Immigration

The Firm represents hundreds of immigrants, each with different stories but all chasing the promise of America. Having legal representation can make all the difference for immigrants seeking lawful pathways to remain in the United States, making our attorneys’ work on these cases equally impactful as our larger-scale litigation work. Attorneys across the Firm represent clients seeking all forms of humanitarian immigration relief: we work with refugees seeking to resettle in the United States, asylum seekers who fled persecution in their home countries, crime victims and domestic violence survivors, and children who were abused, abandoned, or neglected by their parents.

Attorneys across our U.S. offices also represent dozens of children as they apply for Special Immigrant Juvenile Status (“SIJS”). SIJS enables children who have been abused, abandoned, or neglected by one or both parents to apply for lawful permanent residency in the United States. In recent months, attorneys at Gibson Dunn helped a young man named “Adan” obtain a state court order enabling him to pursue SIJS with USCIS. Adan’s father abandoned his family 15 years ago, and Adan had to start working at age 12 to help keep food on the table. Adan came to the United States all by himself when he was 17. In California, children seeking SIJS must have a caretaker in the state—usually, a relative plays this role. But Adan was alone and did not know anyone in the United States, making it difficult for him to pursue SIJS despite being otherwise eligible. Luckily, Adan enrolled in school and developed a close friendship with a classmate whose mother volunteered to serve as Adan’s guardian so he could apply for SIJS. After she was awarded guardianship, our team helped Adan apply for SIJS with USCIS. He was recently granted SIJS and is now attending school and improving his English. Soon, he will be able to apply for a work permit and (eventually) a green card, enabling him to support the family he was forced to leave behind.

In recent years, the Firm has provided thousands of hours of pro bono assistance to Afghans fleeing persecution and reprisals at the hands of the Taliban. Across the Firm, many teams helped families who were still in Afghanistan apply for humanitarian parole to travel to the United States, where they would be eligible for asylum. Several families were approved for parole and traveled to the United States, where our teams continued representing them as they began a new chapter of their lives. In other cases, we represented Afghans who had already evacuated to the United States in their applications for asylum and Temporary Protected Status. Our clients included advocates for women’s equality, religious and ethnic minorities, civil servants and champions of democracy, and even children who arrived in the United States alone after being separated from their families during the chaotic withdrawal of U.S. forces.

For example, we recently obtained asylum for Sayeed, an Afghan man whose father provided vital security services to U.S. forces, was an outspoken advocate for women, free speech, and minority rights—and who was assassinated by the Taliban just weeks before receiving approval to resettle in the United States. Sayeed, who shared his father’s political views, refused to be silent and publicly shared his father’s story with international news outlets. As a result, he was forced to flee to the United States to avoid Taliban reprisals. A Gibson Dunn team helped Sayeed obtain asylum and reunite with his brother and grandmother, who had been in hiding in Pakistan. Now, Sayeed works as a case manager at a refugee resettlement agency and supports his mother, grandmother, and siblings in the United States. This is just one of hundreds of cases the Firm has taken on for Afghan clients. As our clients become eligible for more permanent forms of immigration relief, we are proud to help these families put down roots in the United States by applying for lawful permanent residence (i.e., green cards) and look forward to working with them as they take the next steps toward U.S. citizenship.

Often, teams of Gibson Dunn attorneys stand beside their clients for many years as their cases evolve to include different forms of immigration relief. In one recent case, a team of attorneys in the New York office represented “Rocio” throughout her nearly fifteen-year journey to U.S. citizenship. Rocio first came to the Firm in 2011, when a team of attorneys helped her apply for a visa available to non-citizen survivors of violent crimes and terminate a previous order of removal. With help from the team, Rocio received work authorization papers and gained lawful permanent residence for herself and her daughter. Most recently, Gibson Dunn helped Rocio apply for naturalization. On April 17, Rocio passed her naturalization exam with flying colors. The interviewing USCIS officer remarked that Rocio’s test performance was among the best he had seen in his 32 years of service. Following Rocio’s success, Gibson Dunn also advised and supported her daughter in her own naturalization process. Rocio’s daughter was sworn in as a United States citizen on July 10, marking the culmination of the family’s long journey supported by the firm. We are honored to have played a role in Rocio and her daughter’s path to citizenship.

In another case, we helped Sumaya Nanteza, a political activist in Uganda who organized peaceful protests against the country’s ruling party, obtain asylum. As a result of her activism she was abducted, tortured, and held captive for weeks. After escaping from captivity, she managed to arrive in the United States and immediately applied for asylum, which was granted after two interviews and supplemental briefing. After Ms. Nanteza was granted asylum, Gibson Dunn worked with her to help her young children join her in the United States. Over several years, Gibson Dunn worked with Ms. Nanteza to submit the proper information, respond to additional requests, obtain an interview at the U.S. Embassy, liaise with the Embassy, and contact her congressman. After years of advocacy, Ms. Nanteza was finally reunited with her children earlier this year.

The Firm has a long history of defending the rights of immigrants. Over the years, we have filed lawsuits challenging rules that would have made it dramatically more difficult for asylum seekers to obtain employment authorization or drastically increased fees related to immigration proceedings, as well as litigation protecting Dreamers from attempts to rescind the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (“DACA”) program. These cases are emblematic of the Firm’s longstanding commitment to standing alongside the most vulnerable members of our communities—work that continues to this day.

In January, we filed suit in Amica Center v. DOJ, challenging the government’s termination of congressionally appropriated funding for a variety of legal orientation programs for immigrants in detention and in removal proceedings. These programs often are the only form of legal information immigrants receive, and they play a critically important role in providing some modicum of due process for immigrants navigating the immigration system. When the government moved to terminate these programs in early 2025, the Firm immediately filed suit on the nonprofits’ behalf, seeking to reinstate access to basic legal information services and “Know Your Rights” presentations for immigrants facing deportation. The case is currently pending before the D.C. Circuit. We also represent the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops in USCCB v. State, a case challenging the State Department’s suspension of funding for refugee resettlement activities, which have long been a cornerstone of the Catholic Church’s work in the United States. After months of intense litigation, featuring multiple arguments and oral arguments, the Conference has been able to negotiate new agreements with the government, allowing for it to receive critical funding for its refugee programming, even as it winds those programs down.

Gibson Dunn also filed litigation, CLSEPA v. HHS, on behalf of a group of nonprofit organizations that provide legal representation to unaccompanied immigrant children through the Unaccompanied Children Program.  In March 2025, the government abruptly cut funding for legal representation, leaving more than 26,000 children to face the immigration system alone. This lawsuit seeks to ensure the organizations are able to continue their important work, which safeguards the rights of vulnerable children navigating the immigration system alone and protects children from trafficking, abuse, and exploitation. Our team secured a temporary restraining order and preliminary injunction ensuring unaccompanied children continue receiving legal representation as required by law, and the preliminary injunction is currently on appeal to the Ninth Circuit. The parties have agreed to stay district court proceedings pending the Ninth Circuit’s ruling.

Finally, we represent the Asylum Seeker Advocacy Project (“ASAP”) in ASAP v. USCIS, a lawsuit challenging a new $100 fee imposed on asylum seekers each year their asylum application remains pending. The announcement of the fee included unclear and conflicting instructions, resulting in widespread confusion and fear among asylum seekers. We challenged the agencies’ implementation of the fee and sought emergency relief, arguing the agencies’ retroactive and inconsistent implementation of the fee violated the Administrative Procedure Act (“APA”). The court agreed in part, finding the agencies acted arbitrarily and capriciously, and entered a nationwide stay to temporarily halt enforcement.

In addition to our direct impact litigation work, Gibson Dunn ensured that subject-matter experts had their voices heard in cases with national import. We recently filed an amicus brief on behalf of 51 former Immigration Judges (“IJs”) and Board of Immigration Appeals (“BIA”) judges in Urias-Orellana v. Bondi. There, the U.S. Supreme Court is considering whether IJ and BIA “persecution” determinations are factual findings (reviewed with deference by federal courts of appeals) or questions of law (subject to non-deferential review). These determinations are critical because they inform whether a noncitizen in removal proceedings is eligible for asylum.

Our amicus brief drew on the judges’ extensive experience within the immigration courts, and argued that determining whether an asylum applicant experienced past persecution within the meaning of the Immigration and Nationality Act is an inherently legal question that requires applying a legal standard to established facts—not merely compiling and weighing evidence. The former judges also noted that non-deferential judicial review from federal judges is vital to providing IJs important guidance as they work through the growing backlog of almost 4 million immigration cases and to correcting legal errors resulting from inevitable mistakes in that overburdened system. The Supreme Court heard oral argument in Urias-Orellana on December 1, 2025, with a decision expected in 2026.

The Firm also maintains an active immigration practice outside the United States. For example, a Paris-based team recently obtained French visas for an Afghan family. One of the family’s children fled from Afghanistan at the age of 14, following death threats due to his father’s resistance to the Taliban regime. He fled alone, passing through Iran, Turkey, Bulgaria, Serbia, and Italy before finally arriving in France as an unaccompanied minor. Once there, he faced the challenges of navigating a new language, complex administrative procedures, and the deep pain of being separated from his loved ones. But he persevered and was granted asylum in France two years later. A Gibson Dunn team worked with the child, his two parents, and his seven siblings for over a year to help them apply for family reunification in France. Finally, after more than five years apart, the family reunited at Charles de Gaulle Airport in September 2025.

In January 2025, we launched an Immigration Task Force, bringing together the Firm’s expertise in humanitarian immigration law, global crisis response, employment law, appellate and constitutional law, and administrative law and policy. The Task Force’s goals are to provide clients—corporate, nonprofit, and individual— with timely, thoughtful updates and advice on immigration developments, including newly issued executive orders, court decisions, and other developments across both the business and humanitarian immigration sectors. This work dovetails with our robust pro bono immigration practice, which has long stood for the belief that lawyers have a responsibility to promote safety, freedom, and justice for those seeking refuge from persecution, safety from physical and sexual violence, and the chance to build a better life.