Gabi Nava

The Project

Gabi (she/her/hers) will advocate on the behalf of asylum-seeking families by seeking to redress harms suffered by the families subjected to separation and other violations of their civil and human rights and by challenging policies affecting asylum-seeking families.

Since 2017, asylum-seeking families and children have been the targets of the Trump Administration’s most abhorrent, inhumane, and unlawful immigration policies. From forced separation of children from their parents to indefinite detention of children and families in unsafe conditions including active COVID-19 outbreaks to forced placement in the “Migrant Protection Protocols” program to the virtual elimination of refugee and asylum protections, immigrant families seeking protection from persecution and torture are in a battle for their lives with the odds purposefully stacked against them. This project will work to provide asylum-seeking families an avenue for legal redress for harms suffered at the hands of federal agents, as well as challenge immigration policies that directly affect asylum-seeking families through strategic impact litigation.

Gabi’s background in Human Rights Law and her family’s Mexican-American heritage motivates her commitment to challenging inhumane and unlawful immigration policies and to fight for the families harmed by the actions of the United States immigration system.

Fellowship Plans

Gabi will file Federal Tort Claim Act actions on behalf of asylum-seekers who suffered violations of their civil and human rights at the hands of federal agents. Additionally, she will work to formalize and further develop Aldea’s impact litigation program in partnership with law firm pro bono partners to systemically challenge policies affecting asylum-seeking families, such as forced separation of children from their parents; placement in the “Migrant Protection Protocols” program; unsafe, unsanitary and unlawful conditions in family detention (with a focus on the Berks Family Residential Center); and administrative rule-making intended to deprive asylum-seekers of relief based on racial animus.

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