Haynes and Boone, LLP Counsel Luis Campos and Associate Brent Beckert were profiled in a Dallas Morning News article about the commitment of Haynes and Boone and other corporate law firms to assist asylum-seekers at the South Texas border.
Through the effort, dubbed “Project Reunification,” more than 100 Haynes and Boone lawyers and staff have achieved many successes in helping clients reunite with their children and remain in the country to assert their asylum claims. The firm has collaborated with other law firms and non-profits including the Texas Civil Rights Project and American Civil Liberties Union.
Haynes and Boone represents more than 25 individuals and family units seeking asylum, including several who are in Matamoros and others involving the separation of children from parents.
Here is an excerpt:
“We are protecting the integrity of the legal system, due process and the rule of law,” said Luis Campos, one of the firm’s top provider of pro bono hours from the Dallas office. “We have obligations to those individuals that are rooted in the Constitution and our own international agreements.”
Campos and colleagues like Brent Beckert travel regularly to the Rio Grande Valley. Beckert said he’s motivated by the Constitutional challenges to due process with asylum cases and previous cases he worked involving family separations. “It is one of the most acute situations we’ve seen,” he said.
Beckert said the attorneys volunteering their time come from all over the political spectrum.
“The people who work on these asylum cases are those who voted for Trump and some who didn’t,” Beckert said. “Some are for the wall and some are not. Even today, these are people who have rights under the law.”
Many say they’re inspired by their personal backgrounds. Beckert’s family is Jewish. He’s well aware of the persecution of the Jews by Nazis before and during World War II. Campos is the son of a Mexican immigrant mother and grew up in El Paso.
To read the full article, click here.