Rebecca Gendelman

Senior Research and Policy Counsel, Refugee Protection

As Senior Research and Policy Counsel with Refugee Protection, Rebecca supports Human Rights First’s efforts to promote the protection of refugees and reform the U.S. asylum system.

Rebecca received a Juris Doctor degree from Yale Law School in 2019. In law school, Rebecca was a student director of the Immigration Legal Services Clinic, where she represented asylum seekers and green card applicants. She was also a research coordinator for the Immigration Policy Tracking Project, which catalogues every immigration policy from January 2017 to January 2021. During law school, Rebecca interned at the Capital Area Immigrants’  Rights Coalition and the Legal Aid Society’s Criminal Appeals Bureau.

Rebecca graduated Cum Laude from Williams College, where she received a Bachelor of Arts degree in English with honors.

Recent Articles:

Pretense of Protection Rushed Timelines, Inadequate Access to Legal Representation Impede Meaningful Opportunity to Seek Asylum Under New Asylum Processing Rule Inadequate Access to Legal Representation, Rushed Timelines Impede Meaningful Opportunity to Seek Asylum Under New Asylum Processing Rule “I’m a Prisoner Here” “Aquí Soy Un Prisionero” From our FOIA of HRIFA Reports: Over 140,000 Asylum Seekers Detained Between 2015 and 2017 Biden Administration Move to Eliminate Requests for Reconsideration Would Endanger Asylum Seekers, Deport Them to Persecution and Torture Biden Administration Poised to Eliminate Critical Safeguard Amid Escalating Reports of Erroneous Credible Fear Decisions Immigration and Customs Enforcement Records Received Through FOIA Confirm Need for Increased Oversight of Agency’s Arbitrary and Unfair Parole Decisions for Asylum Seekers “We feel safe”: As Biden administration ends the Migrant Protection Protocols, asylum seekers included in the wind down experience security, stability, and joy in new lives in the United States Amy Coney Barrett’s Troubling Record on Asylum and Immigration Failure to Protect: Biden Administration Continues Illegal Trump Policy to Block and Expel Asylum Seekers to Danger Humanitarian Disgrace A Year of Horrors: The Trump Administration’s Illegal Returns of Asylum Seekers to Danger in Mexico Human Rights Fiasco: The Trump Administration’s Dangerous Asylum Returns Continue Asylum Processing Rule at One Year Refugee Protection Travesty Rhetoric v. Reality: Representing Asylum Seekers with Disabilities: Relevant Law Inhumane and Counterproductive Correcting the Record: The Reality of U.S. Asylum Process and Outcomes "No Human Being Should Be Held There": The Mistreatment Of LGBTQ And HIV-Positive People In U.S. Federal Immigration Jails