One Clinic Alumna, and One Clinic Brief, Preserve Freedom for Many

When tens of thousands of mothers and children fled violence in Central America in 2014, the U.S. Government’s first reaction was to detain them at remote private facilities in New Mexico and Texas. When the families filed credible asylum claims, many immigration judges began to release them on bond. But the Department of Homeland Security appealed, claiming the women and children pose a national security threat.

Student attorneys Geordan Logan and Keely Perdue partnered with alumna Sarah Perez (Boyd ’12) to defend the release orders. Their brief, which has been adapted and used in some two-dozen cases in Texas, attacked the government’s claims that families with children who had already been found to have credible asylum claims could be called a national security risk. In every known case that was decided, the Board of Immigration Appeals affirmed the bond, letting the mothers and children remain free while they complete their asylum applications. In February, a federal judge in Washington, D.C., issued a preliminary injunction forbidding DHS from refusing bond for families with credible asylum claims.