Level: All
The Immigration and Nationality Act states that any noncitizen in the United States may apply for asylum. However, the statute contains several bars to receiving asylum, and regulations and policies introduced by recent presidential administrations have further curtailed access to asylum. This is the first part of a three-part series on asylum bars. In this webinar, we will focus on five of the nine statutory bars to asylum that are related to prior criminal conduct, U.S. national security, and persecution of others. We will delve into how to screen for these bars, and strategies to defend against application of these bars to our clients based on current policies and case law.
Presenters
Merle Kahn - Senior Attorney Contractor, ILRC
Merle Kahn has been exclusively practicing immigration law for over thirty years. For the past fifteen years she has been increasingly focusing her practice on the intersection of criminal and immigration law and on removal defense. She has vast experience in removal defense, federal appeals, the immigration consequences of crimes, family immigration, naturalization, and humanitarian immigration such as asylum, VAWA and U visas. She provides technical assistance through the ILRC’s Attorney of the Day program mentoring and assisting public defenders, criminal defense attorneys, private attorneys and nonprofit attorneys and staff with a vast array of immigration law and questions.
Since joining the ILRC as a consultant in 2023, she has contributed to several ILRC manuals including, Essentials of Asylum Law, Temporary Protected Status: Practice and Strategies, Removal Defense: Defending Immigrants in Immigration Court, and California Judges Benchbook: Domestic Violence Cases. She has authored practice advisories, presented webinars, led the ILRC 40 hour basic immigration law training, and has served as a panelist on a number of issues for the American Immigration Lawyers Association (AILA).
Prior to joining the ILRC she was Of Counsel at Daniel Shanfield – Immigration Defense, PC, where she represented clients before USCIS, ICE, EOIR, and the Ninth Circuit. She is the creator and writer of Top of the Ninth, a blog about important Supreme Court, Ninth Circuit, and Board of Immigration Appeals immigration cases. She founded and directed a pro bono legal clinic for refugees and asylees through Jewish Family Services of Silicon Valley (JFS) and AILA. In 2016 Merle was named an AILA Pro Bono Champion. Before entering the field of immigration law, Merle was a prosecutor for the Attorney Registration and Disciplinary Commission for the Supreme Court of Illinois.
Merle earned her law degree from The George Washington University in Washington D.C. and received her undergraduate degree from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign where she majored in English and American Literature. Merle is admitted to the California Bar.
Erin Quinn - Senior Managing Attorney, ILRC
Erin Quinn is an attorney based in San Francisco. Her work focuses on building capacity of organizations and practitioners to assist immigrants. She conducts trainings on immigration law throughout the United States and provides legal expertise through the ILRC’s Attorney of the Day program. Erin has contributed to numerous ILRC publications as author or editor, including Removal Defense: Defending Immigrants in Immigration Court; Essentials of Asylum and many others. In addition, Erin works on issues related to immigration status and healthcare as well as consumer protection. She has published articles with LexisNexis Emerging Issues and American Immigration Lawyers Association (AILA).
Prior to coming to the ILRC, Erin represented immigrants in all aspects of their immigration matters, with an emphasis on removal defense and complex cases. She was owner and attorney at her own firm for 5 years after defending immigrants as an associate at the Law Office of Robert B. Jobe. Her experience in immigration law and policy includes working as a fellow for the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, EU headquarters in Belgium; clerking for the Immigration Court of San Francisco; and teaching courses as a lecturer at California State University, East Bay. Erin is on the Advisory Council for the Northern California Chapter of the American Immigration Lawyers Association (AILA), in which she serves as Consumer Protection Coordinator.
Erin holds a joint degree in law and public policy (JD/MPP) from the University of Michigan, where she was co-editor of Michigan Journal of Gender & Law. She received her undergraduate degree from University of California, Los Angeles, where she majored in English and Anthropology. She is a member of the California Bar and proficient in Spanish.
Jehan Laner - Senior Staff Attorney, ILRC
Growing up in a family and community of immigrants, Jehan is deeply committed to defending the human rights of all people. Jehan joined the ILRC in June 2022. Prior to joining the ILRC, Jehan represented detained and non-detained immigrants in removal proceedings at Pangea Legal Services and as an Immigration Legal Fellow with Community Legal Services in East Palo Alto. Jehan also fought for policies to disentangle local law enforcement from immigration enforcement, as a Ford Fellow with Advancing Justice – Asian Law Caucus’s Criminal Justice Reform program.
Jehan received her J.D. from New York University Law School. During law school, Jehan was a student advocate for two years in the Immigrant Rights Clinic where she defended immigrants facing deportation. In the clinic, she represented asylum seekers in immigration court in New York and Texas and co-authored amicus briefs before the Eight Circuit and Board of Immigration Appeals. Jehan speaks Spanish fluently.
Aruna Sury - Senior Staff Attorney, ILRC
Aruna Sury is a Senior Staff Attorney with the ILRC’s San Francisco office. Her work focuses on removal defense, administrative and federal appeals, and immigration consequences of crimes. Through the ILRC’s Attorney of the Day program, Aruna provides legal guidance to criminal defense and immigration counsel. She regularly contributes to ILRC publications by authoring and updating content that enables practitioners to provide high quality representation to their clients. Aruna also presents ILRC trainings and CLE courses on a variety of topics.
Since obtaining her law degree from the University of Texas at Austin in 2001, Aruna has dedicated her career to the areas of immigration and civil rights in various settings in San Francisco, Seattle, and Austin. She has worked in law firm and solo practice environments as well as in non-profit and public organizations, including Washington Defender Association, University of Washington, Kids in Need of Defense, and Political Asylum Project of Austin (now American Gateways). Aruna’s personal interest is in immigrants’ due process rights, particularly the right to effective counsel and expansive access to judicial review. She has litigated numerous cases before the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals, as well as other circuit courts.