The Lawyers Committee for Human Rights, along with lawyers who took his case without charge, brought it to the attention of members of Congress. This led to his freedom. Many other refugees are not as fortunate. INS inspectors at the airport or border now have the power to make deportation decisions that previously were entrusted to professional judges. Fair procedures are critically important in making what can be life and death decisions regarding asylum.
Many victims find it hard to speak of their experiences right after they arrive.
A few years ago, I interviewed several women who had escaped from Chile and Argentina, where they had been raped and tortured. The shame, isolation and terror they felt were overwhelming. Even to save their lives, these women could not have told a strange man in a crowded room what they had endured. Yet failure to do so can result in an asylum seeker being wrongly turned away without a fair opportunity to fully present her claim. Our asylum policies make me wonder whether the words etched on our cherished icon, the Statue of Liberty, still mean something.