Training: Representing Survivors in Immigration Court Asylum Hearings

In person and via Zoom
January 15, 2025
& January 29, 2025

In person & via Zoom
.

RSVP for 1/15  RSVP for 1/29

Sanctuary for Families is a New York-based non-profit organization serving survivors of domestic violence, sex trafficking, and other forms of gender-based violence. Sanctuary’s Immigration Intervention Project (“IIP”) assists survivors fleeing horrific gender-based persecution and violence from all over the world, including severe domestic violence, sexual assault, LGBTQ-based violence, forced marriage, female genital mutilation, forced sterilization, attempted femicide, and/or trafficking.

Over the past year New York has seen an influx of at-risk survivors in need of quality representation to ensure they receive protection under U.S. asylum law and can safely and peacefully live their lives free from violence and exploitation. Sanctuary’s IIP has a growing waitlist of survivors in urgent need of representation on their defensive asylum cases in Immigration Court. The need for pro bono representation for asylum clients is greater now than ever before.

With that urgent need in mind, Sanctuary is training pro bono attorneys to represent survivors who have asylum hearing dates in New York Immigration Court scheduled in 2025 and 2026.

Pro bono teams preparing for an asylum hearing will have access to Sanctuary’s password-protected database of asylum resources and sample legal documents, and will be assigned an experienced Sanctuary immigration attorney to mentor the case. Asylum hearings are usually no longer than one day and are excellent opportunities to gain trial experience. This training is required for any attorney interested in working on a Sanctuary defensive asylum case, and is strongly encouraged for any legal professional interested in serving as an interpreter for the case team.

There will be two training options in January:

Wednesday, January 15, from 9:30AM – 11:00AM, at Sullivan & Cromwell LLP, 125 Broad Street, New York, NY 10004. There will be a remote option for those who cannot attend in person. CLE credit in NY is pending. Please RSVP here.

Wednesday, January 29, from 9:30AM – 11:00AM, at Sidley Austin, 787 7th Ave, New York, NY 10019. There will be a remote option for those who cannot attend in person. CLE credit in NY is pending. Please RSVP here.

If you have any questions about the training or about representing survivors in asylum cases, please email probono@sffny.org.