Cleary Gottlieb’s pro bono client Ms. M was granted asylum in the U.S. on May 4, 2017.
In 2012, the firm successfully secured asylum for Ms. M’s mother, who was a victim of labor trafficking by employees of the UN mission for an African nation. However, Ms. M was not eligible to receive derivative asylum based on her mother’s application because she was over 21 years old, the maximum age to receive derivative benefits based on a parent’s immigration petition.
Cleary successfully applied for humanitarian parole to bring Ms. M to the U.S., arguing that she was in danger because the government knew that Ms. M’s mother had reported her trafficking to the state department and because she had suffered brutal abuse at the hands of her father. Once Ms. M was safely in the U.S., the pro bono team submitted the successful application for asylum.