Prominent Lebanese filmmaker and human rights activist, Elie Hayek*, maintains her asylum status in the United States with help from the Community Services Team at Holland & Knight LLP. Elie Hayek, a 29 year-old doctoral candidate in the History Department at a renowned United States’ university, is a lead proponent for human rights in the Middle East. At the university, she established the first graduate Arab student organization, which is devoted to speaking out against authoritarian governments in the Arab world. In addition, she has worked on a number of films critical of the repression of certain Middle Eastern governments, including Notes on the War, a documentary following the suffering of the Lebanese people during the 2006 war with Israel and the upcoming film, The Unseen, which chronicles the daily sufferings and discrimination faced by lesbians in Lebanon. Elie also worked on the Oscar-nominated film for Best Documentary, My Country, My Country, an account of the U.S. occupation in Iraq. Thanks to Holland & Knight, Elie’s outspoken commitment to exposing the human rights abuses of certain Middle Eastern governments will continue, as she is now able to proceed with securing lawful permanent residence (”green card”) in the United States. Elie was granted asylum in 2003 based on her fear of returning to Lebanon where she is a well-known, vilified lesbian. In Lebanon, not only is homosexuality a crime, thus subjecting lesbians to arrest, imprisonment, and police brutality, but family violence toward lesbians, including verbal and physical abuse, is also extremely common. Between 2003 and 2006, Elie made four return trips to Lebanon for medical family emergencies, including caring for her diabetic two-year-old nephew and mother. Before each of these trips, Elie contacted the United States Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) where she was repeatedly told that returning to Lebanon for a family emergency would not jeopardize her status as an asylee. However, in November 2008, USCIS sent Elie a Notice of Intent to Terminate her Asylum Status, stating that, Elie, by virtue of her return trips, had re-availed herself of the protection of Lebanon and that she was scheduled for a termination interview with an asylum officer a month later. Elie then contacted Christopher Nugent, Senior Counsel for Holland & Knight’s Community Services Team, who immediately agreed to represent Elie, and with the hard work of other Community Services Team members and interns including Liz Lee, Alexandra Geiger, and Jon Umarov, prepared her voluminous response in opposition to USCIS’ intent to terminate her asylee status. The Community Services Team then conducted extensive research on the criteria for terminating the status of an asylee, as well as the country conditions for gays and lesbians living in Lebanon. The Team also procured affidavits from Elie’s professors, family members, and friends attesting to her academic achievements, commitment to human rights issues, and the previous persecution she experienced at the hands of her family members, as well as the life-threatening harm she would suffer if forced to return to Lebanon. In total, the Team submitted seven affidavits from experts, including experts on the Middle East, an expert on LGBT human rights issues, as well as a clinical psychologist and eleven affidavits from family, friends, co-workers, and people affiliated with her university. In its response, the Team successfully argued that Elie indeed had not re-availed herself, attesting that the case law and the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees Handbook on Procedures and Criteria for Determining Refugee Status which suggest that to terminate an asylee’s status due to voluntary re-availment, USCIS must show the intent to re-avail oneself of the protection of the home country, as well as actually obtain such protection, neither of which was present in Elie’s case. In addition, Christopher Nugent and his team relied on the doctrine of equitable estoppel, i.e., that the government cannot through its own mistakes terminate a person’s status and holding Elie responsible for the misinformation provided to her by USCIS regarding her emergency trips abroad would violate the principles of due process. USCIS informed Elie on February 10, 2009, that her asylum status would not be terminated because a preponderance of the evidence failed to meet the evidentiary standard required. In an email, dated February 11, 2009, Elie expressed her gratitude to the Holland & Knight team stating, “I actually cannot thank you both enough and I know without a doubt that winning this case would have been impossible without you!” * Name has been changed to protect client’s identity.
Source: http://www.probono.net/news/article.235384-Holland_Knight_LLP_Pro_Bono_Case
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Source: http://www.usdoj.gov/eoir/statspub/fy08syb.pdf
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