Wisconsin
Lawyer
Vol. 81, No. 11, November
2008
Profile
“For the Good” Spotlight:
Rick Lewandowski Helps Tibetan Youth Gain Asylum
If not for the pro bono help of
Madison attorney Rick Lewandowski, a Tibetan teenager faced deportation
to his country and the certainty of arrest, imprisonment, and harsh
treatment. The case proved to be the most exotic of Lewandowski’s
career.
by Alyson K. Zierdt
Sidebar:
First-year law students sometimes are dismayed to learn that justice
and the law can be two very different things. A Tibetan teenager and
Madison lawyer Rick Lewandowski, however, proved that the two sometimes
do converge.
Lewandowski, a shareholder with Whyte Hirschboeck Dudek, represents
clients in environmental and other business regulatory matters. Some
time ago, he participated in a training session, held in Milwaukee by
the Chicago-based National Immigrant Justice Center (NIJC), for lawyers
willing to represent immigrants, pro bono, in asylum cases before the
Chicago branch of the Immigration Court and the Board of Immigration
Appeals. This spring, the NIJC gave Lewandowski his “most exotic
and interesting” case in his 30-year career.
His client, a fatherless, teenaged boy, is from a rural area in
Tibet and was living with a relative in one of Tibet’s larger
cities. The teenager and his friends heard that the Dalai Lama was going
to speak in Nepal and decided to go to hear him. Near the Nepal border,
the teenagers were stopped by Chinese soldiers, beaten, arrested, and
sentenced to prison for six months of hard labor. In prison, the boy was
beaten repeatedly. A blow to his hand, given no medical attention,
resulted in lasting injury. Other child-prisoners ranged in age from 10
to 16. Tibetans, particularly accused religious offenders like this boy,
were treated most harshly.
At the end of six months, the boy’s mother borrowed money
to pay the fine needed to secure his release. He was ordered never to
leave his village again. But he did leave. He left in an effort to
gather and sell an herb used in traditional Tibetan medicine, so that
his mother could repay the debt she had incurred to free him. This rare
herb did not grow in their village. When the boy realized the
authorities were looking for him, he left the area and stayed with a
relative, who ultimately arranged for him to leave Tibet. He first
traveled on foot (part of the way on a rope bridge) to Nepal. He took a
bus to Delhi, India (before meeting the Dalai Lama in Dharamsala), where
he stayed with a family for six months. Upon a representation that he
had relatives in the U.S., but without identification, he flew from
Delhi to Frankfurt, Germany, and then to Los Angeles. There, because the
boy lacked identification, he was detained by the U.S. Citizenship and
Immigration Services. His case was transferred to Chicago – where
the NIJC became involved, tapping volunteer Rick Lewandowski to
represent the teenager in an asylum hearing.
Lewandowski needed to convince the court, with only the
boy’s testimony and injured hand as evidence, that the boy’s
story of arrest and torture was true. Corroborating evidence from Tibet
could not be obtained without endangering the boy’s family, so
Lewandowski turned to the Internet. He found admissible evidence to
establish Tibet’s political situation and support the boy’s
description of hard prison labor and the practice of requiring payment
from families as a condition of release.
Alyson K. Zierdt, Marquette 1981, is a member
of the Wisconsin Lawyer editorial advisory board. She is retired
and of counsel with Davis & Kuelthau S.C., Oshkosh.
Help with crossing the language barrier came from a Chinese law
student and Chicago-area Tibetans, as well as a Tibetan friend of
Lewandowski’s from Madison. The first time Lewandowski met the
boy, it was difficult for the boy to accept that Lewandowski, as his
attorney, spoke only for him – not for the state.
Because the boy was a “juvenile in detention” (and
was held at an undisclosed location in Chicago), his asylum application
moved quickly to hearing. The stakes were high: A return to Tibet would
assuredly have resulted in him being arrested again. As a second-time
offender, a very lengthy prison sentence and harsh – even
life-threatening – treatment was sure to occur.
Lewandowski won asylum for the boy, who will be eligible to apply
for a green card in July 2009. He will be placed with a foster family,
and he hopes to become a U.S. citizen.
Lewandowski expressed appreciation to Jon Bundy, a summer
associate from the U.W. Law School, for his help on the case. Bundy not
only had the summer associate experience of a lifetime but also the
chance to see an established lawyer contributing to save a young
man’s life.
Wisconsin Lawyer
