23377: Haiti PolAsylum: Asylum Applicant

[Bob Corbett <corbetre@webster.edu>]

From: Haitian PolAsylum <haitianpolasylum@yahoo.com>
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Dear Corbet List:

I am a law student intern with Washington Square Legal Services in New
York,
and we are representing a Haitian woman applying affirmatively for
political
asylum in the US.  She has an interview with an asylum officer October 20.

Our client was a member of an anti-Aristide women's group between 2000 and
2003
in Port-au-Prince.  She was brutally attacked twice by chimeres and fled
the
country in mid-2003.

Our task is to find support to make credible her claims that 1) as a
member of
an anti-Aristide group, she was attacked by Aristide supporters in 2003 on
account of her political opinion, and 2) despite Aristide's ouster, she
reasonably fears further such attacks from pro-Aristide gangs were she to
be
returned to Haiti.

We have one very qualified expert to provide a declaration on behalf of
our
client.  **We are writing to the list to see if there might be anyone else
who
would be interested in serving in this capacity in addition to the expert
we
have found, as additional expert declarations can only help.**  We would
be
happy to provide you with the affidavit and draft a statement, or whatever
arrangement suits you.  In particular, it would be extremely helpful if
the
expert declaration could address the specific threat to women or members
of
anti-Aristide women's groups faced in 2003 and the likelihood that the
threat
remains.

As noted above, we are facing a rather tight deadline of October 20.

Thank you very much.

Sincerely,
Ehren Park
Washington Square Legal Services
NYU School of Law