Around the water cooler: Asylum for Iraqi refugee

Jenner & Block’s client, Ala Farid Atya, was an Iraqi National who worked for the U.S. military at Al-Asad Air Base in al-Anbar Province, Iraq in 2003. Beginning in 2005, Atya and his family began receiving written and oral threats from Iraqi militias and insurgent groups as a result of his collaboration with the U.S. military, according to Jenner.

Persecution escalated to include death threats, the bombing of his home during a Ramadan dinner, shooting at Atya and three of his coworkers, and a kidnapping of his father in 2006. In October 2006 the family fled Iraq in fear of their lives. At that time, Atya was engaged to a U.S. soldier from Nebraska.

Atya received his K-1 fiancé visa in December 2007, and flew to the U.S. to be with his fianceé. Upon arriving at O’Hare International Airport, Atya was notified that his fianceé no longer wanted to marry him, and he was accused of visa fraud and taken into custody.

At that time, Abraham Saiger, an associate at Jenner & Block, began representing Atya.

When commenting on the importance of this pro bono case, Saiger said, “I believe it’s important that Iraqis who are risking their lives by working with us need to know we are behind them.”

Saiger prepared an asylum application for the client and submitted a 44-page brief, an expert witness report, and other supporting documentation to the immigration court.

Saiger provided support from Eric Davis, a professor at Rutgers University, for the expert testimony. As a professor of political science with a focus on the Middle East and Iraq, Davis was able to provide background about the Shiite and Sunni struggle, and illustrate that the Iraq government was not able to control the militia groups that were attacking Atya; and if he returned to Iraq there would be reasonable fear that he would be attacked further, Saiger said.

Saiger demonstrated that Atya was carrying with him at the airport a letter written by a family friend congratulating him on his marriage. This evidence illustrated that Atya told his friends and family he was getting married, and believed he would reunite with his fianceé, and consequently had not committed any fraud, he said.

Also, Atya was told it was impossible for him to fly from Damascus directly to Nebraska, where his fianceé was, so he planned to fly through O’Hare. Accordingly, Saiger said he showed that Atya had hundreds of dollars with him while traveling — illustrating that he planned to fly to Nebraska, but was never allowed to pass Chicago where he was put in jail for several months.

At the hearing the judge ruled that no visa fraud had been shown, and granted Atya asylum.

“As a result of helping us in Iraq all sorts of terrible things happened to Mr. Atya,” Saiger said. “After surviving multiple attacks and kidnappings, he traveled to us legally and we locked him up and started getting ready to deport him. It just seemed we should be embracing people who are clearly our friends and allies and not slamming the door in their face, forcing them back into terrible conditions where there lives are clearly at risk.”

– Danielle Feinstein