Anderson H. came to this country from Honduras at age seven, in 2006, after seeing two uncles and an aunt slain in retaliation for his grandfather’s opposition to gang activity. Paradoxically, hostility to gangs in this country made asylum a long shot for Anderson.
Undeterred, Reed Smith took his case to immigration court in San Francisco and flew in an antigang specialist from a Honduran nonprofit. The expert testified that 600 Hondurans had died in gang violence the prior year. Anderson won his case for asylum. “There’s nothing like hearing a Central American witness describe the horrors he witnesses in daily life to persuade a judge,” says Anderson’s lawyer Jayne Fleming.
