• Director of the Asylum Program of Human Rights First
• Opposes 1996 Illegal Immigration Reform and Immigrant Responsibility Act
• Opposes Operation Liberty Shield

Eleanor Acer directs the Asylum Program of Human Rights First (HRF), an organization she joined in 1996. Acer oversees a network of some 1,000 volunteer attorneys who handle asylum cases for HRF, and in that role she has obtained asylum for more than 90 percent of HRF’s refugee clients in New York City and Washington, D.C.  Says Acer, “This country was founded on the concept of asylum that you never return those who flee persecution to countries where they are persecuted. Are we living up to this commitment?”

Acer opposed the 1996 Illegal Immigration Reform and Immigrant Responsibility Act, which not only authorized immigration officers to detain asylum-seekers until their backgrounds could be thoroughly checked, but also placed a one-year time limit on filing for asylum; Acer has argued in congressional hearings against both practices.

In addition, Acer argued against former Attorney General John Ashcroft’s order to detain all Haitian refugees arriving illegally in the U.S. by sea -- an order that was intended to discourage others from attempting to do the same.

Immigration judges routinely ask those seeking asylum on religious grounds questions about their faith; Acer opposes this practice as well, deeming it discriminatory.

In 2003 Acer argued against every provision of the Department Of Homeland Security's (DHS) Operation Liberty Shield, which sought to provide: more Coast Guard patrols at major American ports and waterways; more border patrol agents to monitor U.S. land borders; tighter temporary controls on the movements of asylum applicants from nations where al Qaeda and other terrorist groups are known to have operated; stronger security measures at airports; enhanced security for railways, petroleum centers, and nuclear power sites; more funding for efforts to derail cyber-terror plots; and increased public-health preparedness for possible acts of biological or chemical warfare. 

In April 2003 Acer was a signatory to a letter calling on then-DHS Secretary Tom Ridge to “devote the necessary resources to ensuring that the pace of refugee resettlement is improved so that the U.S. can meet its resettlement targets,” and to “ensure that adequate resources are devoted to alternatives to detention.” Other signatories included representatives from the American Friends Service Committee, the American Immigration Lawyers Association, Amnesty International, the Arab American Institute, the Immigrant Legal Resource Center, the Texas chapter of Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights Under Law, the National Immigration Forum, the American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee, the World Organization Against Torture, the Immigration Law Clinic, and local chapters of the Immigrants' Rights Project.

In August 2004, when DHS announced its plans to give border patrol agents the power to bypass immigration hearings and immediately deport illegal aliens, Acer objected.

In 2006 Acer spoke out against House Referendum 4437, the so-called "Sensenbrenner Bill" sponsored by Wisconsin Republican James Sensenbrenner. This legislation, which in December 2005 passed in the House by a margin of 239 to 182, was intended to make it a felony for anyone to be in the United States illegally; to make it a crime for anyone to assist illegal aliens in any way; and to initiate the construction of a 700-mile fence along the U.S.-Mexico border. "[T]he U.S. House of Representatives has turned a cold shoulder on those who seek this country's protection from persecution,” said Acer. “... This bill would turn asylum seekers into 'felons,' jail them for longer periods in immigration jails, and limit their access to federal courts that can prevent their mistaken deportation back into the hands of their persecutors." On another occasion Acer said, “If these provisions are enacted, they will undermine this country’s commitment to protecting those who flee political and religious persecution. America’s historic role as a haven for refugees is at stake.”

Acer received her B.A. from Brown University and her law degree from Fordham.  Before joining Human Rights First, she handled federal litigation for the law firm of Kirkpatrick & Lockhart, LLP.