Settlement Announced in Hutto Litigation

On August 27, the American Civil Liberties Union announced a settlement in the federal lawsuits brought by the ACLU, the ACLU of Texas, the University of Texas School of Law Immigration Clinic, and the law firm of LeBoeuf, Lamb, Greene & MacRae LLP against U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement on behalf of 26 children detained at the T. Don Hutto Residential Center in Taylor, Texas (see March Asylum News). The settlement requires ICE to make significant improvements in its treatment of detained asylum seekers and children at the Hutto facility.

For more information about Hutto and the litigation, click here.
To read the ACLU press release (8/27/07), click here.
To read the New York Times article (8/28/07), click here.

Update: Iraqi Refugee Crisis

Human Rights First is working to secure a comprehensive response to the Iraqi refugee crisis. For more information about the issue and HRF’s Lifeline for Iraqi Refugees Project, click here. Meanwhile, public attention to the Iraqi refugee crisis has not subsided. Following is a sample of the media coverage in the past month.

• New York Times article about the crisis inside Iraq (8/29/07)
• Op-ed by Michael Gerson in the Washington Post (8/22/07)
• Washington Post editorial on the bi-partisan bills in the House and the Senate (8/12/07)
• New York Times article about Iraqi refugees in Jordan (8/10/07) (paid subscription required)
• CNN segment about Iraqi interpreters who worked for the U.S. military (8/10/07)

Update: Material Support

As reported in June’s Asylum News, U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services has announced a process for assessing exemptions for “material support” cases pending before that bureau. Click here to read the guidance and notices provided by USCIS. This process is now slowly beginning to function for asylum seekers whose cases have been on hold before the Asylum Office. There is still no process in place, however, to grant exceptions to the “material support” bar to asylum seekers whose cases are or have been in removal proceedings before the immigration court or the Board of Immigration Appeals.

To read a Washington Post article on this problem (8/13/07), click here.

Resources for Advocates of Asylum Seekers and Refugees

The Capital Area Immigrants’ Rights Coalition in Washington, D.C., has updated its manual for advocates of asylum seekers fleeing gang violence in Central America. For more information, please contact Vanessa Allyn at Vanessa.allyn@caircoalition.org. Another helpful resource is a transnational study on youth gangs released in March 2007 by the Washington Office of Latin America. It covers gangs in Washington, D.C., Nicaragua, Mexico, Honduras, Guatemala, and El Salvador. To read the executive summary, click here.

The U.S. Committee for Refugees and Immigrants has released its “Resource Guide for Serving Refugees with Disabilities.” It is available for download at www.refugees.org/DisabilityGuide. The guide, written for refugee case managers and those serving refugees with disabilities, includes information about resources for serving adults and children with disabilities, housing for refugees with disabilities, assistive technology, medical resources, citizenship and disability, and benefits for refugees with disabilities.