Legal Services Wins Asylum Case

By Katie Hui, Student Intern, Legal Services Clinic

Immigrant rights have always been an area of law that captured my interest, an area of law that felt very personal.  My family and I immigrated to this country in 1988 from Hong Kong.  As a girl adjusting to life in a new country, I remember how different life was in the United States.

Thomas Hailu was also a stranger to this country from Ethiopia.  I first spoke with him in the fall semester of 2007 when our clinic took on his case to help him file for asylum status.  Thomas was deserving of help; he reminded me of the hardships of being an immigrant.  Like my family and I, Thomas arrived with very little money and very little knowledge about the workings of this country, especially the laws.  But that’s where our similarities end.  While I arrived to the US on an airplane with the safety and comfort of my parents and three siblings, Thomas fled Ethiopia by himself, looking for refuge and safety in a foreign land.  At 20 years old, Thomas had already been twice imprisoned by the Ethiopian government for his political beliefs, and had experienced various forms of abuse and torture. 

In December 2007, a six pound “baby” of paperwork was born when we filed Thomas’ I-589, Application for Asylum and Withholding of Removal, along with the necessary, supplemental documents and evidence to the asylum office in Houston, Texas.  Three months later, before daybreak on March 18, 2008, after we had already received notice from the asylum office that they had received Thomas’ paperwork and fingerprints, Professor John M. Burman, Thomas, and I drove down to the Denver immigration office for Thomas’ interview with an asylum officer.  The interview took almost two hours, and by the end of it, we were told that the decision letter, notifying us if Thomas had been granted asylum status, would come within two weeks.

Two weeks went by without any word from the asylum office.  Then, on April 14, I received a call from Jeremy Kisling, student director at the clinic, that Thomas had left me a message stating that he had received his Notice of Asylum Approval.  I called Thomas immediately to have him fax a copy of that notice to the clinic as I had not yet received my copy of it.  At 1:16 p.m. that day, while sitting in class, I received a text message from Jeremy with two simple words:  “You won.”

Minus certain conditions, Thomas is now allowed to stay in the US and can take comfort that he will not have to return to a country where he will once again be imprisoned, tortured, or at the very worst, killed for his political beliefs.  Currently, we are looking for a way for him to be reunited with his parents and siblings within the US.

Since taking on Thomas’ case, the UW Legal Services clinic has listed itself as a free legal service provider with the immigration office and our website reflects our services as well.  Twenty years ago, my family and I made the realization that immigrants have very little rights in this country, so that for people like Thomas, my parents or myself, we had to work hard for the privilege of being able to call the US our “home.”  Now, I take comfort that other immigrants in Wyoming can have one more legal resource to turn to at a time when they need it most.  Thomas’ case was never about “winning”; it was about finding a place for him to take refuge in, a place where he wouldn’t be tortured or beaten for trying to help his own people—it was about finding a place where he can safely call home.