Background
The United States has long offered protected status to those fleeing persecution abroad in the form of Asylum and Withholding of Removal. Under its obligations under the U.N. Refugee Convention to which the U.S. is a party, only the most serious criminal convictions that present actual danger to the community in the United States can bar a person from receiving refuge under the immigration laws. In recent years, however, the federal government has applied this “particularly serious crime” designation to bar more and more immigrants from protected status in violation of the Refugee Convention. IDP advocates for change in U.S. policy to bring the country into compliance with the Refugee Convention and actively supports litigants in the Circuit Courts of Appeals contesting “particularly serious crime” determinations that prevent them from obtaining Asylum and Withholding of Removal.
Practice Advisories
- “United States Failure to Comply with the Refugee Convention: Misapplication of the Particularly Serious Crime Bar to Deny Refugees Protection from Removal to Countries Where Their Life or Freedom is Threatened.” (Fall 2018, by the Harvard Immigration and Refugee Clinical Program and IDP)
- “Particularly Serious Crime” Bars on Asylum and Withholding of Removal: Legal Standards and Sample Case Determinations (Fall 2018, by the Harvard Immigration and Refugee Clinical Program and IDP)
Amicus Briefs
- Valerio-Ramirez v. Sessions, 882 F.3d 289 (1st Cir. 2018): Brief of Harvard Immigration and Refugee Clinical Program and IDP in Support of Petitioner (Amicus counsel Philip L. Torrey of the Harvard Immigration and Refugee Clinical Program)
- Abankwah v. Lynch, 632 Fed. Appx. 670 (2d Cir. 2015): Brief of Human Rights First, IDP, NIP-NLG in Support of Petitioner (Amicus counsel Nancy Morawetz, Antonia House, and Tianyin Luo of NYU Law School’s Immigrant Rights Clinic)
- Vaskovska v. Lynch, 655 Fed. Appx. 880 (2d Cir. 2016): Brief of Harvard Immigration and Refugee Clinical Program, IDP, and NIP-NLG in Support of Petitioner (Amicus counsel Philip L. Torrey of the Harvard Immigration and Refugee Clinical Program)
- Hernandez v. Lynch, No. 14-74033 (9th Cir.): Brief of NIP-NLG and IDP in Support of Petitioner (Amicus counsel Trina Realmuto of NIP-NLG)