December 1, 2020

Kristen Amond, with the New York firm Kramer Levin, succeeded in obtaining asylum for a Cuban political dissident who had repeatedly been detained and beaten by the Cuban National Police before escaping the country on a makeshift raft.

The client had spent nearly two years in immigration detention, most recently at the immigration facility in Jena, Louisiana. The immigration court initially denied his pro se application for asylum, finding that his mistreatment had not amounted to persecution and that his fear of future persecution was not well-founded. When new evidence surfaced that the Cuban authorities had continued searching for the client after his escape and had repeatedly harassed his family, the Board of Immigration Appeals granted a motion to reopen the asylum proceedings. At the hearing on remand, Kristen argued that the new evidence of the client’s fear of future persecution was overwhelming. The immigration court agreed and granted the asylum request. The ruling was rare for the presiding judge, who had previously granted asylum only 12 times out of over 300 requests. The client was released the day after the hearing and was reunited with his brother, who he had not seen in over ten years.