For Immediate Release
September 1, 2009

Media Contact:

Kara Tershel, (202) 662-9500

 

WASHINGTON, D.C. - A refugee’s chance of gaining political asylum in the United States all too often has little to do with the merits of the claim, but instead hinges on the personality, background, gender and prior work experience of the adjudicator who has been assigned to the case.

Professor Schrag

 

This is just one of the startling findings in Refugee Roulette: Disparities in Asylum Adjudication and Proposals for Reform (New York University Press, 2009), a new book by Georgetown Law Professor Philip Schrag, Georgetown Law Visiting Professor Andrew I. Schoenholtz and Temple University Beasley School of Law Professor Jaya Ramji-Nogales, Georgetown Law LL.M. 2006.

 

The authors analyze decisions made at all four levels of the adjudication process: the Department of Homeland Security, the immigration courts, the Board of Immigration Appeals and the United States Courts of Appeals. They uncover immense disparities in asylum approval rates and make recommendations for future reform.

 

Professor Schoenholtz

The book, based on a study begun by the authors in 2005, is an expanded version of their 2007 Stanford Law Review article, "Refugee Roulette," which was featured on the front page of the New York Times on May 31, 2007.  It includes a chapter by Georgetown Law Professor Carrie Menkel-Meadow entitled, "Asylum in a Different Voice? Judging Immigration Claims and Gender."

 

"Refugee Roulette reveals how far the nation’s asylum adjudication system has veered from its traditional moorings of equal justice under law and protection for those in danger of political persecution. The authors bring impressive experience, care, and seasoned judgment to the table," said Doris Meissner, former Commissioner of the U.S. Immigration and Naturalization Service and Senior Fellow at the Migration Policy Institute.

 

 

"This pathbreaking study of the asylum system in the United States, coupled with the comparative commentary, reveals the enormous challenges of making fair decisions about asylum claims when the underlying facts are far away and decisions rest on assessments of credibility – of people who often do not speak the language of the judge," notes Yale Law Professor Judith Resnik.

 

"Insiders have long bemoaned the arbitrary and unfair outcomes of the U.S. asylum system. Finally we have a meticulous and compelling study that lays bare the indisputable problems and essential remedies for all to see," said Harvard Law Professor Jacqueline Bhabha.

 

 

At Georgetown Law, Schrag is the Delaney Family Professor in Public Interest Law and director of the Center for Applied Legal Studies. He recently stepped down as director of the Public Interest Law Scholars Program.

 

Schrag has been a tireless advocate on behalf of refugees seeking political asylum in the United States. Last year, Schrag and his former client, David Ngaruri Kenney, published, Asylum Denied: A Refugee’s Struggle for Safety in America (University of California Press, 2008), the chilling story of Kenney’s attempt to escape persecution in his native Kenya and gain asylum in this country. Yale Professor Bruce Ackerman described it as "a fabulous book – a love story, a law story, a struggle against death, a battle for justice, and much more."

 

Schrag is the author of fourteen books, including A Well-Founded Fear: the Congressional Battle to Save Political Asylum in America (1999) and Ethical Problems in the Practice of Law (Aspen, 2d. ed. 2002), co-authored with his wife, Professor Lisa Lerman, Georgetown Law LL.M. 1984, who teaches at Catholic University Law School.

 

In 2008, Schrag was honored for his immigration law work with the Daniel Levy Memorial Award from Lexis/Nexis. He was also recognized for his contributions to public interest law with the Deborah L. Rhode Award from the Association of American Law Schools and the Equal Justice Works Outstanding Law School Faculty Award.

 

Schoenholtz is the deputy director at the Georgetown University Institute for the Study of International Migration and co-director of the Certificate Program in Refugee and Humanitarian Emergencies. He directs the Center for Applied Legal Studies and teaches courses at the Law Center on refugee law and policy, refugees and humanitarian emergencies, and immigration law and policy. He also serves as the faculty advisor to the Georgetown Immigration Law Journal.

 

Before coming to Georgetown, Schoenholtz served as deputy director of the U.S. Commission on Immigration Reform. Prior to this, he practiced immigration, asylum and international law at the law firm of Covington & Burling. He has authored numerous articles on international refugee law, comparative asylum policy, temporary protection, and the Supreme Court, and is an adviser to the American Bar Association Commission on Immigration.

 

About Georgetown University Law Center 

Georgetown University Law Center is one of the world's premier law schools. It has the largest full-time faculty in the nation and is pre-eminent in several areas, including constitutional, international, tax and clinical law. Drawing on its Jesuit heritage, it has a strong tradition of public service and is dedicated to the principle that law is but a means, justice is the end. With this principle in mind, Georgetown Law has built an environment that cultivates an exchange of ideas and the pursuit of academic excellence. It brings together an extraordinarily varied group of teachers, scholars and practitioners, as well as an outstanding student body representing more than 60 countries.