MoProBono - Spring 2018 Update

11 MoProBono Spring 2018 hand knowledge of how a federal funding cut-off would make immigrant communities more vulnerable to danger and deprivation and interfere with amici’s religious missions to help those in need. Partners Jennifer Taylor and Bill Tarantino led the efforts, with of counsel Robin Stafford and associates Amanda Phillips, Rylee Olm, and Justin Fisch contributing. As with the travel ban, litigation on the sanctuary cities order continues. Finally, our lawyers working in the area of political and religious asylum continue to win legal victories for individuals who fled to the United States to escape persecution in their home countries. • A team of Northern Virginia lawyers that included Cynthia Akatugba and Stephen Thau won asylum for their client, who as a teen in El Salvador had been forced to live with a gang leader, suffering multiple rapes and other abuses, while she and her family were silenced by the threat of murder. • New York teams won asylum in two cases for women who fled brutal domestic violence by their partners in Guatemala and Haiti, in both cases prevailing after hearings in immigration court. Jamie Levitt guided the efforts, with associates Kat Mateo and Don Lee playing leading roles, assisted by paralegal Ruby Grossman. • Palo Alto lawyers succeeded in getting asylum for a lesbian from Cameroon, one of the world’s most repressive countries for LGBTQ people, who would have faced jail and worse if she were forced to return to that country. The team, led by Chuck Comey with associates Shannon Sibold and Hila Cohen and pro bono counsel Rachel Williams, is now on the verge of bringing their client’s two young children — a four-year-old son and a baby she informally adopted at birth — to join her in the United States.