An Asylee’s Story

Below is the story of an asylee from Eritrea.  She prefers to keep her name confidential:

I was born in 1979 in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. I was an Ethiopian at birth but I am an Eritrean national.

Eritrea is a little known country in East Africa of about 5 million people. Eritrea was forcefully annexed with Ethiopia in 1962. Freedom fighters struggled for Eritrea’s independence against the Derg, the Ethiopian government from 1974 to 1991. The struggle ended in 1991, when the freedom fighters won the fight. A referendum was held in 1993. Eritreans overwhelmingly voted to be independent from Ethiopia. My parents decided it was time to move to Eritrea. We moved to Eritrea for good in 1993.

The Beauty of Culture by Eritrean artist Yosief Indrias
I came to the U.S. on August 10, 2007, a year after I left my country. I left my country in August 2006. I won a scholarship to pursue higher studies in Geneva, Switzerland. While in Geneva, I received a tuition waiver to study at a university in Washington, DC.

I am an Evangelical Christian. While I went to Evangelical Christian churches since I was a child, I did not become a devoted Evangelical Christian until March 2005. Unfortunately, that was after the faith was banned in Eritrea and when hundreds of evangelical Christians were thrown in jail for their faith. In 2001, the government declared that only Orthodox, Catholic, Lutheran and Islam were complying churches. All other faiths, including Evangelical/Pentecostals, Jehovah Witnesses, Bahai, and Seventh Day Adventists, were declared non-compliant faiths and banned.

Going to Bible or Prayer cells in houses or even carrying the Bible could lead to arrest, detention or even death in some cases. That did not stop my desire to attend Bible study and prayer meetings. I was eager to learn God’s Word and become a mature Christian. I went to a friend’s house to pray and study the Bible.

At the time I left Eritrea, the government imprisoned hundreds of Evangelical Christians. The government did not show any signs of stopping the persecution against Evangelical Christians. I was too afraid to go back home when I finished my studies in the United States. I talked to a couple of my professors about my intention to apply for asylum. They strongly advised me against applying for asylum without legal representation. One of my professors talked to the Immigration Clinic of the Law School. The clinic contacted me and set up an appointment to interview me. Two interns at the clinic interviewed me and made copies of my documents.

About a week later, the clinic notified me that it would take my case and represent me in my asylum application. I was relieved to hear that news. My next concern was to get my asylum application filed before the one year dead line. I had only a few weeks to write my affidavit, gather documents and mail the package. I had more interviews with the interns at the clinic to write my affidavit. After the affidavit was ready, the package was mailed on August 1, 2008, just a few days before the one year deadline.

The next step was to wait for my fingerprint appointment. I had my fingerprints taken on August 21. Because the interns that prepared my application finished their internship at the end of August, the professor asked for a continuance of my asylum interview, which was originally set for the beginning of September. My interview was rescheduled for September 15, 2008. Another intern was assigned to be my student council. I had a moot interview with the clinic team a few days before my interview. The moot helped me to get prepared for the interview. I felt less anxious about the interview at the asylum office.

Then came September 15. I arrived at the asylum office early. I met the professor and the student counsel outside the building. My interview was scheduled at 9:00 AM. The three of us got up to the third floor. We sat in the waiting room. Almost three hours went by before the asylum officer called me. The long wait made me nervous.

Around 11:50, I was called by the asylum officer. We followed her to the interview room. After the oath was administered, the officer started to ask me questions. She typed my answers to her questions. She asked me questions for an hour and a half. I had not anticipated some of the questions but I had a feeling it went well. The officer told me the decision will be sent to me by mail in about two weeks.

A month and a half went by before I heard anything from the asylum office. I was very anxious to know the decision. When I get home from work, the first thing I did was to go to the kitchen table to see if anything came in the mail for me. I was so happy when I finally got the good news. It was a huge relief. I did not have to go back to my country and risks persecution from the government of Eritrea.

My getting asylum in the United States was wonderful news. However, my personal life got a little complicated because of it. My fiancé had proposed to me after I had left the country and I said yes! Now that I can not go back to Eritrea because of my asylum status, and because it is difficult for him to leave the country, we do not know when we will see each other again. We can only hope that it is sooner than we think. For now, I’m happy that I am safe until I meet the love of my life and start a new journey.

Gang Membership May Be a Particular Social Group

A very particular social group
Joseph E. Langlois, Chief of the Asylum Division at USCIS, issued a memo declaring that within the Seventh Circuit, former gang membership “may” form a “particular social group.” The memo was prompted by a decision in the Seventh Circuit, Ramos v. Holder, 589 F.3d 426 (7th Cir. 2009), which held that former gang membership is a cognizable social group for asylum purposes.  Writing for the Court, Judge Posner notes that, “the term ‘particular social groups’ surely was not intended for the protection of members of the criminal class in this country, merely upon a showing that a foreign country deals with them even more harshly than we do.” 

The decision continues: “A gang is a group, and being a former member of a group is a characteristic impossible to change, except perhaps by rejoining the group.”

Judge Posner suggests that even where former gang members meet the requirements for asylum, they could be denied as a matter of discretion, or on statutory grounds:

We can imagine the Board’s exercising its discretion to decide that a “refugee” (that is, a person eligible for asylum) whose claim for asylum is based on former membership in a criminal gang should not be granted asylum [because, for example, he is not a person of good moral character and does not deserve a favorable exercise of discretion].

[In this case,] Ramos was a member of a violent criminal group for nine years. If he is found to have committed violent acts while a member of the gang (as apparently he did, although the evidence is not entirely clear), he may be barred from the relief he seeks for reasons unrelated to whether he is a member of a “particular social group”; for remember the bar for aliens who commit a serious nonpolitical crime.

The USCIS Memo states that within the Seventh Circuit, “former gang membership may form a particular social group if the former membership is immutable and the group of former gang members is socially distinct.”  Outside of that circuit, Asylum Officers should remember that criminal activity, “past or present, cannot form the basis of a particular social group.”  The memo also states that all Asylum Officers, regardless of jurisdiction, should note that past “gang-related activity may serve as an adverse discretionary factor that is weighed against positive factors.”