New York

After being detained for over four years, on November 5, 2005, three of the six Dorsey clients held at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba were released and reunited with their families in Bahrain. In a terse declaration filed with the court, the US Government said that the transfers of the detainees to Bahrain "were made following a determination that the petitioners' detention by the United States is no longer warranted."

Upon their release by the US military, the men were briefly interviewed by Bahrain authorities and then freed to their waiting families. We have confirmed that they are well and relieved that this ordeal has finally ended, but their joy is tempered by the fact that their fellow Bahrainis, Jumah Al Dossari, Salah Al Bloushi and Isa Al Murbati remain incarcerated at Guantanamo. Isa has been on a hunger strike for months, is being force-fed, and has lost a significant amount of weight. Jumah attempted to commit suicide in October, as reported in the Washington Post.

It is our understanding that discussions between the US and Bahraini governments are ongoing with respect to the release of our remaining clients. While we are cautiously optimistic that diplomatic efforts will be effective, we continue to press forward with the habeas cases that seek to obtain a fair hearing on whether there is any legal justification for the continued detention of our clients. Mark Sullivan, Joshua Colangelo-Bryant and Chris Karagheuzoff are handling the representation, with assistance from Lauren Rasmus, Hannah Resnick, Charisa Tak, Stephen Raab and Kristy Bryant.

Seattle & Minneapolis

We have been given an exciting opportunity to make a significant impact on the lives of children and others in detention. The South Texas Pro Bono Asylum Representation Project (ProBar), located in Harlingen, Texas is a joint project of the ABA, State Bar of Texas and the American Immigration Lawyers Association. It provides pro bono legal services to asylum seekers. ProBar is a small organization with only a few lawyers and are overwhelmed with people in need. They serve two unaccompanied minors' detention centers holding about 220 minors, plus hundreds of detained adults at another facility. ProBar has only one attorney to serve the entire population of kids in detention, and not many more to serve the adults. They desperately need pro bono help, especially from lawyers with experience in immigration law and asylum. The Firm approved a special project where we will send two teams of 2 lawyers each to Harlingen for two week periods before year end. The first team that was sent to Harlingen included two Seattle lawyers: Shannon McMinimee and Marta DeLeon. The second team included two Minneapolis lawyers, Anne Nicholson and Heather Toft.

Southern California

The Southern California office was featured in the latest edition of Pro Bono Matters, the newsletter of Orange County's Public Law Center, for its efforts to help an elderly couple avoid eviction from their home. Kent Schmidt and Chris Humphreys handled the case and obtained a settlement whereby our clients were allowed to keep their home.

Minneapolis

Andrew Toftey has been working for the past year on the development and financing of the Ritz Theater in Northeast Minneapolis on behalf of the Ballet of the Dolls. This was a complex transaction involving a HUD grant, grants from the neighborhood organizations, loans from the City of Minneapolis and loans from a bank. Andrew was the lead attorney, coordinated all of the efforts on behalf of the borrower/developer with other Dorsey attorneys (Audra Williams and Robert Olson in Real Estate, Jay Lindgren in ENREG, Kirk Cozine in Corporate and Mike Pignato and Steve Nyquist) and successfully closed the transaction. Mike Pignato and Steve Nyquist were immensely helpful in providing guidance and advice with the City and in framing the issues for the project. Audra Williams was fantastic in dealing with some bizarre transactions surrounding the related Ritz parking lot (which involved a lease, a sublease, and two competing management agreements, one of which was deemed unsignable by the City despite being drafted by the City) and some tricky easements. Andrew Garth provided valuable advice on the myriad environmental reports related to the site and reviewing environmental indemnity agreements that were required by the private lender, Northeast Bank.

Vancouver

Jeff Peterson represented our client, a 66 year old man who was born in China and immigrated about 30 years ago to Canada. He owns two very small retail poster shops, one in suburban Vancouver and another across the border in Bellingham, Washington. Each of his stores employs three people as cashiers and retail clerks. For six years our client crossed the border once a week from his home in Canada to work for a day in the U.S. on various managerial matters at his U.S. store. US Immigration issued him L-1A work authorizations four times, and weekly confirmed the nature of his visits to the US. In late 2003 our client was arrested by U.S. Border Patrol at his Bellingham store, charged with having immigrant intent without proper documentation (even though he showed them his L-1A documentation at that time), and subjected to removal proceedings to bar him from entering the U.S. for 10 years (and barred from returning to the U.S. while those proceedings were pending). Dorsey agreed to represent him on a pro bono basis because his situation appeared to be simply a mistake and over reaction by the Government and, on that basis, Jeff anticipated a speedy resolution. At the outset we admitted all facts alleged by the Government, opting to rest our defense solely on the law. Jeff argued first to the Government, and then to the Court, that our client had been improperly charged in light of his L-1A authorization and moved to terminate the proceedings. The Government attorney privately acknowledged that he had perhaps been mischarged and offered to dismiss the case if our client agreed to plead to "something." We refused. Over the course of three hearings at U.S. Immigration Court, our Motion to Terminate was briefed, argued and ultimately granted. Upon hearing the Court's decision, the Government waived its right to appeal making the dismissal Order final and our client very happy.

Washington, DC

David Busby, a retired partner, reports there's good news about Fragile X Research. This year's Congressional support was the strongest yet, and we can already see the first results: FRAXA was named to share an $850,000 CDC award to help provide consumers and health professionals with increased access to accurate scientific information on Fragile X and Muscular Dystrophy.

24 Senators and 55 House Members signed letters to their respective Appropriations Committees asking that they direct the Department of Health and Human Services, its National Institutes of Health (NIH), and The Centers For Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) to enhance their FRAGILE X research. As a result of all this support, Fragile X was mentioned 32 times in the House Report and 38 times in the Senate Report. A Fragile X record!

In 1994, FRAXA was a "voice in the wilderness" in Washington. That year FRAXA began to lobby Congress for federal medical research dollars, and the NIH put up about $1 million for Fragile X research. This year NIH will provide more than $20 million, and the CDC and even the Defense Department will kick in substantial additional amounts for Fragile X research. Currently, NIH is funding 81 separate, specific Fragile X research grants and the CDC is launching an extensive neo-natal testing and treatment program - as well as FRAXA's information program mentioned above! Chip Magid will pick up the torch and be FRAXA's Partner In Charge.

Awards & Recognition

Bruce Shnider has been elected President of the Emergency Foodshelf Network. In 1976, a small group of Twin Cities food shelves joined together to form the Emergency Foodshelf Network. By pooling resources, these shelves found they could operate more efficiently and thereby serve more families. Before the Emergency Foodshelf Network was formed, it was not uncommon for one shelf to experience an excess of resources while a neighboring shelf turned clients away due to lack of food or money. The Emergency Foodshelf Network has eliminated the necessity for shelves to shut down in times of crisis. After years of receiving requests from other foodshelves throughout the state, EFN extended its membership to agencies outside Hennepin County (and throughout the Twin Cities) in 1999. EFN enthusiastically opened up its cost-saving programs and services to other hunger-relief organizations that wanted to partner with us fight hunger in Minnesota.