Asylum and Removal
One of Davidson and Schiller’s areas of concentration
is the representation of clients in Asylum and Removal Proceedings.
Our firm plays a leadership role in the legal community in
this area of Immigration Law. We have represented a wide range
of clients from all over the world, including asylum-seekers
who have faced persecution in their own countries for reasons
ranging from sexual orientation to political opinion.
Three of our four attorneys have served as Chair of the
American Immigration Lawyer’s Association (AILA) Chicago
Chapter’s Liaison Committees to the Executive Office
for Immigration Review and the Chicago Asylum Office. Partner
Mark Davidson has given several presentations at regional
and national level AILA conferences on various aspects of
Asylum Law, including on how to effectively present an asylum
case. He has also co-authored an article called “Applications
for Asylum at Ports of Entry” covering asylum at the
border and expedited removal proceedings, which can be found
in the 2002-2003 edition of AILA’s Immigration &
Nationality Law Handbook.
Partner William Schiller serves as an adjunct lecturer at
Northwestern University, teaching a course on human rights
and U.S. Asylum Law. In the spring of 2003, Mr. Schiller and
the students from his most recent seminar were featured in
Cross
Currents, a magazine published by Northwestern’s
Weinberg College of Arts and Sciences. “[Mr. Schiller’s]
passion for representing those seeking asylum in the US –
evidenced in both his law practice and his Linkage class –
is catching,” the article reads (p. 19).
The attorneys and staff at Davidson and Schiller LLC share
this passion, as well as a wealth of knowledge on what it
takes to maximize an applicant’s chances of approval
on asylum applications and in cases before the Executive Office
for Immigration Review in Removal Proceedings.
The United States Refugee Act of 1980, with subsequent modifications,
is the basis for the process of granting asylum status to
refugees. According to this act, any person who is able to
show past persecution or a well-founded fear of persecution
on the basis of political opinion, race, religion, nationality,
or membership in a particular social group is eligible to
apply for asylum in the United States. The basic document
for applying for asylum is the I-589 form “Application
for Asylum and Withholding of Removal,” available from
the US Department of Justice Executive
Office for Immigration Review.
For more information on Asylum and Removal please contact
Davidson and Schiller LLC.
You may also find the following links useful.
· Asylum
News from the US Department of Justice Executive Office for
Immigration Review
· USCIS
Asylum Information page
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