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Immigrant and Refugee Rights Project History

The Washington Lawyers' Committee established the Project in 1978, first as the Alien Rights Law Project and then as the Asylum and Refugee Rights Law Project. When the Project was initiated, virtually no pro bono legal services were available to non-citizens facing civil rights problems related to their national origin or immigration status. Like other Committee projects, the Immigrant and Refugee Rights Law Project, as it is now known, mobilized the volunteer resources of the private bar to address the needs of its clients. In the ensuing years, the Project has deployed the talents of several thousand volunteer attorneys to work on a broad range of issues affecting the basic legal rights of immigrants and refugees in this country. The following represent some of the Project's accomplishments:

U.S. Senate Select Commission on Immigration and Refugee Policy 
Starting in 1980, the Project, with the assistance of a grant from the Ford Foundation, assembled teams of lawyers and social scientists to prepare research papers on immigration policy issues for use by the U.S. Senate Select Commission on Immigration and Refugee Policy. The Project's submissions on such issues as employer sanctions, national identity cards, and possible amnesty proposals had a significant impact on the Commission's deliberations and its ultimate report.

Haitian Refugees 

In 1982, the Project assumed a leadership role as co-counsel in the first major lawsuit challenging the denial of due process to Haitian boat people. This litigation resulted in the landmark decision, Haitian Refugee Center v. Civiletti, upholding the plaintiffs' positions in nearly all respects.

In subsequent years, the Project, again supported by Ford Foundation grants, provided assistance to hundreds of Haitian asylum applicants in proceedings before the Board of Immigration Appeals. As part of these activities, Project volunteers worked directly with immigration rights organizations and individual immigration attorneys throughout the country. For example, the Project worked with pro bono attorneys to prepare sample briefs on the major legal issues facing Haitians for use by their attorneys in Washington D.C. and elsewhere.

Ethiopian Sanctuary 

Beginning in 1982, the Project led the successful campaign to secure Extended Voluntary Departure for thousands of Ethiopians who had sought sanctuary in the United States because of a bloody civil war in their homeland.

Immigration Reform and Control Act of 1986 

Following substantial advocacy work related to the consideration and adoption of the Immigration Reform and Control Act of 1986 (IRCA), the Project heavily concentrated resources on the following related areas: 
  • Direct assistance through its network of pro bono lawyers to ten thousand people applying for amnesty.
  • Initiation of an ultimately successful legal challenge, the so-called "known to the government" or Ayuda case, attacking an overly restrictive interpretation of a key section of the law that had denied thousands of individuals an opportunity to obtain amnesty. This case, Ayuda v.Thornburgh, 687 F. Supp. 650 (D.C. Cir. 1988), proceeded through the courts for more than six years, and eventually provided 50,000 people the right to safe haven in the United States.
  • Publication of a series of legal manuals explaining the anti-discrimination and amnesty provisions of IRCA that were widely circulated throughout the country and used by hundreds of local and national organizations and pro bono attorneys.
Capital Area Immigrants' Rights Coalition (CAIR) 

In 1988, the Project established a Community Coalition comprising more than 60 ethnic community, social, and legal service organizations and religious groups in the D.C. metropolitan area. The Project served as the administrative arm and legal counsel for the Coalition for 11 years. 

The Coalition has now been separately incorporated as the Capital Area Immigrants' Rights Coalition (CAIR Coalition). The Project continues to provide administrative and legal support to the CAIR Coalition and to conduct joint immigration-related advocacy activities with the Coalition and its member organizations. Discussions on immigration policy held at the Coalition meetings form the basis for the development of positions presented at the monthly meetings with the INS District Office and Regional Asylum Office.

National Immigration Forum  

At the national level, the Project was influential in the creation of the National Immigration Forum in the early 1980s and remains actively engaged in that organization's work. The Forum's first president, Rick Swartz, came to that post from his position as Director of the Washington Lawyers' Committee Asylum and Refugee Rights Project.

Latino Civil Rights Task Force  

In 1991, the Project was asked to serve as legal counsel to the Latino Civil Rights Task Force, which was established by community leaders in response to several nights of civil disturbances in the Mount Pleasant community in Washington, D.C. On behalf of the Task Force, the Project recruited a team of leading law firms and worked with them to prepare comprehensive reports and testimony on the status of Latinos in D.C. 

These reports carefully documented serious problems concerning access to local government services, housing, employment, education, and recreation; police misconduct and community relations; and certain aspects of the criminal justice system. The reports received considerable publicity and formed the basis of testimony presented at the January 1992 hearings conducted by the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights. The Commission issued a report in 1993 that adopted virtually all of the findings and recommendations presented in the Task Force's testimony.

Latino Reforms 

As general counsel to the Latino Civil Rights Task Force, the Project worked to secure implementation of the Task Force reform agenda. The Project and the Task Force achieved some important gains in addressing a number of basic community concerns. For example, the Project: 
  • Prevented attempts to reduce bilingual and English-as-a-Second-Language programs in the D.C. Public Schools
  • Improved channels of communication with law enforcement officials
Vulnerable Populations 

In l998, the Project began working with a local group of Liberians affiliated with a national organization representing thousands of Liberians to advocate for a permanent remedy for members of this community, many of whom have been in the U.S. with a temporary immigration status since civil war broke out in Liberia in the early 90s. The Project has provided technical information to the Liberian group to assist them in their campaign. 

The Project also continues to provide up-to-date information on the INS' Temporary Protected Status programs available to Liberians and other populations such as Sudanese, Burundians and Sierra Leoneans. The Project also has led campaigns to grant Temporary Protected Status to other groups, such as the Guatemalans. 

AILA v. Reno 

Wood v. Reno; American Immigration Lawyers Association (AILA) v. Reno (No. 98-5463,64, 65, D.C. Circuit. Jan. 11, 2000) 

In 1997, the Project and co-counsel, the American Immigration Law Foundation, filed a lawsuit against the INS's implementation of a new expedited removal provision included in the Illegal Immigration and Immigrant Responsibility Act of l996. Fried, Frank, Harris, Schriver & Jacobson acted as lead counsel in the case. Under the new law, immigration inspectors at ports of entry may summarily determine inadmissibility and exclude arriving citizens, legal permanent residents and other visa holders at airports because of alleged irregularities regarding their visa status. Those individuals who are sent back under this process are then barred from reentry for a five-year period. The case was consolidated with two other challenges to the INS implementation of expedited removal. In August 1998, the U.S. District Court ruled against plaintiffs on jurisdiction, standing to sue, and all substantive claims. In January 1999, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit affirmed the district court's decision. These decisions unfortunately meant that the INS may operate the expedited removal system without further judicial scrutiny.
     
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