Kramer Levin Obtains Second Recent Grant of Asylum for Pro Bono Client

Kramer Levin obtained its second recent grant of asylum for a client referred by pro bono partner Peter Cicchino Youth Project - in this instance, a gay man from Jamaica who was nearly killed by his own family on account of his sexual orientation, after which he became homeless. While an asylum interview must be scheduled within 45 days of an alien's application, Kramer Levin's client had been waiting nearly two years for adjudication of his application. To address this delay, Kramer Levin filed a mandamus petition in the United States District Court for the Eastern District of New York seeking an order compelling the United States Citizenship and Immigration Service (USCIS) to immediately schedule our client's interview. USCIS scheduled an interview within weeks, and Kramer Levin was able to successfully represent the client at his interview, which also required securing an exception from the one-year filing deadline applied to all applications for asylum. In this case, Kramer Levin argued that post-traumatic stress disorder brought on by our client’s abuse at the hands of his own family, followed by several years of homelessness, constituted an extraordinary circumstance meriting waiver of the one-year deadline to apply for asylum. The Kramer Levin team included Litigation associate Kurt M. Denk, with assistance from Litigation associates Catherine Hoge and Harold Robinson and Corporate associate Joel Pietrzak, and paralegals Santo Cipolla and Josh Trachtenberg. Litigation partner Jeffrey S. Trachtman and Intellectual Property special counsel Aaron M. Frankel supervised the matter.