– 1997, The Beginning

Yacub Law was created in June 1997 with three principles in mind: represent immigrants; take on the tough cases; and expand the rights of immigrants in deportation or removal proceedings.

In more than twenty years of practice, Yacub Law has met its founding principles. With only a handful of cases in 1997, Yacub Law represented immigrants from Central America, mostly El Salvador and Guatemala and later Honduras, and immigrants from the Eastern Horn of Africa, Somalia, Ethiopia, Eritrea and Sudan.

– Early years, 2 Emblematic Cases

The first case involved an immigrant from Saudi Arabia who was accused of terrorism charges. The government used a section of the United States Code which permitted it to use secret evidence against the individual – evidence that could not be disclosed to the accused because of national security concerns. Attorney Ivan Yacub saw the unfairness of the use of secret evidence to expel aliens and challenged the use of secret evidence in the administrative and federal court process. For challenging the use of secret evidence, Ivan Yacub was awarded a prestigious human rights award in the United States House of Representatives.

The second case involved the son of a former dictator. The government accused the client of gross human rights violation and Yacub Law Office, after a four day trial, was able to prevail.

– 2007 up to today, Success!

Yacub Law has been on the forefront of advocacy.  In 2007, Yacub Law was able to set precedent on the rights of the criminally accused in immigration proceedings. Matter of Sejas, 24 I&N Dec 236 (BIA 2007). And less than a decade later, Yacub Law was able to set precedent on the rights of aliens who apply for cancellation of removal and asylum. Jaghoori v. Holder,  772 F.3d 764 (4th Cir. 2014), Hernandez Avalos v. Lynch, 784 F.3d 944 (4th Cir. 2015) and Zavaleta-Policiano v. Sessions, 873 F.3d 241 (4th Cir. 2017).

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