Blog 2

Across the United States, mayors and city governments are joining Asylum Seeker Advocacy Project (ASAP) members in the fight for faster work permits! On March 28, 2023, over 50 mayors and city governments sent a letter to U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS). They asked USCIS to make it faster and easier for asylum seekers…
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“Sharing your history is not just a powerful tool for creating change and building leadership, sharing your story can also be part of the healing process,” – Daniel, ASAP member and advocate for asylum seekers ASAP Member and national advocate for separated families goes to Washington In December, Daniel, an ASAP member and father of…
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ASAP is the largest community of asylum seekers in U.S. history. We ask all ASAP members an optional question: “What is one thing you would change about the asylum process?” This page reflects the top 5 priorities for ASAP’s first 150,000 members. In September 2022, we determined the top 5 priorities for ASAP’s first 350,000…
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Dear ASAP members and supporters, We are writing to share some important news with you. Liz Willis, one of ASAP’s four co-founders, will be leaving ASAP in February. Liz has been a source of so much expertise, insight, generosity, and warmth from ASAP’s start. She co-founded ASAP in 2015 as a Yale Law student, committed…
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Wendi, a single mother seeking asylum from Guatemala, played a central role in ASAP’s CASA v. Mayorkas lawsuit that led to over 150,000 asylum seekers being able to work legally and get a Social Security number. Having a work permit in the United States unlocks access to driver’s licenses, health insurance, and other critical resources….
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We are so excited to spotlight Evelyn Núñez, ASAP’s Online Community Manager! The daughter of Mexican immigrants, Evelyn grew up in Chicago and studied social movements in immigrant communities at Yale University, where she began volunteering with ASAP in 2015. Since joining ASAP’s staff full-time in 2018, Evelyn has been helping asylum seekers build supportive…
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Dear ASAP members, ASAP has reached 350,000 members! We are so excited to share this news with you. With over 350,000 members today and thousands of new members joining each week, ASAP’s members represent the largest community of asylum seekers in the United States. ASAP’s members are asylum seekers from nearly every country in the…
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WORK PERMITS MAIN PAGE HERE. “We should all have the ability to work honorably while we wait for our asylum hearings.” -ASAP member from Venezuela July 2022 Update: In February 2022, a judge ruled that the Trump administration’s old work permit rules are illegal for all asylum seekers! However, we have heard from asylum seekers…
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We are so excited to spotlight Emeizmi Mandagi! Born in Jakarta, Indonesia, Emeizmi immigrated to the United States with her asylum-seeking family when she was two years old. As ASAP’s Operations and Membership Engagement Associate, you might find Emeizmi welcoming new members, working on resources about the asylum process, answering members’ questions, and helping ASAP’s…
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May 4, 2022 update for ASAP members: Great news! Work permits for many asylum seekers are now valid for 540 days after the expiration date! You can read more at this page. ASAP members have achieved an “unprecedented” victory after months of advocacy: asylum seekers’ work permits will not expire while the government processes their…
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We are so excited to announce that several staff members of the Asylum Seeker Advocacy Project (ASAP) have received national fellowships in recent months! These fellowships will play a critical role in expanding ASAP’s work as our membership continues to grow. Emerson Collective Dial Fellowship: Conchita Cruz, Co-Executive Director, has been named a Dial Fellow…
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In the summer of 2018, members of the Asylum Seeker Advocacy Project (ASAP) were appalled to learn that the government was separating parents and children at the Mexico-U.S. border. ASAP members chose to devote ASAP’s resources and advocacy efforts to supporting separated families, even if it meant fewer resources for themselves. Since then, ASAP and…
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In the past year, over 150,000 asylum seekers have received their work permits and Social Security numbers since becoming members of ASAP! “We should all have the ability to work honorably while we wait for our asylum hearings,” said one ASAP member from Venezuela. Currently, many asylum seekers in the United States can only apply…
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We are so excited to spotlight Ngan Tran, ASAP’s Software Engineer! Ngan joined the ASAP team in 2021 as our first full-time software engineer. Born in a refugee camp in Singapore to Vietnamese parents, and raised in Missouri, Ngan has been building technology that serves asylum seekers and strengthens the movement for a more welcoming…
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Recently, the U.S. government proposed several changes to the asylum system — some good, and some bad. On October 19, 2021, ASAP responded to the government’s proposal, basing our response on ideas that members shared about how to improve the asylum process. Thank you to each member who shared your ideas with us! As asylum…
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We are excited to spotlight Leidy Perez-Davis, ASAP’s Policy Director! When Leidy was six years old, she moved from her small town in rural Venezuela to Miami, Florida, as an unaccompanied and undocumented minor. In Miami, she was reunited with her mother, who had emigrated from Venezuela three years earlier. Leidy went on to become…
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ASAP members are speaking out against the long delays in processing of their renewal work permit applications and demanding the government take action! What’s happening? Renewal applications are taking a very long time to process. Recently, ASAP members have reported that their work permit renewal applications are taking over 10 months for USCIS to approve….
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WORK PERMITS MAIN PAGE HERE. February 2022 Update: Good news! On February 7, 2022, a judge ruled that the Trump administration’s old work permit rules are illegal for all asylum seekers. However, we cannot guarantee that the government has made the changes it needs to make for all asylum seekers to get their work permits…
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On August 20, 2021, the Secretary of Homeland Security, who oversees ICE and Border Patrol, met face-to-face with separated families for the first time in history. During the meeting, hosted by the Asylum Seeker Advocacy Project (ASAP), seven parents who had been forcibly separated from their children while seeking asylum at the Mexico-U.S. border shared…
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Dear ASAP members, ASAP has reached 150,000 members! We are so excited to share this achievement with you. ASAP’s membership reflects 150,000 asylum seekers united under the collective vision of building a better and more humane asylum system. We are so thankful that you are part of the ASAP community. ASAP’s members are from 175…
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Over the last quarter, the Asylum Seeker Advocacy Project (ASAP) has shared critical immigration resources with tens of thousands of asylum seekers in the United States. Ranging from how-to videos to informative blog posts, ASAP’s resources are easy to access and viewable from a cell phone. Our resources are created with members’ needs in mind,…
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In the summer of 2018, ASAP members chose to devote ASAP’s resources and advocacy efforts to supporting separated families, even if it meant fewer resources for themselves. Since then, the Asylum Seeker Advocacy Project (ASAP) and ASAP members have used a wide range of tools to pressure the United States government to stop separating families,…
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In April of 2021, U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (a government agency also known as “USCIS” that decides immigration applications, including many applications for asylum and all applications for work permits) asked the public how it could do a better job. Specifically, USCIS asked for ideas about how it could make the immigration system easier…
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ASAP is proud to support the Families Belong Together Act (H.R. 2766,  S.1375), sponsored by Senator Blumenthal and Representative Castro! The Families Belong Together Act would reunite and provide immigration status to families who were separated at the Mexico-U.S. border by the U.S. government. This legislation would not have been possible without the input from…
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This quarter, thousands of ASAP members successfully defended their ability to work legally in the U.S.!  Thanks to their leadership, the government admitted there were processing delays and committed to processing work permit applications for all ASAP members within 30 days, as the law requires. Over the past few months, thousands of members filled out…
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We are excited to share that the Asylum Seeker Advocacy Project (ASAP) now has 75,000 members! We have also scaled our mass communication systems, allowing us to share critical immigration news and resources with ASAP members across the country at the click of a button. Today, ASAP is the largest membership-based organization of asylum seekers…
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ASAP member W.L., whose advocacy played a critical role in the lawsuit CASA v. Wolf, has received her work permit – and started a new job this week! Members of the Asylum Seeker Advocacy Project (ASAP) organized and filed CASA v. Wolf to sue the Trump administration for trying to make it impossible for asylum…
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