Thanks to funding from the Morton K. and Jane Blaustein Foundation CAIR Coalition has expanded its legal services to new facilities in Maryland, continued its existing work with other detention facilities, and expanded its partnerships in the Maryland legal community. CAIR Coalition now provides “Know Your Rights” presentations, individual consultations and pro bono placement of cases at the Worcester County Detention Center which houses over 200 adult immigration detainees, making it the facility with the largest concentration of immigrant detainees in Maryland.
CAIR Coalition has also continued to make regular visits to the Frederick County Detention Center and the Howard County Detention Center and recently began to provide limited assistance to immigrant detainees at the Dorchester County Detention Center and the Hagerstown Correctional Institute. For the first time the majority of detained immigrants in Maryland have access to a legal service provider.
Immigrant detainees like JE. A high school honors student and varsity athlete, JE was detained by Immigration and Customs Enforcement after a friend he was riding with was stopped for speeding. JE had entered the United States when he was 13 years old. When he was 14 he received an in absentia deportation order when his mother, fearing that he would be deported back to El Salvador, chose not to take him to his immigration court hearing.
CAIR Coalition staff attorney Amar Nair succeeded in getting JE’s deportation halted when he was just hours away from being placed on a plane and sent back to El Salvador. Amar was also able to secure JE’s release in time for JE to finish his last semester, graduate and walk with his high school class. Soon after, the U.S. government began its policy of Deferred Action for Early Childhood Arrivals which JE applied for with the assistance of CAIR Coalition. Today JE is saving up to enroll in college while he awaits the results of his application.
JE is very grateful for Amar’s and CAIR Coalition’s help. “Amar Nair is a great person with a big heart who is willing to help us without thinking about it twice. I would not be here in this country if it was not for him. I have always believed that God sends angels to my life when I need them…If you ever have immigration problems, I recommend CAIR Coalition; it is the best and most helpful immigration company there is.”
In addition to increasing our legal services in Maryland, CAIR Coalition has developed an ongoing partnership with the Maryland Office of the Public Defender in order to help detainees obtain post-conviction relief on criminal convictions that negatively impact their immigration status. CAIR Coalition has also partnered with the University of Maryland School of Law and the American University Washington College of Law to have their students assist in detention visits, perform case research, review files in immigration court, and attend Reasonable and Credible Fear Interviews in Baltimore for detained asylum seekers.
CAIR Coalition is very grateful to the Morton K. and Jane Blaustein Foundation for their support of our Maryland work and for enabling us to be there for immigrants like JE.
