Olivia is an asylum seeker from Ecuador who has been living in Philadelphia for several years. She helps support her family, including her mother and her younger brother who has serious disabilities and requires round-the-clock care. Though residing in Philadelphia, ICE detained Olivia in New Jersey and transferred her to a detention center in Colorado, where she knew no one and had no access to resources. PAIFUP represented her to request bond from that court, arguing that she should be released to return to Philadelphia and pursue her asylum case here. The court agreed, and ordered Olivia released on the lowest bond allowable under the law. She was released with the help of our community partner, New Sanctuary Movement, and is now safely home in Philadelphia. PAIFUP will continue to represent Olivia as she continues with her asylum case here.  

Javier is a lawful permanent resident from Peru who has lived in the US for almost twenty years. He and his partner have three young children they are raising together in Philadelphia. Javier was detained by ICE when he was reporting for a probation appointment and was sent to Moshannon Valley. His partner was left to take care of three young children alone, as well as scramble to pay the rent and provide for the entire family. PAIFUP represented Javier at immigration court, and the government agreed to dismiss the immigration charges against him and terminate his case. Javier was released and is now back in Philadelphia living with and taking care of his family. 

H-D came to the U.S. in 2019 after a months-long journey to escape slavery in his home country of Mauritania. For approximately 20 years—from the time that he was 5 years old to the time that he fled the country at age 24—H-D, a Black Mauritanian man, was subjected to forced enslavement by light-skinned Arab-Mauritanians in his hometown of Boully, Mauritania. H-D, along with his parents and 11 siblings, was forced to clean floors, cook food, gather wood, tend to animals, and carry jugs of water without pay for 2-3 days every single week. Despite toiling for hours in heat that often surpassed 100 degrees Fahrenheit, H-D often received no food or water in exchange for his labor. Whenever he refused, he endured severe beatings from the Mauritanian police, attacks which have left him with permanent scars on his arms, legs, and head. 

After H-D began to recognize the inherent illegality of his enslavement as a teenager, the violence against him intensified. Beatings by the Mauritanian police became more frequent, the jobs assigned to him more difficult. In 2017, H-D helped to organize an anti-slavery protest in Boully with about 50 other dark-skinned Africans. In response, police assaulted him so viciously that he was left lying in the street and bleeding from his arms and head. Shortly thereafter, and in response to H-D's efforts to resist his enslavement, police forcibly closed a tailor's stand he had opened as a young man, a business which provided him with the only meager income that allowed him to survive. Finally, one night in 2018, H-D managed to

surreptitiously flee Mauritania in the middle of the night, making his way by car to Senegal and, eventually, Cape Verde. From Cape Verde, he endured a month-long boat trip to Brazil and, afterward, a perilous journey through South and Central America before he reached the U.S.-Mexico border. All in all, it took H-D nearly 10 months to complete the dangerous trip from Mauritania to the United States. When Mauritanian authorities recognized that he had left the country and absconded from slavery, they began threatening his family and issued a warrant for his arrest. That warrant remains outstanding, and all of H-D's family members, tragically, are still enslaved to this day.  

After entering the United States, H-D was held in immigration detention for 4 months before he passed a credible fear interview (CFI) and secured release on a monetary bond. Upon relocating to Philadelphia, H-D retained the Nationalities Service Center as his pro bono counsel. NSC soon began working with H-D to gather evidence, including a medical evaluation, psychological report, expert declaration, and multiple supporting affidavits, that would bolster his claim. In December 2023, NSC represented H-D at his individual hearing and in May 2024, the Philadelphia Immigration Court granted his request for asylum! Today, H-D is working, building a life in Philadelphia, and planning to apply for his permanent residence as soon as possible.