Programs - Asylum Seeker Advocacy Project (ASAP)

Community Resource Center
ASAP uses technology to communicate with thousands of asylum seekers, providing them with tools to take control of their asylum cases and advocate for their families. Through ASAP’s online communities, members ask questions of expert attorneys and share stories and strategies. ASAP creates critical legal resources in Spanish and English viewed by thousands. Our Community Resource Center puts many asylum seekers on the path toward securing legal status, rather than being forced to return to the danger they fled.

Legal Emergency Room
ASAP provides emergency legal services that are responsive to the needs of asylum seekers in crisis. Through ASAP’s legal emergency room, asylum seekers are able to access legal aid without having to walk into an office. A leader in remote legal aid, ASAP provides high-quality legal assistance at a distance, swiftly preparing emergency motions and other legal filings to prevent deportations. In the face of growing institutional barriers, ASAP continues to scale and adapt the types of legal services we offer to ensure that asylum seekers have access to justice.

Systemic Reform
ASAP is in direct communication with thousands of asylum seekers who know best how to reform the system. Working alongside our clients and members, ASAP pushes for change through federal litigation, press, administrative and legislative advocacy, and other strategies. ASAP’s clients and members have brought lawsuits to chip away at the financial logic of immigration detention, demand access to critical immigration records, and hold the government accountable for family separation. ASAP stands ready to support asylum seekers as they defend future attacks on their rights. Read about two lawsuits brought by our members: to defend their ability to work and to hold the government accountable for abuses in detention.

Refugee Families

ASAP works to prevent the wrongful deportation of refugee families who have come to the United States fleeing unspeakable violence, including repeated sexual assault and the murder of relatives. Most are from Central America, with others traveling from countries as far as Syria, Eritrea, and Brazil. To learn more, visit Who We Serve.

Online Community Center

ASAP uses technology to connect thousands of formerly detained refugees who might otherwise be geographically isolated. In our private online community, members ask questions of expert attorneys, share stories and strategies, and build community power. To view some of our resources in Spanish, visit apoyodeasilo.org.

Legal Emergency Room

ASAP provides rapid response legal services to community members in moments of crisis, including deportation, detention, and raids. As the U.S. government targets more refugees than ever before, ASAP is responding by taking on cases with short timelines in some of our nation’s most underserved areas. To check out one example, visit the Emergency Motions to Reopen Project.

Crowdsourcing

ASAP mobilizes hundreds of volunteers across the country to represent refugee families, training a new generation of advocates. ASAP breaks cases into discrete tasks and delegates those tasks to volunteers who work in parallel to meet tight deadlines, with the help of detailed templates and guides. To volunteer with ASAP, visit Get Involved.

Systemic Reform

ASAP magnifies the advocacy efforts of community members through litigation, press, policy work, and speaking events. For example, ASAP filed a first-of-its-kind federal lawsuit on behalf of a refugee mother and child, seeking monetary damages for the inhumane treatment they suffered while detained. To learn about that case and more, visit ASAP in the News.

Nationwide Impact

ASAP reaches refugee families in hard-to-reach places, including detention centers and rural areas in over 30 states. To date, ASAP has prevented over 400 deportations using our unique remote representation model and provided over 2,500 families with critical legal information. To learn more, visit Our Impact.

Latest News