The accuser in Dominique Strauss Kahn's case lied to the Immigration about her Asylum case. But this is not unique. I suspect that the majority of Asylum cases are fraudulent. I am not saying that torture doesn't happen. It does. But as with most things in life, its the poor people who actually suffer. Whether its the Hutu vs. Tutu, or Shia vs Sunni, its the poor that gets tortured. And since they are poor, they don't have the ability to come to the US. Richer people from these countries steal these stories, land here illegally and claim asylum. And that's why I don't do asylum cases.
I did a pro bono case from Catholic Charities once. The beneficiary was from Africa and almost moved me to tears with his story. He even showed me his scars. I wrote up volumes of affidavits, doctor's records, etc. The story was that he was picked up during a political rally, beaten and imprisoned for three days with no food or water. His girl friend was raped in front of him. Brutal beatings. Somehow after three days he was released. Then one day at night the oppressors came knocking at the front door. He left quietly by the back door, and in the cover of the night to the boat dock. There he took a boat to another African country, where he purchased a fake passport, and came to America. Somehow he was let into the US, threw the passport in a garbage can at the airport, and went to Catholic Charities to file an Asylum case. His girlfriend could not come with him.
While I believed his story 100%, the immigration officer denied his case. We filed an appeal with the Immigration Judge. During the waiting though the guy told me that he has a new girlfriend, and would like to substitute her name instead. I was shocked. The guy then gave me a completely different name of the girl friend and told me that the Catholic Charities person made the mistake in the name. This was impossible, since he read the whole affidavit in front of me. I realized that he was lying about everything.
On the hearing day, I did not guide him, other than saying, "please tell the truth." We had an expert witness, who went through the same situation as our guy. While their main stories matched, the details of what he told the judge and what that other witness said did not match at all. His case was denied. I did not appeal. He took his file. He definitely filed an appeal with another attorney, and probably by now has his Green card.
For more information contact Houston Immigration Lawyer or Houston Immigration Attorney, Annie Banerjee
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