating the public, by meeting with U.S. government officials, and by filing amicus briefs in federal court cases that concern significant issues of U.S. asylum law. Through our action alerts and our refugee protection newsletter, we are in regular communication with an extensive network of individuals across the country who are concerned about the U.S.’s treatment of those who seek refuge in this country.

Given our extensive network of refugee clients and our hands-on knowledge of the asylum system, we have been uniquely positioned to document the deficiencies in the U.S. asylum system. For instance, in a series of reports issued between 1998 and 2002, we have documented the unfair and inhumane effects of detention and expedited removal.

Based in the Lawyers Committee’s offices in New York and Washington, DC, our Asylum Legal Representation Program is one of the largest and most successful pro bono legal representation programs for refugees in the United States. With the help of dedicated pro bono lawyers, the Asylum Legal Representation Program is currently representing over 1,000 clients from 88 countries. These refugees include torture survivors, victims of religious, political and ethnic persecution, and men and women fleeing from persecution based on gender or sexual orientation. Many of these refugees have been detained at large detention facilities in New York and New Jersey and in county jails around the country.

Become a pro bono volunteer or learn about the work of our volunteer attorneys