Holly Cooper Publishes Op-ed on Refugees in Los Angeles Times
Holly S. Cooper, Lecturer and Associate Director of the UC Davis School of Law Immigration Law Clinic, published a commentary in the Los Angeles Times regarding the plight of refugees seeking asylum in the United States and the need to reform Homeland Security detention policies.
The article, co-authored with Jayashri Srikantiah, a professor of law and director of the Immigrants' Rights Clinic at Stanford Law School, grew out of Cooper's experience visiting the Mesa Verde Detention Center in Bakersfield with Aldo Martinez Gomez '17, Amanda Whitney '16, and Anita Barooni '16 last month. Cooper, the students, and other volunteers met with more than 250 refugees and immigrants from all over the world, providing pro se assistance, self-help materials, and legal support.
"However, we also left feeling a bit defeated because the need was so overwhelming, and the people were desperate for more meaningful legal assistance," Cooper said. In writing the article, Cooper sought to raise awareness of the obstacles refugees face in applying for asylum in the U.S.
"If remoteness of detention, and the isolation of asylum seekers, is meant to render the United States' refugee crisis invisible, that calculation has prevailed," the article states. "Worse, if the U.S. detention system is set up to coerce refugees not to apply for asylum, it is succeeding."