Every refugee should have An Attorney On Their Court Date
Without Representation
Under current United States (US) law a refugee does not have a right to legal counsel. In other words, refugees all over the United States are forced to present their cases to an immigration judge without an attorney. Men, women, children, and families, often without a basic understanding of the English language, are forced to navigate the most complex area of US law alone. Listen Below…
Children Arriving Alone
Children as young as three are being forced to represent themselves in immigration court. Some of them arrive alone. Some of them are separated from their parents or guardians. All of them are putted against an experienced ICE attorney – who’s only job is to convince the judge to send them back to a country that has persecuted them. Here is a Short Film by Linda Freedman which recreates this heartbreaking reality.
Attorneys Increase Odds
Refugees are two to four times more likely to win their court case and subsequently be granted asylum in the United States if they have an attorney representing them. Unfortunately, only 37% of all immigrants secure legal representation in their deportation cases. By far the least likely to secure legal representation are those trapped on the Mexican side of the border under the current administration’s “Remain in Mexico” policy.
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Without A Lawyer, Asylum-Seekers Struggle With Confusing Legal Processes
Our Mission
We have three goals at “Fear of Return.” First, we want to help asylum seekers find either pro bono (free) representation, or, if free representation cannot be found, we want to launch an individualized funding campaign to raise enough money to pay a private attorney to represent them. Second, because we collect so many stories from the refugees we interview, we want to archive these stories. In this way, decades later, after the danger to the individual refugee has passed, we can safely show future generations what the immigrant crisis looked like from the point of view of a refugee. Finally, through our individualized fundraising campaigns and our social media posts we hope to raise awareness to the ongoing effects of the immigrant crisis.
Collaboration
We collaborate with the major refugee shelters in Tijuana Mexico. Periodically, we provide free legal consults to the refugees at these shelters. Together the shelter operators and our team are dedicated to helping people who want to escape persecution in their home countries.
Our Methodology
STEP 1: PROVIDE legal support
sTEP 2: FIND A FREE ATTORNEY
STEP 3: find DONors IF NEEDED
We schedule appointment with refugees, either over zoom or in our Tijuana Office. If we have an attorney on hand we offer free legal consultations to the refugees. If we can, we try to find them a free attorney in the United States. Finally, if we cannot find them a free attorney, we try to fundraise on social media for their legal defense.
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