Russian dissident is "welcomed to America'
Alexsandr Klimanov's journey to freedom took 16 months and covered 14,320 miles.
It took the Russian dissident from the city of Tomsk in south central Siberia to Newark, New Jersey, by way of Odessa in Ukraine, Cancun in Mexico and San Ysidro in California.
He fled Russian in May 2015, was in the Ukraine for several months before flying to Mexico and crossing into America last December.
He was detained in the American immigration system -- as many seeking political asylum are -- until August.
That's when Klimanov heard the words from a federal immigration judge he traveled halfway around the world to hear:
"Welcome to America, Mr. Klimanov."
The United States remains the country of choice for people seeking political asylum, who fall into a different and much smaller category than refugees.
In 2015, the U.S. resettled about 70,000 refugees, but the number of people given political asylum is about a third of that, according to the Migration Policy Institute in Washington.
In all the talk about wall-building and immigration reform under the coming Donald Trump administration, here is the story of one man's journey and the New Jersey lawyers who helped him, pro bono, as a reminder that oppression is very much alive in our world.
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Klimanov, 32, was a well-known critic, proliferate blogger and voice of intellectual dissent in Russia who was being monitored and followed by the secret police.
When one of his friends was arrested in Siberia, he decided to flee to Ukraine. Next stop -- after several months -- was Cancun, because Mexico does not require visas for visiting Russians. From Cancun he flew to Tijuana, where he crossed the border.
He made the full journey with less than $1,000 and whatever clothing he could escape with, stuffed into a backpack.
His knowledge of English was limited to one sentence: "I'm a Russian opposition leader and I need political asylum in the United States."
These were the first words he spoke to the U.S. Border Patrol when he disembarked from a bus to San Diego with no papers to show.
"I learned the phrase through Google," Klimanov said during a phone interview last week, facilitated by one of his attorneys, Olga Kats-Chalfant, who was interpreting.
He was detained and several weeks later -- with about 100 other people from all over the world who were handcuffed and shackled and chained together -- he went to Phoenix by bus and Newark by charter flight. He was eventually housed in the Essex County Correctional Facility.
While Klimanov was on his months-long journey, his eventual lawyers, Eric Inglis and Kats-Chalfant, were on journeys of their own, though less dramatic.
For Inglis, it began last September when he saw the photo that brought worldwide attention to the Syrian refugee crisis. It was the picture of lifeless Alan Kurdi, the 3-year-old Syrian boy whose body washed up on a Turkish beach after an inflatable raft that held his family capsized in the Mediterranean Sea.
"That photo made me think about how blessed I am to live in this country with my family and the life we have, and I just thought, 'I have to do something to help,' " said Inglis, who heads the commercial litigation department at the law firm Schenck, Price, Smith & King in Florham Park.
When Inglis saw that picture, Klimanov was still in Ukraine trying to join the armed forces fighting the Russian takeover. He was blogging and giving interviews to newspapers about Russian repression and human rights violations.
But as winter came, he would flee to Mexico then America.
Inglis, meanwhile, began working through Human Rights First, a legal-aid advocacy group for refugees and people who are politically threatened to find a client to represent.
"They basically give you a shopping list," he said.
Klimanov's experience resonated with Inglis because, in 1989, Inglis had studied in Poland as the first free elections in the country approached and witnessed student activism there in the face of repression.
He began representing Klimanov last spring, while he was in the Essex County jail.
Inglis knew that co-worker Kats-Chalfant was Russian and asked her to become involved. She first declined.
"There was too much baggage," she said. "I left Russia behind."
She came to America as a 15-year-old in 1992, a time when Russia allowed Jews to leave the country.
"We came here as religious refugees," she said.
Prior to leaving Russia, her father had been jailed with other Jewish physicians and dentists, and charged with running a private practice in a state-run medical system, she said.
But she eventually changed her mind and agreed to help.
"I completely understood why (Klimanov) left," she said. "I understand every person who has a genuine desire to leave that place."
"Olga knowing the language was essential in helping us communicate," Inglis said.
She was also able to translate volumes of Klimanov's blogs -- and the harassing comments he received -- to prove he was a serious opponent of the Russian government and was threatened because of it.
Armed with that information, the attorneys began to build a case for granting Klimanov political asylum. The lawyers documented his detainment and monitoring by police, and the arrest of other dissidents. They also provided the judge with evidence of Klimanov's unabashed admiration for America.
"He would post the Declaration of Independence and the writings of Thomas Jefferson," Kats-Chalfant said. "He would write that people who are free are capable of such ideas. He didn't want to have to leave Russia, he once told me. He wanted to build what we have in America in Russia."
Instead, he was forced to leave to find the freedom that is so elusive in so many places in the world.
"He couldn't have been more grateful," Inglis said. "He said, 'You have handed me a life.' "
Inglis said he will now begin working on getting Klimanov's wife, Anastasiya, into the country.
"What I love most about the country is the sheer number of initiatives and ideas I see around me," Klimanov said. "And you know that by sheer will and grit and ability you can turn those dreams into reality."
It's the reason people keep coming. And if we lose that, then we've lost everything.
Mark Di Ionno may be reached at mdiionno@starledger.com. Follow The Star-Ledger on Twitter @StarLedger and find us on Facebook.
