Asylum and Its Discontents in the United States
The sister of my asylum-seeker client recently got an unpleasant surprise from the U.S. Embassy in her country. The sister is a prominent journalist who had come to the Embassy several times (at the Embassy’s request) to brief U.S. diplomats on the situation in her country. She and her family members held B-1/B-2 visitor visas … Read more
Raoul Wallenberg was a Swedish diplomat assigned to his country’s mission in Nazi-occupied Hungary. He arrived at his station in 1944, when tens of thousands of Jews were being deported to death camps. Using his cover as a diplomat, Mr. Wallenberg saved thousands of Jews from deportation. He gave them Swedish identity documents (of questionable … Read more
Two recent incidents involving my asylum seeker clients have revealed what might be a disturbing trend at the overseas U.S. consulates: A near complete disregard for asylum seeker confidentiality. Both incidents involved family members of asylum seekers who had applied for visas to enter the United States. One incident occurred in Europe; the other in … Read more