Immigrants’ Rights Clinic: Individual Representations

IRC represents many individuals whose cases cannot be shared in detail due to safety and privacy concerns. Here are summaries of a few of the cases IRC students worked on in the past year:

IRC won asylum for a refugee from the Democratic Republic of Congo. Students prepared the case, identified and worked with experts and drafted declarations.

IRC represented an Iranian woman apply for asylum on the basis of her activism and support for women’s rights. Students interviewed the client, gathered evidence, worked with expert witnesses and drafted a brief in support of her application. Her asylum interview is scheduled for later in the month.

IRC won relief under the Convention Against Torture for a Burmese woman who had lived in the United States for 25 years but had recently had issues with substance abuse. The student team spent months identifying and working with experts, gathering evidence, drafting declarations, drafting a pre-trial brief, and preparing witnesses. The students then handled the trial in Chicago Immigration Court in May 2025.

IRC represented a family from Mexico who were targeted by a cartel for one member of the family’s anti-corruption work. The student team is now preparing for a trial scheduled for November 2025.

IRC represented a woman from Venezuela on her asylum claim based on sexual orientation and political activism. In August 2024, she was granted asylum and is currently applying for her green card.

IRC represented a domestic violence survivor in filing a petition under the Violence Against Women Act so that she can remain lawfully in the U.S. without her husband. Her petition remains pending.

IRC represented an Afghan family who had worked for the U.S. government but had been left behind during the U.S. withdrawal. IRC filed applications for humanitarian parole in 2022. After waiting for three years, six members of the family arrived in the United States in January 2025.