Enforcing Legal and Human Rights for Refugees
Becca is the director and co-founder of the International Refugee Assistance Project (IRAP), an innovative non-profit “virtual public interest law firm” that works to save refugees’ lives, assure their passage to safe destination countries, shape thought and practice in the United States and around the globe, and train the next generation of international human rights advocates.
Becca Heller is the director and co-founder of IRAP and visiting clinical lecturer in law at Yale Law School. She has received numerous awards in recognition of her work with IRAP, including the Charles Bronfman Prize, the American Constitutional Society David Carliner Public Interest Award, a Skadden Fellowship, a Draper Richards Kaplan Fellowship, an Echoing Green Fellowship, a Gruber Human Rights Fellowship, the South Asian Bar Association of Connecticut Annual Community Service Award and a Dartmouth College Martin Luther King Jr. Emerging Leader in Social Justice Award. She was also named Foreign Policy’s Citizen Diplomat of the Year, Politico’s Women Rule Summit Ambassador, one of the Christian Science Monitor’s “30 under 30” change makers, and is a term member of the Council on Foreign Relations. Becca has also been honored as an Iscol Family Program for Leadership Development in Public Service Lecturer at Cornell University and as a speaker at the Chicago Ideas Week Edison Talk.
Becca’s interest in the legal challenges facing refugees began on a trip to Jordan during the summer after her first year in law school. During her stay, she visited with six different refugee families; each of them identified legal assistance as their most urgent need. Having just completed her first semester in Yale Law School’s Immigration Legal Services clinic doing asylum work, Becca believed that law students could assist refugees applying for resettlement.
She returned to Yale and, together with Jon Finer, Mike Breen, Steve Poellot, and Kate Brubacher, founded IRAP in 2008. Becca received her J.D. from Yale Law School in May 2010. During law school, she participated in the Worker and Immigrant Rights Advocacy Clinic, the Immigration Legal Services Clinic, and the Lowenstein International Human Rights Clinic. She served as an Articles Editor for the Yale Journal of International Law, and received a Coker Fellowship to teach legal writing to first year law students. She also received the Charles G. Albom Prize for excellence in the area of judicial and administrative appellate advocacy in connection with a Law School clinical program. Prior to law school, Becca lived and worked in Sub-Saharan Africa for two years, including one year as a U.S. Student Fulbright Scholar in Malawi. She graduated summa cum laude from Dartmouth College in 2005. While in college, she was also the recipient of Campus Compact’s National Student Humanitarian Award.
Becca Heller is part of the 2017 class of Tällberg Global Leaders and winner of the Eliasson Global Leadership Prize of the Tällberg Foundation
Protecting Refugee Rights in the Trump Era
Read more about Becca and IRAP’s work
- The Fight Against Trump’s Travel Ban is Headed to the Supreme Court–And Becca Heller is the Woman Leading the Charge, Glamour Magazine Profile, June 15, 2017
- Sessions Vows to Take Trump Travel Order to Supreme Court, Voa News, May 25, 2017
- A Travel Ban’s Foe: A Young Firebrand and her Pro Bono Brigade, New York Times Profile, May 7, 2017
- Federal court blocks deportation of Afghan special visa recipient, Washington Post, March 15, 2017
- U.S. Judge Reacts Skeptically to Bid to Block Travel Ban, Bloomberg News, March, 15, 2017
- New Travel Ban Removes Iraq from Banned Countries, Betsy Fisher, IRAP Policy Director, on the Rachel Maddow Show, March 6, 2017
- This family got U.S. visas after risking their lives for America. Then immigration officials tried to deport them., Washington Post, March 6, 2017
- DHS secretary: Trump administration considering ‘more streamlined’ version of travel ban, Washington Post, February 19, 2017
- Three Pens, a Notebook and Questions: Inside a Late-Night Assignment, New York Times, January 28, 2017
- Refugees Detained Indefinitely at JFK as Authorities Carry Out Trump’s Muslim Ban, Jezebel, January 28, 2017
- Thousands of Lawyers Descend on U.S. Airports to Fight Trump’s Immigrant Ban, Newsweek, January 29, 2017
- Lawyers Mobilize at Nation’s Airports After Trump’s Order, New York Times, January 29, 2017
- Judge Blocks Trump Order on Refugees Amid Chaos and Outcry Worldwide, New York Times, January 28, 2017
- Detention of Iraqi Refugees at JFK Sparks Legal Challenge to President Trump’s Executive Order, Time Magazine, January 28, 2017
- 24 Hours at JFK: The Hour-by-Hour Account of Two Iraqis’ Detainment and Release, New York Magazine, January 31, 2017
- Trump order like death sentence for many LGBTQ refugees, CNN Opinion, January 31, 2017
- I Wouldn’t Have Been Allowed Into the Country Under Trump’s Immigration Order, Cosmopolitan Magazine, February 1, 2017
- Civil rights groups, lawyers battle against immigration ban, Mark Doss, IRAP Supervising Attorney, on MSNBC, January 30, 2017
- Trump’s looming ‘extreme vetting’ order sows seeds of panic, BBC News, January 28, 2017
- Any number of Syrian refugees may be too many for Trump, NPR, Public Radio International, December 1, 2016
- For Refugees And Advocates, An Anxious Wait For Clarity On Trump’s Policy, NPR, November 15, 2016
- For Many Refugees, the Vetting Process to Migrate to the US is Intolerably Traumatic , Women in the World 2016, October 24, 2016
- Refugee Advocates Says Even Partial Reinstatement of Travel Ban Will Cause Hardship,Los Angeles Times, June 26, 2017
- Supreme Court allows Trump’s travel ban to take partial effect, Politico, June 26, 2017
- What the Travel Ban Ruling Means in Practice, New Yorker, June 26, 2017
- With 3 Words, Supreme Court Opens a World of Uncertainty for Refugees, New York Times, June 27, 2017
- US Supreme Court Partly Reinstates Travel Ban, Will Hear Arguments in October, NPR, Public Radio International, June 27, 2017
- For Abused, Gay Iraqi in Turkey, U.S. Refugee Freeze Is Cruelest Hit, New York Times, July 1, 2017
- U.S. judge narrows travel ban in defeat for Trump, Reuters, July 13, 2017
- Challenge That Blocked First Trump Travel Ban Is Settled, New York Times, August 31, 2017
- Appeals Court Limits Trump Travel Ban and Allows More Refugees, New York Times, September 7, 2017
- Trump Administration Considers Replacing Travel Ban, NPR – Weekend Edition, September 23, 2017
- Becca’s ‘Final Word’ Piece: What a Just Immigration Policy Doesn’t Look Like, Foreign Policy
- Becca on ‘The ER’ Podcast: Is U.S. Immigration Policy Worse Than It’s Ever Been?, September 2017
- Around the World and the U.S., New Travel Ban Draws Anger, Applause and Shrugs, New York Times, September 25, 2017