The immigrant population of the United States faces unheard of threats of mass apprehension, detention, and deportation as the current administration has taken steps to ramp up its deportation machine. Immigrants who have a criminal conviction – including long-time green card holders and people with minor convictions – are increasingly swept up as the primary targets by means of a growing criminal-immigration-deportation pipeline.
We are honored to announce that the American Immigration Lawyers Association (AILA) Washington DC Chapter has named Capital Area Immigrants' Rights Coalition as their 2017 Pro Bono Champion. The award is bestowed upon individuals and organizations who demonstrate an exemplary commitment to pro bono work and have made a significant impact on the immigrant communities they serve. Michael Lukens, CAIR Coalition's Pro Bono Director, accepted the award on the organization's behalf on May 18th, 2017 at the AILA DC dinner held at Jones Day.
In an opinion piece published in The Baltimore Sun, Claudia Cubas, Senior Director of CAIR Coalition's Detained Adult Program, explains the importance of access to legal counsel to immigrants in detention. Cubas calls upon Maryland to lead the way by providing comprehensive access to counsel for immigrants facing deportation.
Immigration detention centers are often miles away from the nearest city, limiting a detainee's access to legal counsel, family, and access to evidence. In article published by ProPublica, Immigrants in Detention Centers Are Often Hundreds of Miles From Legal Help, author Patrick G. Lee highlights the challenges that we at CAIR Coalition encounter when providing free legal services to men and women detained in remote detention centers.
On May 11, DC Attorney General Karl A. Racine issued guidance to teachers and school administrators on how they can best protect and support immigrant students and their families in an era of increased immigrant enforcement and rising anti-immigrant sentiment. The guidance reiterates that all children, regardless of their immigration status, have a constitutional right to a free and primary and secondary education.
For what should be a celebratory and joyous day, this Mother’s Day for many mothers and their families will be a time of unimaginable pain and heartbreak. This is reality for Elena, a loving mother to two sons and a daughter. Elena won’t be with her children this Sunday.
Capital Area Immigrants' Rights Coalition joins over 250+ immigrant and civil rights groups in opposing the proposed expansion of the immigration detention system and elimination of minimal detention conditions standards. In this letter, we urge DHS to:
Prior to this week, only one detained immigrant had won a habeas case in Virginia without having first received a final order of deportation. Now, there are two.
CAIR Coalition congratulates pro bono lead counsel Michael Huston at Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher for winning the argument at the Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals that Virginia statutory burglary is not an aggravated felony theft or burglary offense and is indivisible. This means that no future noncitizen can ever again be deported or barred from a defense to deportation for having a Virginia burglary conviction categorized by the government as an aggravated felony theft or burglary offense.
On April 18, 2017 the Board of Immigration Appeals gave guidance on administrative closures with the important decision on the Matter of W-Y-U. The decision states that when determining whether to administratively close or recalendar a case, an immigration judge must consider as a primary factor whether the opposing party has provided a persuasive reason for the case to proceed and be resolved on the merits.
After all the sweat and grind a pro bono attorney has put into winning a withholding or removal or Convention Against Torture case, the client is not necessarily finished interacting with Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE). Much of the patterns and practice currently observed depend on the type of relief or release applicable to the client. Click here for Part 1 of this story.
Increased ICE Raids. Building a Wall. Failed Travel Bans. And now…Broken Promises. The current administration has found a new way to make real its promise to increase deportations. As detailed in a superb article from the New York Times, ICE is now detaining long-time residents of the United States when they go to routine check-in meetings with ICE – check-ins that often have been ongoing for years.
CAIR Coalition has nearly quadrupled the number of detained adults and children to whom we were able to provide pro bono legal representation for over the past 5 years. Thousands of individuals still need our help.
Capital Area Immigrants' Rights Coalition collaborated with The Center for Popular Democracy and National Immigrant Law Center on a report that was featured in the Washington Post.
CAIR Coalition Nithya Nathan-Pineau took part in a Teach-In at Politics & Prose Bookstore, Washington, D.C.'s premier independent bookstore and cultural hub. Speaking on Immigration issues, Nithya was joined by Scott Michelman of the ACLU of DC and Faiza Patel of the Co-Director of the Brennan Center’s Liberty and National Security Program.
Bennett Nagurka, a junior at Vassar University, joined us at CAIR Coalition over his winter break as an administrative intern. He was an enormous help to the Detained Adult Program during the transition time between our fall interns and spring interns, helping to train the spring interns on jail visit preparation and breakdown, staffing our detention hotline, responding to community calls, and many other important services that help us aid detained immigrants.
America is a country that takes great pride in the promise of freedom and opportunity for all. But recently, many Americans have realized that we’ve taken this promise for granted. It is crucial that those of us who are able volunteer to support our fellow human beings on the path towards social justice. Volunteering with the CAIR Coalition detention hotline is a great chance to do that.
Check out CAIR Coalition's 2016 Year in Review to see the work we did to stand up for, and with, immigrants in the Washington, DC area.
All of this would not have been possible without our supporters. Please consider making a donation so that CAIR Coalition can continue to fight for equal justice for all immigrants at risk of detention and deportation.
