AILA Presents the Asylum Law Clinic at Southwestern Law School with the 2026 Arthur C. Helton Memorial Human Rights Award

WASHINGTON, DC - The American Immigration Lawyers Association (AILA) recognizes the Asylum Law Clinic at Southwestern Law School with the 2026 Arthur C. Helton Human Rights Award for outstanding service in advancing the cause of human rights.

In 2024, the Asylum Law Clinic at Southwestern Law School began working in partnership with the Los Angeles LGBT Center Immigration Law Project. Now, the students taking the course work with asylum seekers from various nonprofit referral sources from around Los Angeles County.

As described in the nomination, the course was originally developed by AILA member Tess Feldman and has made a tremendous impact: "The students in this class have represented asylum seekers from Saudi Arabia, Peru, Ecuador, Venezuela, Colombia, Mexico and Turkey. The students have filed applications for asylum, appeared on the record before local Immigration Judges, assisted in affirmative case preparation, conducted country conditions research, written policy briefs, and created technical toolkits for complex legal issues including rebuttals to the circumvention of lawful pathways rule. Each student has written a legal brief arguing for the relief sought by their client, including asylum, withholding and CAT. The claims brought by their clients have been based on complex political opinion arguments from LGBT activists and civil servants, particular social group membership based on sexual orientation and gender identity and others."

Students are supported by faculty and staff including Professor Andrea Ramos, Professor John Heilman, Dean Julie Waterstone, and Clinical staff Heidy Caceres and Angel Morales.

As part of the students' work, they created a toolkit, shared nationally, built on the asylum grant to a queer LGBT person from Turkey who was barred from asylum by the Circumvention of Lawful Pathways rule but overcame that bar. The toolkit was disseminated to, and welcomed by, organizations such as the National Immigration Project, Inland Counties Legal Services, and Tahirih Justice Center.