The Harvard Immigration and Refugee Clinical Program’s Crimmigration Clinic and the Immigrant Defense Project issued two new resources for advocates and attorneys defending the rights of immigrants fighting removal to countries where they will be persecuted.
A report,“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,” examines how U.S. implementation and interpretation of the “particularly serious crime” bar to withholding of removal and asylum in the U.S. fails to comply with the Refugee Convention. It also looks at how the U.S. diverges from the standards and practices of the international community and other countries.
Another resource,“Particularly Serious Crime” Bars on Asylum and Withholding of Removal: Legal Standards and Sample Case Determinations,” is designed to aid in the legal representation of immigrants in criminal and removal proceedings. Specifically, this chart is designed to help attorneys evaluate whether a criminal conviction constitutes a “particularly serious crime” barring asylum or withholding of removal.
Harvard Law School Lecturer on Law Phil Torrey, HIRC managing attorney and supervisor of the Crimmigration Clinic, helped create these resources, along with Clarissa Lehne ’18 and Collin Poirot ’18.
While a student at the Crimmigration Clinic at HLS, Lehne successfully argued before the Board of Immigration Appeals that her client’s conviction should not result in his detention and deportation. Poirot is current a Public Service Venture Fund Fellow working on immigrant rights at Project South.
Crimmigration—the intersection of criminal and immigration law—is the newest policy area for HIRC, one of oldest clinical programs at Harvard Law School. In addition to its broader Immigration and Refugee Advocacy clinic, HIRC offers Torrey’s crimmigration clinic in the spring: an opportunity for students to gain direct experience working on and contributing to case law in this field. Learn more about the clinic and read an interview with Phil Torrey at Harvard Magazine.