Defending Immigration Justice in Challenging Times
The landscape of asylum has never been more challenging. New executive orders, skyrocketing detention capacity, and prohibitively high filing fees which took effect in July 2025 have created unprecedented barriers for people seeking protection from persecution or torture. Yet in the face of these obstacles, The Advocates for Human Rights' immigration legal services programming continues to grow stronger and more resilient.
This year brought cascading challenges to the U.S. asylum system. “We must constantly monitor and help our pro bono attorneys navigate shifting asylum eligibility requirements,” said Zack Albun, The Advocates for Human Rights’ legal director. “We’re seeing immigration judges pretermit asylum cases, ruling against people without hearing testimony or receiving all the evidence on the merits of the case. They are also dismissing proceedings outright, even when asylum applications are pending.” Meanwhile, new fees to file and maintain asylum applications now force people to choose between pursuing the protection guaranteed by international and federal law and meeting basic needs.
In the face of these formidable challenges, legal representation has become even more critical to securing protection. “Our pro bono attorneys play a more vital role than ever before, and they are winning cases,” said Hanne Sandison, who directs The Advocates’ immigration legal services team. In 2025, The Advocates provided legal help in more than 2,800 matters for people seeking asylum or protection from trafficking, children facing deportation, and people detained by ICE.
Another key to the resilience: a new partnership between Minnesota’s immigration legal services organizations.
“We recognized that we needed to not just do more work, we needed to do our work differently if we were going to ensure Minnesotans have access to immigration justice,”
said Michele Garnett McKenzie, The Advocates’ Executive Director. “Our multi-agency initiative has built new capacity to respond to ever-changing enforcement in our region, just when we most need it.”
