Ballard Spahr Andrews & Ingersoll, LLP provided pro bono counsel to help file and ultimately settle a federal court national class action involving elderly and disabled humanitarian immigrants.
Those involved are refugees and asylees who fled persecution in their home countries only to be cut off from federal Supplementary Security Income (SSI) benefits when immigration processing delays prevented them from becoming U.S. citizens within the seven-year statutory window. The hearing for final judicial approval of the class settlement in Kaplan v. Chertoff is scheduled for Feb. 29, at 2 p.m. before U.S. District Court Judge Eduardo C. Robreno in Philadelphia.
"The Ballard team and I are extremely proud to have this opportunity to give back to our community," said Jordana L. Greenwald, associate in the Litigation Department and member of the Ballard team that worked on the Kaplan case. "These plaintiffs truly are the 'huddled masses' that have come here seeking a better life. It is rewarding to know that our work will help thousands of needy immigrants to receive the benefits they so desperately need and finally become U.S. citizens."
Class representative Shmul Kaplan, 80, of Levittown, PA, is a Holocaust survivor and was the victim of anti-Semitic persecution in the former Soviet Union. Kaplan was granted asylum in 1997 and began receiving SSI and Medicaid. The government delayed for five years in ruling on his green card application before granting it in 2003. Ten years after receiving asylum, and during the lawsuit, Kaplan achieved his longtime goal of U.S. citizenship in September 2007. Kaplan's SSI benefits, which had been suspended for almost four years, were finally restored.
The settlement addresses the plight of some 20,000 refugees and asylees who have already lost their SSI benefits, as well as another 40,000 who are expected to be cut off in the future. The primary relief offered by the settlement is an agreement by the Department of Homeland Security, Citizenship and Immigration Services, to provide expedited processing of pending green card and naturalization applications for Kaplan class members.
Ballard's pro bono efforts were undertaken as part of a legal services team, the other members of which were Community Legal Services, the HIAS and Council Migration Service, and the Sargent Shriver National Center on Poverty Law. The Ballard team involved with the Kaplan case included John P. Lavelle Jr., partner in the Litigation Department and partner-in-charge of the Product Liability and Mass Tort Group; Jordana L. Greenwald, associate in the Litigation Department and member of the Labor, Employment & Immigration Group; Jennifer Simon, associate in the Litigation Department and member of the Environmental Group; Cecilia Isaacs-Blundin, associate in the Litigation Department and member of the Corporate and Government Investigations and White Collar Defense Group; Sabrina Mizrachi, associate in the Litigation Department and member of the Environmental Group; and Marlene S. Gomez, associate in the Litigation Department and member of the Environmental Group, and John F. Metzger, a paralegal in the Litigation Department. Tom Roberts, formerly of counsel to the firm, was also instrumental in bringing the case.