IRAP is one of the first organizations to provide comprehensive legal representation to individual refugees seeking resettlement. IRAP has chapters at nine law schools, eight in the United States, and one at the University of Jordan in Amman. Law students work in pairs, under the supervision of pro bono attorneys from private firms. They prepare visa applications, submit appeals, and advocate and empower our clients to successfully negotiate the resettlement process. Until September 2010, IRAP was entirely run by volunteer law student directors. During that time, IRAP took on more than 200 cases. Now with a full team dedicated to IRAP in addition to our extensive network of volunteers, we hope to expand the number of cases we can tackle and to more aggressively advocate for the rights of Iraqi refugees.

Additionally, with the assistance of pro bono counsel from Debevoise & Plimpton, LLP, IRAP has successfully litigated a number of Freedom of Information Act requests and obtained more than 3,000 pages of declassified documents.

IRAP anticipates filing another piece of litigation seeking due process rights for refugees later in 2011 – stay tuned!