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Rená Cutlip started her legal career

representing migrant farm workers. As an

international traveler and a volunteer with

AmeriCorps, Ms. Cutlip, 30, knew she wanted

to help people navigate the complex U.S.

immigration system. As an attorney, she

figured, she would be able to help the most

people and help change the system.

“Our immigration system isn’t fair,” she

said. “It wasn’t until living in the Dominican

Republic and then working as an AmeriCorps

volunteer that I realized I really wanted to

work with immigrants and work to change

our immigration system.”

Layli Miller-Muro started Tahirih, named

for a �9th-century poet who fought for

women’s rights in the Middle East. Ms.

Miller-Muro was inundated with requests

for legal assistance after she won a high-

profile asylum case for a girl who fled Togo

in the face of a forced polygamous marriage

and genital mutilation. The girl, Fauziya

Kassindja, was locked up for �7 months and

granted asylum in �996 by the U.S. Board of

Immigration Appeals.

The Tahirih Justice Center was started as

a result of that case and is now a leading

pro bono legal advocacy group, which uses

litigation and public policy to help women.

Cutlip said one of the biggest challenges

for the center is reaching women who are

in trouble, so the victims know they have

rights. A major part of Cutlip’s job is finding

volunteer attorneys to take on cases.

Although Tahirih serves the Washington,

DC, metro area, Cutlip said she is building

a network of attorneys from around the

country so that she can help women who

call, no matter where they live. The center

aims to help all victims of domestic abuse,

but focuses on the immigrant population and

women seeking asylum or refugee status.

The clients are typically from Africa, Asia,

and the Middle East.

One client, for example, was a �4-year-

old girl brought to the United States from

Nigeria. Her parents sent her to live with an

American family because they promised their

daughter would receive a top-notch Western

education in exchange for babysitting.

The girl never received that education, Cutlip

said. The girl was forced to work as a nanny,

maid, and cook, often for more than 20 hours

a day. The parents would leave her with their

children for weeks at a time. “And then she was

subjected to rape by the husband,” Cutlip said.

The center also does much work to protect

so-called mail-order brides. In a highly

publicized case, the center helped a

Ukrainian woman named Nataliya Fox escape

from her abusive husband. In November

2004, Ms. Fox won a landmark case against

Encounters International, a marriage broker,

which brokered her marriage to an American

man who abused her. When she went to

the agency seeking help, they told her to

go home to her husband or she would be

deported. The agency was ordered to pay

Fox $433,500 in damages, $34�,500 of which

were punitive damages.

Tahirih’s legal department focuses on

immigration cases and does not do civil

cases, but it helped Fox obtain pro bono

counsel. Tahirih is now crafting legislation

that, if passed, would make it mandatory

for agencies to provide potential brides with

criminal records and other information about

the men they plan to marry.

Cutlip, who worked for several immigration

law firms to pay her way through law school,

said she is always looking for more volunteer

attorneys.

“The biggest part of what I do is coordinating,

recruiting, and mentoring pro bono volunteer

attorneys,” she said.

Before joining Tahirih in 2004, Cutlip was

the Immigration Program Director at La

Esperanza Community Center in Georgetown,

DE. And she was an attorney with Farm

Worker Legal Services, a division of Legal

Services of South Central Michigan.

“Doing general immigration at the

community center was rewarding because

we were working with low-wage workers on

a variety of issues that low-wage immigrant

workers face,” she said. “However, what I

realized was my most rewarding and most

challenging and most compelling cases were

my cases for battered immigrant women.”

Cutlip decided she wanted to devote her

career full time to helping abused women,

which is why she joined Tahirih.

Fluent in Spanish, Cutlip visited Guatemala

while in college and fell in love with the

country. She decided to learn the language

and move to Guatemala. She studied Spanish

continued on back

Rená Cutlip [by Regan Morris]

Victims of domestic violence generally feel powerless and are often lost in the system. For immigrant

women, the problems can be much worse, with victims unaware of their rights. Illegal immigrants often

tolerate abuse out of fear that they will be deported if they seek help. Tahirih Justice Center helps women

and girls fleeing human rights abuse. LawCrossing speaks with staff attorney Rená Cutlip about the how

Tahirih helps women and girls escape violent situations.

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in Chile and the Dominican Republic and

then decided she’d be of more use helping

immigrants navigate the immigration system

in the United States. Originally from West

Virginia, Cutlip holds a Bachelor’s degree

in Spanish and International Relations from

Bucknell University, and she went to law

school at Northeastern University.

Twenty years ago, many people were not

familiar with indications of domestic violence,

Cutlip said, but now more people recognize

when something is not right in a home and

are more apt to report a problem to the police

or a church. Human trafficking is a problem

people are only beginning to recognize, she

said, adding that she hopes more people will

come forward if they think they know about

cases of forced labor, slavery, or abused and

captive mail-order brides.

“I love my work,” she said. “I wish in some

ways that our organization didn’t have to

exist, because that would mean there wasn’t

violence in the world. But because there is,

I’m glad that we’re able to be here.”