Kaye Scholer Saves Another Pro Bono Asylum Seeker

Kaye Scholer successfully represented a pro bono client from the Democratic Republic of the Congo in his application for asylum and withholding of removal. A United States Immigration Judge in Elizabeth, New Jersey granted withholding of removal on April 9. The client had been detained since his unauthorized arrival on September 25, 2006.

A member of the minority Luba Kasai ethnicity and of the principal nonviolent political opposition party, the Union for Democracy and Social Progress, the client was falsely arrested, beaten repeatedly, imprisoned for months, and set for execution before escaping to the United States. Had Kaye Scholer not obtained this relief, he would have been deported to the Congo and summarily killed by its government. Now, the client is permitted to remain in the United States to work and to build a new life.

The Kaye Scholer team included New York litigation associate Hanna Cohen and New York paralegal Maureen DeShong. They were supervised by litigation partner Phillip Geraci.