Medical-Legal Partnerships Helping UACs

In A Child, an Immigration Hearing, and a Doctor’s Testimony The Atlantic reports on ways in which medical-legal partnerships have been helping unaccompanied minors in their fight to obtain asylum.

New York lawyer Brett Start put it this way:

“I could say to the judge, ‘Your honor, this child is fleeing gangs in his home country and because of that, he’s eligible for asylum,’” Stark explains. “But what’s more powerful and has more impact is to say, ‘Here’s a letter from Dr. Alan Shapiro, where he reports this child has a bullet lodged in his spine in the L6 region.’ And the judge can look at this and say, ‘This corroborates what you’re saying, and we can put this in a legal context.’”

Medical testimony – whether about the child’s physical or mental health – can “greatly bolster” asylum claims.

-KitJ