Upholding the Human Right to Seek Asylum

Rebecca Feldmann

Professor, Villanova University School of Law

The U.S. asylum laws are firmly grounded in international law. Yet current U.S. policies seek to systematically curtail the rights of asylum-seekers, and dangerous rhetoric demonizes migrants who are seeking freedom from persecution.  Rebecca Feldmann will address the importance of defending and upholding asylum as a fundamental human right, as an urgent matter of social justice and of respect for the basic human dignity of our migrant brothers and sisters.

Rebecca Feldmann directs and teaches the Clinic for Asylum, Refugee and Emigrant Services (CARES) at Villanova Law, in which students develop core advocacy skills by representing refugees in immigration proceedings. Prior to joining the Villanova Law faculty, Professor Feldmann taught at Seton Hall’s Immigrants’ Rights & International Human Rights Clinic and was a fellow at Georgetown Law’s Center for Applied Legal Studies (CALS). Professor Feldmann has supervised students representing asylum seekers in hearings before the Baltimore, Arlington, Newark, New York, and Philadelphia Immigration Courts. Her scholarship interests focus on asylum law, international human rights law, and access to justice.