A UC Davis law professor will be making her second trip to Haiti May 10-15 as part of a human rights delegation.

Holly Cooper, staff attorney and professor at the law school’s Immigration Law Clinic, visited Haiti with the delegation in March to provide legal aid to earthquake victims who qualify for humanitarian parole to the United States.

Under immigration laws, Secretary of Homeland Security Janet Napolitano has the discretion to parole individuals into the U.S. for urgent humanitarian reasons. This can include cases where an individual has serious medical conditions, is pregnant, a juvenile, or parole is in the public interest. Cooper also plans to identify and assist victims of gender violence, such as women and children who are being raped in the tent camps.

“The people of Haiti seek dignity, food and water, medical treatment and hope for their children. Their stories are of the most monumental suffering imaginable. Our delegation is seeking cases that might compel our government to nobly and compassionately open its borders to offer sanctuary to the Haitian people,” Cooper said.

“We met with more than 100 individuals during our trip in March and we hope to meet with many more this time. We hope that the U.S. government can provide humanitarian parole into the U.S. to some of the most severe cases because we cannot turn away from the Haitian people.”

The delegation includes doctors, lawyers and a photographer who is documenting the trip.

About UC Davis

For more than 100 years, UC Davis has engaged in teaching, research and public service that matter to California and transform the world. Located close to the state capital, UC Davis has 32,000 students, an annual research budget that exceeds $600 million, a comprehensive health system and 13 specialized research centers. The university offers interdisciplinary graduate study and more than 100 undergraduate majors in four colleges — Agricultural and Environmental Sciences, Biological Sciences, Engineering, and Letters and Science. It also houses six professional schools — Education, Law, Management, Medicine, Veterinary Medicine and the Betty Irene Moore School of Nursing.