Former Law Clinic Client Now Taking Classes at Law School

When Professor Stephen Meili looked out on his immigration law class at the start of the fall semester, there was a familiar face mixed in among the group of eager students seated before him. Amna Arabi, a Metropolitan State University student taking his class through an individualized studies program that allows her to earn credits at other institutions, first met Meili five years ago when he and law students at the Immigration and Human Rights Clinic represented her in an asylum case.

When Arabi initially came to Mondale Hall in 2013, she was terrified of having to return to her native Sudan, where she had just had a frightening run-in with government officials and faced the chilling prospect of reprisals and persecution.

Today, she confidently strides those same hallways with asylum status, her green card, and a stack of books for Meili’s class and for a second class on International Human Rights with Professor Fionnuala D. Ní Aoláin.

Life in Sudan

In Sudan, Arabi was considered an unusual woman for seeking out an education, insisting on getting a job, and performing international aid work that required her to toil in refugee camps and sometimes fly to other countries on her own. She also rebuffed attempts to force her into an arranged marriage against her will.

Because culture and the current repressive political regime in Sudan does not promote women’s rights, gender equality is challenged on daily basis and women often have no ability to navigate the male-dominated legal system. Arabi just took the harassment and constant pressures against her ambitions and desires as normal. Ironically, it was not the unequal treatment that set her on her path to seeking asylum in the United States, but a simple act of kindness.

Arabi learned that some relatives of a family that she worked with were being held in detention in South Sudan. She had family members with connections to the leadership of the opposition party and prevailed upon those connections to help effectuate the release of the detainees. Her efforts ultimately paid off, and the individuals were released from their detention.

However, Arabi’s actions did not go unnoticed by the government. She soon found herself being trailed by government agents suspicious of her familial ties to the opposition and discovered that her phones were being tapped. When she had to fly to the United States to attend a job-related training program, she had a harrowing experience at the airport where she was detained and subjected to a deeply disturbing interrogation by authorities. They ultimately allowed her to proceed to her flight, but the encounter left her badly shaken and concerned about what would happen upon her return. When she called friends back home after her arrival in the United States, she was warned that she should not come back.

Seeking Asylum

Scared and unsure what to do, Arabi contacted The Advocates for Human Rights. The Minneapolis-based nonprofit group screened her case and referred it to Anu Jaswal ’15, a University of Minnesota Law Student then working at the Immigration and Human Rights Clinic.

“So, I came down to the Law School, began talking about my case, and we started taking it from there,” Arabi said. “Steve [Meili] was right there at the first meeting.”

For the next two years, Meili and various students at the clinic worked tirelessly with Arabi on every aspect of her case, helping her to document and pursue her asylum claim. She said that she was most surprised to discover that the gender-based persecution that had just been such an ingrained part of daily life in Sudan could help form the basis of an asylum claim here in the United States. She was also pleased and gratified to see that so many of the law students helping her were women – something that would have been unimaginable in Sudan.

In the fall of 2015, Arabi received the life-changing news that she had been granted asylum.

The Future

Arabi spent a few years working as a Family and Child Advocate in the Twin Cities and volunteering for an educational and cultural understanding initiative in Nobles County before deciding to return to school to further her education. She lives on her own, something that is neither generally allowed nor socially acceptable for women to do in Sudan. “I love the independence that women have in this country to make our own decisions,” she said.

Arabi has some concerns about the current political climate and about the fact that she recently lost her health benefits when she left her full-time job to attend school. However, despite whatever challenges life in the United States may bring, she said that she is forever grateful to the University of Minnesota Law School and Professor Meili for helping her to obtain protection in this country. She has also kept in contact with Meili over the years and continues to consult with him when she needs advice on immigration issues or on her academic advancement. “And now I am so honored to be in these classes,” she said.

Arabi hopes to one day return to international human rights work. While being a lawyer is something that she has considered and even dreamed about, she believes that the expense and the time required for a law degree make pursuing a legal education an unlikely prospect for her. But, despite her protestations, perhaps Arabi should not be counted out as a future law student just yet.

“You know,” she points out with a musing air, “the credits that I am getting for these courses would all count toward my degree….”

--By Mark A. Cohen