On February 14th, 2019, legislators from both parties in the Senate and House of Representatives reached a budget agreement that averted a second federal government shutdown. The first — which lasted for more than one month — caused tremendous disruption within United States immigration courts. Certainly, the aversion of the shutdown and the lack of…
According to reporting from the Los Angeles Times, the Los Angeles City Council voted to approve a largely symbolic resolution declaring our community as a ‘City of Sanctuary’. While some immigration activists were frustrated by the city’s slow movement on the issue — the resolution was proposed nearly eighteen months ago — it is still…
In recent years, many immigrants have been forced to endure frustrating delays in the processing of their application. California’s immigration court backlog is the largest in the country, and the federal government shutdown has only added to the chaos and dysfunction. The delays in our system are not limited to immigration courts. Recently, new data…
President Trump has consistently pushed policies that make life significantly more difficult for immigrants and their families. Yet, there are some groups who appear to have benefited directly from the administration’s immigration policies: smugglers and criminal gangs in Mexico. On February 4th, 2019, USA Today published a story on the impacts that the Trump…
Until very recently, the website for the “University of Farmington” looked fairly similar to the website for any other ordinary American college or university. It was filled with leafy pictures, background information, and general details on enrollment procedures and course programs. If you navigate to the website today, you will find a message stating that…
If you received a Notice to Appear, it means that the United States government is taking the first steps to order your removal from the country. While you are certainly not alone — The New York Times reports that more than 250,000 people were deported from the United States in 2017 — receiving a Notice…
According to reporting from The Tribune, a Los Angeles County man has been accused of falsely posing as an immigration lawyer and scamming immigrant farm workers. The State Bar of California announced that it has obtained an order against a Los Angeles area businessman Vincent Enriquez. He is being charged with the unauthorized practice of…
The ‘New Colossus’, a poem by Emma Lazarus, is engraved on the base of the Statute of Liberty. Its most famous line, declaring to the world that America is ready to accept the “huddled masses” who are “yearning to breathe free”, has long been referenced to show America’s appreciated of immigrants. There is no doubt…
On November 26th, 2018, the Daily Beast reported that a transgender woman named Roxsana Hernández Rodriguez — who tragically died in a privately run immigration detention facility last May — was likely physically abused and denied necessary medical care before passing away. This is according to the results of an autopsy report released by the…
For immigrants, being held in a detention facility can be a long and unpredictable experience. The United States government is, unfortunately, notoriously slow in processing applications for asylum and other immigration cases. While many people have a vague understanding that immigration courts have a large backlog, most people do not know the true effects that…
