Successes
Reed Smith Wins Rare Humanitarian Parole for 26-Year-Old Hatian Widow
Survivor of Earthquake and Rape Arrives in U.S. this month
July 11, 2011
Reed Smith won Humanitarian Parole (HP) for M.M., a 26-year-old Haitian widow and rape survivor. This was achieved in June 2011, after a lengthy and detailed application process before the United States Immigration and Custom Enforcement (ICE), a division of the Department of Homeland Security (DHS). This victory was a heartening achievement, because more than 90% of previous such applications by Haitians since the January 2010 earthquake have been denied.
Humanitarian parole is a temporary form of protection whereby someone outside of the United States may come to this country for emergency protection.
Humanitarian parole applications are always sparingly granted and, for success, require meticulous medical records from accredited health professionals, the advocacy skills of seasoned human rights attorneys, as well as a detailed showing of what host sponsor and resettlement support efforts are in place for each applicant. Finally, we needed to prepare the actual declarations and applications.
Despite the long odds, the application our team prepared for M.M. has succeeded. The 177-page application incorporated several expert medical reports on the client's unusual psychological needs and unique need for relief. The application was handled by a team of lawyers in the firm’s Philadelphia office led by Sara Lima. Sara’s team is among more than 50 attorneys in seven offices, who are working on pro bono projects related to Haiti.
M.M.’s application also reflected numerous interviews with the client during six subsequent trips to Haiti led by Human Rights team leader Jayne Fleming. The application also included important supporting materials on current conditions for women, who, like our client, are subsisting in dangerous homeless conditions in Haiti.
M.M. lost her husband and home in the earthquake, and, then, a week later, was raped, and she gave birth as a result. She was a good mother and developed a deep bond with her newborn daughter. Tragically, nine months later, her baby became ill and died, and M.M. slid into a deep state of despair.
Reed Smith completed and filed M.M.’s HP application in May, urging USCIS to allow her to come to the U.S. to receive much-needed psychological and medical care.
After the firm received a favorable decision last month, M.M. has now received her travel documents from the embassy, and will arrive in the U.S. Awaiting her is a host family and medical and psychological support, all being generously donated, free-of-charge.
Reed Smith’s Haiti Project Going Strong after 18 Months
The win for M.M. is part of a larger effort by Reed Smith to help in Haiti since the devastating 2010 earthquake, from which the island nation still struggles to recover.
Just seven days after the earthquake, Pittsburgh partner Jeff Bresch and 22 others including doctors and nurses flew to Haiti in a privately-chartered 737. There they distributed five tons of medical supplies collected from health care clients and treated hundreds of injured Haitians. This effort was supplemented by individual Reed Smith lawyers and staff giving more than $75,000 (the Firm matched that sum) to leading NGOs working in Haiti.
Then, in March 2010, Pro Bono Counsel Jayne Fleming led a delegation of nine lawyers and Stanford Medical School doctors to Haiti and spent a week identifying women living homeless in the tent camps in desperate need of temporary respite, and who might meet the exacting legal requirements of US humanitarian parole to get here.
As a result, several dozen clients were identified and the firm is now filing a number of humanitarian parole applications.
Over the last 15 months, Reed Smith has led several similar delegations of legal and medical professionals to Haiti, and has consulted with numerous organizations and groups on our projects related to women and children, including the Ministry of Women, UNIFEM, UNHCR, UNICEF, the Haitian National Police, numerous NGOs and civil society organizations.
In this time, our delegations have conducted hundreds of interviews in Port au Prince, and, working with NGOs and members of the media, we have helped documented a tragic rape crisis in the camps. Many of our clients have been victimized multiple times, become pregnant from rapes, and suffered devastating psychological trauma.
Reed Smith is also one of five global law firms engaged in a project led by the Thomson Reuters Foundation aimed at strengthening laws to protect women from gender-based violence.
“We will continue to work with the Haitian government and civil society to advocate for women and children in whatever way we can,” says team leader Jayne Fleming.