Center News

Following a remarkable second round of litigation before the U.S. Supreme Court, the immigration case of Moones Mellouli came to a definitive end last week when an immigration court dismissed with prejudice all deportation proceedings against him after federal authorities promised the Supreme Court that they would never again seek to deport him, or any other immigrant, on the basis of drug convictions that have no proven connection to substances controlled under federal law.

Minnesota Lawyer has announced that the litigation team that achieved a victory at the U.S. Supreme Court this past June in the case of Mellouli v. Holder will be among the magazine’s 2015 Attorneys of the Year honorees. The team consisted of faculty and students from the Law School’s Center for New Americans; pro bono lawyers from the firm of Faegre Baker Daniels; and attorneys from the Immigrant Law Center of Minnesota.

The New Yorker magazine published a profile this week of Nelson Kargbo, a refugee and former child soldier from Sierra Leone who was successfully represented in his immigration case by law students with the Law School’s Center for New Americans, in partnership with Dorsey & Whitney and ACLU-MN.

Nelson Kargbo, a refugee from Sierra Leone was finally released from his prolonged detention this week. Earlier this week, Magistrate Judge Brisbois issued his report and recommendation to release Kargbo. Kargbo had been held for over two years by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement in Minnesota. Despite the fact that he was granted protection under the United Nation’s Convention against Torture on July 30, 2015, ICE did not release him immediately.

The Law School's Immigration and Human Rights Clinic recently helped a Salvadoran woman gain asylum in the United States.

The client came to the United States in 2012 to escape her abusive husband, who had physically, sexually, and psychologically abused her for many years in El Salvador. He struck her on numerous occasions, using tree branches, ropes, and belts. He also beat their children, and frequently threatened his wife's life.

The American Civil Liberties Union of Minnesota has joined a Habeas Petition filed by the Center for New Americans and Dorsey & Whitney, on behalf of Nelson Kargbo, a refugee from Sierra Leone, challenging his two-year detention by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement in Minnesota.

On June 1, the U.S. Supreme Court issued its opinion in Mellouli v. Holder, handing a victory to Moones Mellouli, a pro bono client represented jointly by the University of Minnesota Law School's Center for New Americans, Faegre Baker Daniels and the Immigrant Law Center of Minnesota (ILCM). The decision is an early milestone for a unique law school program created to transform U.S. immigration policy through partnerships with law firms and non-profit immigration legal service providers.

A young Liberian man whom the Law School's Immigration and Human Rights Clinic helped to obtain asylum in 2013 was recently granted a green card, giving him lawful permanent resident status in the United States.

Student attorneys in the Law School's Detainee Rights Clinic recently won rulings on appeal for two clients with mental disorders who were not screened for competency during the merits phase of their proceedings before the immigration court.

The Law School's Immigration and Human Rights Clinic, part of the Center for New Americans (CNA), has recently seen its efforts lead to positive outcomes in three asylum-related cases.