"For this asylum-seeker, as with many others, gaps in memory or inconsistencies in her story could have gotten her deported. Yet, when it comes to trauma, what might seem like a sign that testimony isn’t credible can itself be strong evidence that the story might be true. Berthold’s job was to explain this paradox to the judge.
She was there as a forensic psychological evaluator, a role she has played in hundreds of asylum cases. We think of US immigration law squarely in the world of politics, with people caught in the crosswinds of violence around the globe and each American administration’s policies. But based on interviews with nearly 20 health providers and immigration lawyers, STAT found that many of these cases pivot on the knowledge of clinicians like Berthold...
Immigration detention centers tend to be remote — making those sessions harder to work into a clinician’s schedule — and sometimes distance isn’t the only barrier.
“We’ve had evaluators go to a center after scheduling a whole day of travel, and the individual isn’t brought out: They just aren’t made available for the evaluation,” said Meredith Fortin, who runs the Physicians for Human Rights Asylum Network...
Sometimes they go to great lengths to avoid their lawyers because describing their experience is so emotionally difficult. “In some examples, they have left the state, and we have had to write to the court to ask for more time, so we can care for the patient so he can participate in his own case,” Kallivayalil said.
Even convincing an asylum-seeker to see a psychological evaluator can be a challenge: Many of them come from countries where those services aren’t accessible, and where mental health issues are deeply stigmatized."
FB: "these cases depend on doctors and psychologists who can translate scars and symptoms into evidence — and who can tell when a person’s ability to testify may have been altered by trauma."
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