Columbia Law Clinic Helps Gay Man Gain Asylum
Here’s some warm & fuzzy public interest news to kick off your weekend!
The Columbia Spectator reported today that Ahmed A., a 37-year-old gay man from the West African country Mauritania, was granted asylum last month with the help of Columbia Law’s Sexuality and Gender Law Clinic.
“When I saw the headline, ‘Immigration approval’ and the small red stamp ‘Approval guaranteed’ on the bottom, I couldn’t believe myself,” says Ahmed, who identifies as gay and applied for asylum with the help of Columbia Law School’s Sexuality & Gender Law Clinic. “I was crying.” . . .
Columbia’s Sexuality and Gender Law Clinic, which is the only of its kind, adopts one or two asylum candidates every year. The clients, who are referred by the non-profit Immigration Equality, all seek to flee their countries for fear of persecution due to sexual orientation, gender identity, and/or HIV status. Mauritania is one of seven countries in the world where same-sex sexual activity is punishable by death. . . .
Ahmed said that because of his sexual orientation, his tribe banished him, his father signed away his legal relation to him, and his sister’s husband, who now works for the Mauritanian government, asked her for a divorce.
After calling Columbia clinical law professor Suzanne Goldberg [about his approval], Ahmed celebrated by sleeping, something he had barely been able to do for the six months that he waited for his application to be processed.
Ahmed’s case is a great reminder of why we, the public interest enthusiasts, do what we do.