Case Highlights

Citizenship for Vulnerable Adults
12/30/2011 11:50am
For many people citizenship is an opportunity to achieve a new identity and to participate in civic life, including voting.  But for some, citizenship is critical to their economic security and well-being.  Under current law, refugees and other humanitarian immigrants are only able to retain eligibility for Supplemental Security Income (SSI) for seven years and failure to naturalize may mean the loss of benefits. By definition, SSI recipients can’t work—they are either disabled or over 65.  Those who have lived and worked in the U.S.
Precedent Asylum Case in the Third Circuit
12/30/2011 11:43am
The outcome of a case in litigation for over 7 years, including two decisions at the Third Circuit Court of Appeals, will impact young men fleeing life-threatening violence by Central America gangs. HIAS Pennsylvania has been at the forefront of this groundbreaking case, with our senior staff attorney Ayodele Gansallo, working in collaboration with lead counsel Martin Duffey, a partner at Cozen O’Connor, who handled the matter pro bono.
What Have We Won? What Have We Lost? – Long Separated Families Reunited
9/2/2011 10:16am
Two American wives have been reunited with their immigrant husbands after years of harsh separation due to punitive anti-immigrant policies. Mrs. Z was separated from her husband and father of their three U.S. Citizen children for over two years while he was stranded in Mexico, awaiting a decision on his long-pending immigration application to allow him to be reunited with his family in the United States. Mrs. P was separated from her husband for over five years while he was stranded in his native Ukraine, waiting to be reunited with his wife.

© 2011 HIAS Pennsylvania