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# Asylum Seekers# Get Involved# Immigration

Third-Country Deportees Are in Danger and Need Our Help

Since the advent of the second Trump Administration, our government has been deporting asylum seekers and others to third countries, often without warning or anything resembling due process of law. To date, more than 25,000 people have been removed in this manner. The large majority were sent to Mexico or Guatemala, but hundreds have been shipped to other countries where they are subject to arbitrary detention, torture, and rendition to their home country where they face persecution.

The battle over the legality of these removals is ongoing, though the Supreme Court has allowed the practice to continue for the time being. For those who have already been deported–or who will be deported while the Supreme Court dithers–the situation is dire. Amnesty International has issued Urgent Action Notices on behalf of some of the deportees, who have disappeared or been subject to torture. These UANs are a quick and easy way for anyone to assist people who are in grave danger. In the cases of third country removals, the UANs are also a way to stand up to the Trump Administration’s lawlessness.

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By Jason Dzubow
# Get Involved# Immigration

Pro Bono: Doing Good for Others – and for Yourself

Immigrants in America need more help now than ever. The Trump Administration has launched a broad-based assault against them, targeting the most vulnerable through arbitrary detention, procedural barriers, and the destruction of due process. Aside from harming non-citizens and their loved ones, these efforts have eroded the rule of law and have helped the President and his allies accrue unprecedented power.

It’s difficult to know how to respond to the Administration’s attacks, but one powerful approach for lawyers is to represent non-citizens pro bono (without charge). This is a way to help an individual and also stand up for the rule of law. What’s more, representing non-citizens pro bono has concrete benefits for the lawyer, in terms of learning new skills, expanding your network, and building or growing your legal practice. I know this because my own pro bono work helped me build and maintain my law practice for more than two decades.

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By Jason Dzubow
# Asylum# Get Involved# Human Rights

Join Me for an Online Conference about the U.S. Asylum Crisis and What You Can Do About It

The Torture Abolition and Survivors Support Coalition (TASSC) International will hold its annual conference and advocacy days from June 23 to 26, 2021. The theme of this year’s conference is “The Asylum Crisis in the USA.” This is a great opportunity to learn about the challenges facing the U.S. asylum system–and to do something about it. All events (including advocacy) will be held online and are free. In support of the conference and its goals, from today until June 30, all proceeds from my new book, The Asylumist: How to Seek Asylum in the United States and Keep Your Sanity, will go to TASSC International!

TASSC is an amazing organization consisting of torture survivors and asylum seekers who help and support each other. Speakers at the event will include torture survivors, advocates, mental health professionals, and lawyers (including yours truly–on June 23rd at 11:30 AM).

The first day of the conference features a number of important topics, including a discussion about the asylum system’s failures and challenges, survivor resilience, and advocating for a humane asylum system. There will also be a training for people participating in the advocacy days (on June 24 and 25).

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By Jason Dzubow
# Asylum Seekers# Get Involved# Legal Relief# Legislation

Introducing The Asylumist: The Book!

When I started The Asylumist over 11 years ago, I hoped to create a forum for discussing the U.S. asylum system. I didn’t know whether anyone would actually read the blog or whether I had the time and energy to maintain it (and truth be told, when I started, I really wasn’t even sure what a blog was). But here we are more than a decade later, still going.

During those years, much has changed with the asylum system: The Immigration Court backlog has increased from 243,000 to over 1.3 million; the Asylum Office backlog has grown from less than 32,000 to more than 386,000; we’ve seen the border “surge” (a couple times). the hostility of the Trump Administration, and the pandemic. The population of asylum seekers has changed as well. The Syrian civil war, the Arab Spring, increased instability in Venezuela, and a further breakdown of law and order in Central America all contributed to new waves of applicants seeking protection in the United States. 

As I was observing and writing about asylum during these turbulent years, I was also thinking about turning some of my blog posts into a book. And for maybe the last two years, I’ve been actively working to get that done. Given my other obligations–family, job, blogging–I was not sure I would ever complete the work. But somehow, with the help and support of many people, the book is now done and available for sale. You can check it out here: The Asylumist: How to Seek Asylum in the United States and Keep Your Sanity.

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By Jason Dzubow
# Asylum Seekers# Get Involved

Celebrate Mother’s Day by Helping Asylum-Seeker Moms

Mother’s Day is coming up – on May 9, 2021. If you need a nice gift idea for the mother(s) in your life, and you’d like to support a worthy cause at the same time, check out this “gift of goodness” from AsylumWorks, a Washington, DC-area non-profit that provides support for asylum seekers while they wait for resolution of their cases.

AsylumWorks offers a host of services to asylum seekers (whether they are mothers or not), including help with employment, referrals for social services, legal assistance, trauma recovery, and housing and food needs. The organization also helps connect asylum seekers to the wider community and to each other. Through their Mother’s Day Campaign (which ends on April 30), you can send a tin of alfajores, delicious sandwich cookies filled with dulce de leche and rolled in coconut flakes to a mother in your life, or to an asylum-seeking mom.

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By Jason Dzubow
# Asylum Seekers# Get Involved# Legislation

Lobbying Congress to Reduce the Asylum Backlog

President Joe Biden sent the U.S. Citizenship Act of 2021 to Congress on January 20, his first day in office. This bill provides a roadmap to citizenship for undocumented individuals, prioritizes family reunification, addresses the root causes of migration from Central America, modernizes border security, and aims to reduce the Immigration Court backlog.

But even if the U.S. Citizenship Act becomes law (which seems increasingly unlikely), it does not address the backlog of over 373,000 affirmative asylum cases–these are mostly individuals who entered the United States legally with visas, and who then applied for asylum. They include democracy and human rights advocates, journalists, religious minorities, and members of the LGBT community, among others. Many in the backlog are torture survivors and others who have suffered severe persecution. Since one case sometimes contains several family members, the total number of people waiting in the affirmative asylum backlog is something like 600,000 individuals. Many of those in the backlog have already been waiting four, five or even six years for an interview. These individuals represent a “Hidden Asylum Crisis” because their suffering is invisible to the general public and has thus far been ignored by lawmakers.

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By Jason Dzubow
# Asylum Seekers# Get Involved# Immigration

Non-citizens Can Participate in the 2020 Election! Here’s How

The U.S. immigration system is a disaster. Hundreds of thousands of applicants are stuck in limbo, many cases are arbitrarily denied, and due process protections have been reduced or eliminated. While it is still possible to win individual cases, the Trump Administration has done everything possible–legal and illegal–to block asylum seekers and immigrants, and to … Read more

By Jason Dzubow
# Asylum Seekers# Get Involved

Asylum Seekers Need Pro Bono Lawyers Now More than Ever

The Trump Administration came into office with the express goal of tightening rules related to asylum eligibility. Their efforts have resulted in reduced due process protections for asylum seekers, along with increased evidentiary burdens. Since the advent of the COVID-19 pandemic, the Administration’s anti-asylum rule making has gone into overdrive. If recently proposed regulations go … Read more

By Jason Dzubow