Karen T. Grisez

After a week and a half of intense effort, Fried Frank won a grant of asylum for our client, a 23-year-old Ethiopian man who had been arrested, imprisoned and tortured when he was only 17 years old due to his involvement in campaign activities on behalf of the Coalition for Unity and Democracy in the run-up to the 2005 elections. He had fled Ethiopia in 2005, tried unsuccessfully to settle in South Africa and in 2010 embarked on a very circuitous route to the US. He presented himself at the port of entry in Texas and asked for asylum. After nearly five months in detention waiting for his hearing, the client was granted asylum and was released from immigration detention on Friday, July 15. Fried Frank accepted the case through its summer associate partnership with ProBAR, the Pro Bono Asylum Representation Project, in Harlingen, Texas.