Ten of thousands of people have fled their countries of origin because they have been persecuted or fear being persecuted in the future. They have hopes of finding refuge within the United States and are now seeking asylum.

 

Good Counsel Services is working to helping many of these people directly and we need your help. Elizabeth David-Dembrowsky, the nonprofit’s founder, took her first asylum case, pro bono, in order to help a woman from Ukraine who was persecuted because she is a lesbian. The team worked tirelessly for many months, relying on volunteers, law students, and graduates to do research for the application and help prepare the applicant for her asylum interview. Luckily, she was granted asylum this past November. “No matter where people come from, if they are facing persecution, we have an ethical and legal responsibility to provide a place for them,” Elizabeth says.

 

Since then, Good Counsel Services has taken on several other asylum cases both for people in their initial application with The United States Citizen and Immigration Services and those already in Immigration Court. These cases include, a family of seven from Pakistan seeking asylum after an attack on their family who are working hard to educate their daughters. Also, we represented two men from Nepal, one a human rights attorney, the other a human rights activist who works with the UN. Both of their cases were successful as the attorney were granted asylum in June and the human rights activist in November. In addition, we have recently taken on another human rights attorney from Nepal who is living in Colorado with his wife and daughter. We like to think of the idea- to save one is to save the world and we are committed to doing our part.

 

 

All of these people have very limited means as the process of getting a temporary authorization to work includes a significant waiting period and the initial transition process of immigrating to the U.S. as an asylum seeker often includes many hardships.  

 

Good Counsel would love to take on more cases, but we want to fully be able to give our clients the help they deserve, and we can’t do this without our generous donations. So, please take the time to consider making a gift to support these families in need.