CrowdJustice launches in US with Yemeni brothers’ executive order case

A legal bid to restore the immigration status of two Yemeni brothers who arrived in the US after a controversial executive order banned travel from seven Muslim-majority countries has become the first US case on CrowdJustice.

CrowdJustice - the first UK-based litigation crowdfunding platform - now hosts the case of Tareq and Ahmed Aziz, brothers allegedly prevented from entering the US in spite of having green cards through their US citizen father.

The Legal Aid Justice Center (LAJC), who are taking forward their case, say that the brothers arrived at Dulles International Airport hours after the order was signed and were “forced to sign papers that they had neither read nor understood”, which included a voluntary waiver of their legal immigration status, before being returned by plane to Ethiopia, the location of their layover on their way to Dulles.

The goal of the litigation is to force the US government to bring the brothers back to the US and to restore their immigration status.

It is also seeking the same for around 60 other visa holders and legal permanent residents deported from Dulles under similar circumstances.

The LAJC have so far raised over $24,000 towards legal costs on their crowdfunding page - much more than their initial $15,000 target.

Julia Salasky, co-founder of CrowdJustice, told Irish Legal News: “We actually intended to launch in the US in a couple of weeks, but the need at the moment in the US for people to be able to access legal services is really urgent – and the desire of communities to come together around legal issues has never been stronger.”

Mary Bauer, executive director at the Legal Aid Justice Center, added: “We chose to crowdfund this effort because it gives us a way pull together more resources to fight injustice.

“Collaborating with CrowdJustice on this case gives the public a direct way to make their voices heard and to support the Aziz brothers’ rights in the face of these unlawful executive actions.”