The end result is a bright, warm, and happy space for the children of our clients, complete with a blackboard wall—an entire wall for the children to draw on with chalk! It was important for our new office space to have such a room where children could safely play while their mothers watch them and meet with Tahirih staff from the other side of a glass door. Tahirih is incredibly grateful to all of the members of the Exxon Mobil Spouses Club for their creativity, hard work, generosity, and commitment to support Tahirih’s clients and their children.

Generous Volunteers Help Tahirih Move and Decorate New Office

We would also like to thank the many generous individuals who helped us move to and decorate our new offices, including:

Martha Absher
Maye Aghazadeh
Roya Karimian
Evan Loudenback
Shahin Sadeghzadeh Milani
Glenford and Bahia Mitchell
Bob Momeni
Henry Schedler

Thank you to the many individuals who have volunteered their time to make our work in the new office possible.

Tahirih made this strategic decision in response to heart-wrenching phone calls from immigrant women and girls throughout the United States who are fleeing violence and are desperate for legal representation that they cannot find locally. Some have even moved to the Washington, DC area to receive our services. Over a decade of serving the Washington, DC community, Tahirih has refined a model for providing high-quality services that is efficient, holistic, and replicable. Our partnerships with pro bono attorneys and other professionals, who donate their time and expertise to protect our clients, quadruple the impact we are able to have on our clients. This means that we turn every dollar you donate into four dollars of services and advocacy! Most importantly, our model for service delivery protects the lives of the women and girls we serve and, despite the complex cases we litigate, we have maintained a 99 percent success rate.

We have also decided to grow nationally in order to make a greater impact on federal laws and policies effecting immigrant women and girls fleeing violence. While our advocacy has always been valuably informed by the grass-roots experiences of the women and girls we serve, our national expansion will strengthen that perspective and allow us to speak to lawmakers with an understanding of national trends. We will continue to be involved in appellate litigation to establish legal precedent on issues affecting our clients.

Over the two past years, Tahirih has taken deliberate and concrete steps to determine how national expansion will unfold. Tahirih’s Board and senior management have been involved in an intensive process of preparing internal infrastructure for growth and researching best practices for replication. Guiding our city selection process were several factors including immigration trends, the location of our pro bono partner law firms, the availability of complimentary services for clients, the presence of like-minded organizations, and the support of local foundations, corporations, and individual donors. To ensure that our growth is informed by the lessons of other organizations, Tahirih Board members and senior staff conducted interviews with 10 nonprofit and for-profit organizations that have undergone successful expansion.

While we understand that a process of growth is never easy, nor entirely predictable, we feel confident that through our thoughtful reflection and planning, we will be able to protect the lives of immigrant women and girls fleeing violence on a national scale. As we grow, Tahirih is committed to maintaining the quality and level of services in the Washington, DC community.

Photography: Daniel Arizpe.

• Extensive use of pro bono attorneys and other donated professional services;
• Thoughtful and strategic planning for both the short- and long-term on the department level, as well as across the entire organization;
• Use of market research and assessing its impact on the strategic plan;
• Organizational sensitivity to staff workload and burnout potential, including offering second-hand trauma training and a timesheet code for staff respite time; and
• Mindful engagement in the struggle to encourage cultural sensitivity, including both training staff in cultural competency and providing training to outside groups.

Pro Bono Medical Network
In January 2007, through the generous support of the Consumer Health Foundation, Tahirih launched the Pro Bono Medical Network—a group of medical and dental providers who provide pro bono care to our clients as Tahirih works to resolve their legal case. To-date, Tahirih’s network includes 12 individual providers and MedStar Physician Partners—who have 18 offices in the Washington, DC metropolitan area and are committed to serving 100 Tahirih clients a year. Since our last newsletter, the following medical providers have served Tahirih clients:

Dr. Michael Cohen
Dr. Kate Sugarman
Dr. Michael Goldberg
Dr. Rita King of MedStar Physicians Partners

Tahirih is truly grateful to these dedicated professionals for their efforts to assist our clients. If you, or someone you know, is interested in learning more about our Pro Bono Medical Network, please email medical@tahirih.org.

What you may not realize is that a growing number of “lesser sung” heroes donate their time to support Tahirih’s public policy advocacy as well, greatly amplifying our efforts to bring about systemic changes to better protect women and girls from violence.

Tahirih relies on our public policy champions to assist with a wide range of projects, which may require anything from an intense quick turnaround to a sustained long-haul commitment. Many are practicing attorneys at law firms already representing clients as part of our Pro Bono Attorney Network, but in addition, government-relations and communications professionals, as well as other kinds of seasoned advisors, are regularly tapped to enhance Tahirih’s advocacy capacity and expertise.

These wide-ranging and far-reaching contributions include:

• Impact litigation:

  Tahirih has had a number of opportunities through civil litigation to advance an entire cause, not just an individual client’s case. Over the course of our Campaign to End Exploitation by International Marriage Brokers, we received over $3 million in donated professional services and expenses from the law firm of Arnold & Porter LLP. This enabled Tahirih, among other things, to bring a landmark civil suit—the first of its kind in the country—against a Maryland-based marriage broker for its role in pairing one of our clients with a violent husband. Arnold & Porter, together with the law firm of Jones Day, also enabled Tahirih to successfully defend the constitutionality of a new federal law (that we helped enact to better protect foreign brides) against two lawsuits brought by marriage brokers resisting regulation. Most recently, as highlighted above in “Fighting to Protect Gender-Based Asylum,” Arnold & Porter again stepped forward to dedicate several attorneys and hundreds of hours to help Tahirih submit an amicus brief in a gender-based asylum case pending before the Second Circuit Court of Appeals. This important case will help set precedent regarding the protection available to women who have been subjected to female genital mutilation.

• Strategic assistance:

  Law firms in our Pro Bono Attorney Network, including Arnold & Porter and Paul, Hastings, Janofsky & Walker LLP, have contributed the expertise of their government-relations practices to help design and inform our advocacy initiatives. We have also been able to call on extensive pro bono assistance from professionals at a number of the top lobbying firms in the country, such as Quinn Gillespie & Associates LLC and Van Scoyoc Associates, Inc.—to help us strategize and advocate on our behalf or to open doors for us to key legislative offices. Lobbyists from some of Tahirih’s corporate donors, such as Chevron, Altria, Goldman Sachs & Co., and Ford have also provided invaluable advice.

• Complex research and analysis:

  The Atlanta office of Jones Day is making a standout contribution by engaging nearly all of its 16 summer associates on Tahirih projects. One research team is outlining state-law counterparts to reinforce federal regulations of the international marriage broker industry, and the other is exploring possible policy prescriptions to improve the United States’ protection of young immigrant women from forced marriage. Over the last year, substantial research has also been contributed by Akin Gump Strauss Hauer & Feld LLP (forced marriage; impact of new federal standards on clients’ access to government-issued IDs and government facilities); Sidley Austin LLP (women’s access to court for protective orders in Virginia, regardless of legal status); Hogan & Hartson LLP (federal pre-emption issues and relationship to proposed Virginia bill prohibiting inquiry into immigration status of crime victims); and Mintz, Levin, Cohn, Ferris, Glovsky and Popeo, PC (history of legislative protections for men and women fleeing forced sterilizations or abortions, by contrast to protections for women fleeing forced female genital mutilation).

• Public education and outreach:

  A number of firms have generously donated the use of facilities to Tahirih for coalition meetings or outreach events, or provided financial support to cover costs. Most recently, pro bono partners Akin Gump; Arnold & Porter; DLA Piper; Estée Lauder Companies Inc; Goldman Sachs & Co.; Lifetime Television; Paul Hastings; and American University Washington College of Law co-sponsored Tahirih’s Congressional Briefing on Gender-Based Asylum.

• Media advice:

  Specialists Amanda Deaver (Prism Public Affairs), Mike Mihalke, and David Henderson have provided Tahirih with numerous strategic communications insights, including helping Tahirih staff prepare for national media interviews and reviewing press releases and letters to the editor.

• Compliance counseling:

  Patton Boggs is providing Tahirih with standing access to the expertise of a compliance counsel to advise us on the intricate House and Senate ethics rules and on the recording and reporting obligations flowing from our engagement in lobbying activities.

These are just some of the ways in which our private sector allies have enabled us to leverage our limited in-house advocacy resources. In fact, Tahirih is in the process of developing a Public Policy Advisory Council to formalize some of these instrumental partnerships. If you are interested in getting more involved with Tahirih’s public policy advocacy, please email policy@tahirih.org.

In addition to his impressive and life-touching career as an immigration attorney, Michael also served as President of the American Immigration Lawyers Association of DC and as an adjunct professor at various law schools. For the Tahirih Justice Center, Michael’s contribution cannot be adequately summed up. He was one of Tahirih’s founders, its first Director of Legal Services, a member of the first Board of Directors, and since then served on the Board of Advisors.

“He was a constant advisor and strategist,” recalls Tahirih Executive Director, Layli Miller-Muro, whom Michael mentored as a law student and encouraged during the formation of the Tahirih Justice Center. “He was always ready to spare nothing to bring justice to the lives of immigrant women. As a friend and advisor who provided relentless inspiration and support, he was a rare human being.”

The funding will be budgeted over two years and will enable Tahirih to address an urgent need for services to immigrant women and girls fleeing gender-based violence. In addition to supporting Tahirih’s ongoing legal services, the funding will be used to work towards full implementation of the International Marriage Broker Regulation Act (IMBRA), which protects foreign women.

This award will enable us to respond as we continue to see an increased demand for our services and feel an urgent need to increase our capacity. On average, we receive 30 pleas for help each week. Currently, we have over 50 pre-screened service seekers on our waitlist, with an anticipated wait period of 9.5 weeks before they are able to receive our services. Despite the ever-growing need for our services, Tahirih has continued to maintain a 99% success rate in the cases that we litigate.

We thank everyone who has supported our work over the last 10 years. Without your support, our work would not be possible.

Naima’s father’s next attack came on what should have been one of the happiest nights of her life—her Senior Prom. He came to pick her up at the end of the evening, and she dozed off in the car, exhausted from the excitement of the long night. When she woke up, she found herself in a dark, swampy, isolated area. Her father commanded her to undress and attempted to force himself on her. This time, no one was around to hear Naima’s screams. She struggled valiantly, even attempting to defend herself with her souvenir prom glass, until finally she was able to save herself from her father’s attack.

When she returned to school on the Monday after the sexual assault, Naima found the courage to confide in her school nurse. Together, they reported the incident to the police. Due in large part to Naima’s cooperation, her father was prosecuted on numerous counts of attempted rape and is now in prison.

Naima—and many other women and girls in the United States who are victims of crimes like domestic violence, rape, incest, and sexual assault—was eligible for a specific type of immigration relief available to victims of violent crimes called a U Visa. The U visa was created in October 2000 under the Victims of Trafficking and Violence Prevention Act of 2000. Statutorily Congress created a mechanism to aid law enforcement by providing a path for non-citizen victims of crime, who assist law enforcement in investigating or prosecuting the perpetrator of the crime, to obtain legal status in the United States. As part of the statute Congress tasked the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) with issuing implementing regulations for the U visa to allow law enforcement and crime victims to access the visa. These regulations were finally issued on September 17, 2007, after nearly seven years of waiting, lobbying, and advocacy.

As a result of the long delays, Naima was only recently able to obtain a U visa. When she first came to Tahirih three years ago, she was unable to obtain the full protections of a U visa, despite the horrific circumstances of her father’s crime, because the regulations governing the visa had not been issued. Rather, women who came to Tahirih after surviving violent crimes—and who had the courage to help law enforcement ensure the perpetrators were punished—were awarded Interim U Visa relief, or Deferred Action, a status which required yearly renewals and left victims without permanent legal status.

Since the inception of the U visa, Tahirih has pioneered its use and was in fact the first organization in the Washington, DC area to represent a U visa case. To further its work in protecting this underserved and uniquely vulnerable population of victims, Tahirih, with support from the prestigious Equal Justice Works Fellowship and Arnold & Porter, LLP, brought on a two-year fellow—Natalie Nanasi—who will serve as a staff attorney and conduct targeted advocacy outreach. Natalie will represent clients that are eligible for U visa protections and work with other organizations and advocates to ensure that the recently approved regulations are fully implemented.

The new regulations provide a path to permanent residency and clarify and define certain key terms relating to the U Visa, including:

• A list of criminal activities under which a victim can be eligible is included in the rule. The list includes domestic violence, female genital cutting, incest, rape, sexual assault, and sexual exploitation. It is a non-exclusive list; any “substantially similar” crime is also eligible.
• The rules also define who is considered a victim, making provisions for protections for indirect victims of certain crimes and for minor, incapacitated, or incompetent victims.
• The idea of helpfulness is also clarified, and the rule specifically states that U Visa relief is available to a victim who “has been, is being or is likely to be helpful” to a government official in the investigation or prosecution of criminal activity.
• The level of abuse or harm a victim must have suffered as a result of the crime is also defined. The rule provides protection for victims that suffered either physical or mental harm, as long as the harm was “substantial.” A multiple factor test is used to determine whether the abuse was substantial—including the nature, severity, duration or permanency of the harm—and no factor is dispositive.
• The rule permits principal applicants to apply for protection for their derivatives. Applicants under 21 years of age may apply for their spouse, children, parents, and unmarried siblings under the age of 18. Applicants 21 years and older may apply for their spouse and children.
• Employment authorization is also granted to U visa holders, as is the right to travel outside the United States and to eventually adjust U visa status to permanent residency (although DHS has not yet issued regulations governing the adjustment process).

Much more work remains ahead of us and Natalie’s addition to our staff could not have come at a more appropriate time. Although Tahirih applauds the release of the U visa regulations and is heartened by many of its provisions that provide necessary protections to immigrant victims of crime, the rules do contain several troubling provisions as well. Chief among them is the limitation placed on who is permitted to attest to a victim’s helpfulness; only the head of a law enforcement agency or an individual “specifically designated” by the head of that agency may sign the certification form. This restriction places a substantial burden on victims, as they are required to navigate the bureaucracies of police departments and prosecutors’ offices to ensure that the agencies designate a certifier. Therefore, since the new regulations, which are currently in effect, were open for public comment until November 16, 2007, Tahirih with the help of pro bono attorneys at Akin Gump Strauss Hauer & Feld LLP submitted comments to address the “designated certifier” issue, as well as other areas of concern in the new regulations. We hope that after considering the comments, DHS will issue a final regulation that maintains the current protections for immigrant victims of crime while remedying the problems in the rule that prevent women from achieving the fullest protections for which they are entitled.

* Name changed to protect privacy