As we continue to see changes to immigration law at a rapid pace, CLINIC’s Defending Vulnerable Populations Program, DVP, has responded through a multi-pronged strategy. 

Litigation—In November we brought a federal lawsuit, SAP v. Barr, challenging  implementation by U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services of the recent attorney general decision, Matter of L-E-A-, a case on which CLINIC is counsel. In SAP, we challenge USCIS guidance instructing asylum officers that “ordinary” families will generally not qualify as a particular social group for asylum purposes. We filed a motion for a preliminary injunction in the case, which is pending in the District Court of the District of Columbia. Over the past year, CLINIC has engaged in impact litigation both as counsel and as an organizational plaintiff. See our litigation webpage for more information. 

Individual Federal Litigation— DVP’s Federal Litigation Attorney Bradley Jenkins has won cases in federal court on behalf of individuals who had exhausted their remedies before USCIS. For example, Jenkins co-counseled with Whitney Untiedt of Freidin Brown, P.A. to file a lawsuit in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Florida after USCIS unlawfully refused citizenship to a qualified applicant. That qualified applicant, a Haitian grandmother, became a U.S. citizen on Sept. 13, 2019, after USCIS agreed to settle the case. Untiedt attended the naturalization oath ceremony and said, “I have never been prouder to be a lawyer than the day I attended my client’s citizenship swearing-in ceremony.”

Amicus Support—DVP provides amicus support on various matters. Most recently, CLINIC and 20 other faith-based organizations, including other Catholic, Protestant Jewish and Muslim groups, filed an amicus brief in United States v. Sineneng-Smith. The brief urges the Supreme Court to strike down a federal criminal law that could lead to prosecutions for faith-related speech. The law in question makes it a felony, punishable by up to five years in prison, for anyone who “encourages or induces” someone to reside in the United States in reckless disregard of whether that person has lawful status. The amicus brief argues that legal and advocacy work, as well as providing food and shelter social services to noncitizens, could result in prosecution under this law. The faith organizations argue that the court should strike down the law as it forces those who are moved by their faith to help others to choose between the tenets of their faith and potentially committing a felony. 

Practice Advisories—DVP recently released a practice advisory on Post-Departure Motions to Reopen and Reconsider, which gives practitioners a broad understanding of this complicated area of the law and includes a useful chart of circuit law cases on the topic. We also released two resources on USCIS changes that affect applicants for Special Immigrant Juvenile Status—an advisory on changes to the USCIS Policy Manual implemented in November 2019 and a practice alert on proposed SIJS regulations and Administrative Appeals Office decisions affecting SIJS. And we updated our practice advisory on Strategies and Considerations in the Wake of the Pereira decision.

DVP also continues to update and reissue the Index of Unpublished Administrative Appeals Office Decisions on Special Immigrant Juvenile Status, available by request. Look for the next update in the coming week. For further resources by topic, please visit our resources webpage. 

Regulations—The administration has been publishing proposed comments that will significantly undermine vulnerable populations’ rights, particularly asylum seekers. DVP wrote CLINIC’s comments: 1) opposing proposed regulations that expand criminal bars to asylum eligibility; 2) on a rule that will eliminate a 30-day processing requirement for asylum-based employment authorization applications; and 3) on a proposed rule that would restrict SIJS eligibility for vulnerable children. We also submitted comments urging the withdrawal of an interim final regulation already in effect, on Asylum Cooperative Agreements, which allows the U.S. government to send U.S. asylum seekers to Northern Triangle countries to pursue their claims. 

Trial Skills Trainings—DVP continues our partnership with the National Institute for Trial Advocacy to offer a three-day intensive, immigration court skills training. If you are interested in this invaluable training, please apply to attend our next training in Boulder, Colorado, March 17-19, 2020. If you are unable to join this training, NITA-CLINIC will offer additional trainings throughout the year. CLINIC will also offer a three-day intensive, immigration court skills training for California Department of Social Services grantees in the fall.

2020 marks 10 years that the Center for Immigrant Integration has highlighted promising initiatives across our network and communities around the United States. With 70 blogs and counting, the Center for Immigrant Integration demonstrates how communities create a way of life that is welcoming, diverse, inclusive and equal. We sat down with the mastermind behind the initiatives, Leya Speasmaker, integration program manager and field support coordinator, to learn more about her inspiration and hopes for the future. 

What prompted you to start highlighting initiatives around immigrant integration?
As a field support coordinator, I learned about integration initiatives that our affiliates offered in addition to legal immigration services. I wanted to highlight these so that others in the network could see program possibilities for their own locations. I also wanted to point out the different ways immigrant integration programming can take shape – it depends so much on local realities and the needs of the newcomer and receiving communities.

How do you think these initiatives make a positive impact in our network? Communities?
I hope these highlights serve as inspiration for what is possible. We have featured initiatives that range from simple to complex, those that need few resources to those that need extensive funding, and those that can work with one volunteer to those that need a handful of paid staff members. I also hope these highlights demonstrate that integration is a partnership between the newcomers and the receiving community and that everyone has a role to play.

How would you define successful integration?
Successful integration means that everyone living in a community feels included and is able to participate in activities, make use of public resources, and engage in decision-making activities. Integration does not mean that everyone has to be the best of friends. It does, however, mean that everyone feels respected for who he or she is, regardless of national origin.

What are some ways you have seen affiliates and organizations expand their integration efforts since starting these blogs?
I have seen growth in the understanding of the need for integration-related work versus a direct service-only model. Integration work is messy and often nonlinear. So it is a challenge to incorporate it into an agency’s program delivery model when there is need to produce outcomes. Successful integration is often hard to quantify. Increasingly however, programs are devoting time and resources to the work because of the direct impact it has on individuals’ lives.

What are some ways you have seen affiliates and organizations overcome barriers to successful integration? 
Many organizations involve all relevant stakeholders into their integration work. Both the newcomers and the receiving community decide together what the needs are, what can be done to address the needs, and how everyone can work together for a successful outcome.

What is one thing you wish everyone knew about immigrant integration?
The ordinary citizen has such power to make social change happen at the local level through engagement in integration work.

What is your favorite thing about immigrant integration?
Integration happens through interactions that occur in the places daily life is lived — the school, the place of worship, the library, and the public park. I love that integration work gives people the chance to meet their neighbors, learn more about others, and challenge themselves to be uncomfortable. I also like that a community can develop a program that directly addresses a stated need by a group of people. Integration work is flexible and fluid.

What is encouragement would you give to an organization or community that is in the beginning stages of promoting integration?
Ask people what they want and need. What would make their lives easier and better? What are their priorities? Design initiatives around these realities, versus making assumptions about what the community might need.

What are your goals in the next 10 years for these monthly highlights? 
It is important to me that people understand that immigrant integration is a partnership between newcomers and the receiving community. It is everyone’s responsibility to promote and encourage it, and it is a messy process. My goal is for programs to engage in planning efforts with local residents to design programs that bring neighbors together, united under a common desire to improve the daily life of all residents.

National Census Day is a few short months away, on April 1. No fooling! Nonprofit organizations, faith-based communities and local governments have been preparing for two years to ensure everyone is counted. Data that is gathered from the census helps determine governmental district boundaries, ensures states are accurately represented in the U.S. House of Representatives, and is part of the formulas for how federal funding is allocated among social service agencies, highway planning, educational grants and other types of programs. 

The Constitution requires that everyone living in the United States participate in the census every 10 years. Nevertheless, people of color, those living in poverty, people experiencing homelessness, rural communities, religious minorities and immigrant communities often go undercounted. Fear, mistrust and lack of awareness about the process are among the reasons some don’t participate. Others may be unaware of how the confidential data is used. 

CLINIC affiliate Catholic Charities Diocese of Trenton is working to address those gaps. During the 2010 census, Trenton had significant underreporting, with a less than 60% return rate of census forms. This year, the agency has a grant from the state of New Jersey to expand outreach and improve census reporting among hard-to-count populations. Catholic Charities Trenton will use part of the grant to reach people in its community food pantries. It will hold several mobile census events, giving people without internet access the chance to use computers to complete census forms online. 

In a neighboring county, outreach will be led by El Centro de Recursos para Familias, which serves a large Latino community. They intend to meet with people where they are, quite literally. Program staff will visit supermarkets, bodegas, hair salons, and fast food restaurants, as well as work with Catholic parishes, according to Roberto Hernandez, director of El Centro de Recursos Para Familias. Hernandez doesn’t hesitate to devote staff time to encourage the Latino community to participate. “They trust us and they appear to understand what this could do for our community,” he said. Beginning in March, El Centro offices will open to the public several days a week as a place to complete census forms.

Similar to Catholic Charities of Trenton, other faith leaders are using local relationships to promote participation in the census. The Advocate newspaper reported that in East Baton Rouge, Louisiana, local agencies and faith-based communities teamed up to create a city-parish campaign. Their goal is to motivate and encourage residents in majority-minority neighborhoods to take part in the census.

“It is important to us that we use trusted voices or messengers to reach out in those communities,” said Nicole Jolly, director of strategic initiatives with the Urban League of Louisiana and member of the city-parish campaign. 

As trusted and respected members of their communities, people of faith seek to protect and promote dignity of all. One way to do so is to encourage participation in the census. Faith in Public Life, a coalition of religious leaders and faith-based organizations, have been working together to promote the census. The 2020 Census Faith Toolkit includes talking points, tips for sermons and for speaking to various types of groups, and other tips for promoting census participation in faith settings.

Regardless of income, race, religion or immigration status, participation in the census offers the opportunity for everyone to be included. “The census is the most inclusive civic activity,” said Habon Abdulle, executive director of Women Organizing Women Network, in a YouTube video produced by We Count Minnesota. “It counts everybody who lives in the state. And that’s how you show you are part of [a] great state.”

CLINIC applauds the efforts of the countless organizations and faith leaders across the nation that have worked tirelessly to educate their communities around the census and continue to encourage participating on April 1. To learn more visit Immigrant Integration and The Census.

Do you have a unique integration initiative you would like us to highlight? Email us to be featured in our next newsletter.

Jan. 29 is the anniversary of the implementation of a policy that has effectively stripped asylum seekers and migrants of their human rights. The enactment of the Migrant Protection Protocols, or MPP, has become yet another symbol of dark times. Its anniversary reminds us of the erosion of asylum law and the curtailment of constitutional values. Amid charged political times, vulnerable asylum seekers and migrants waiting in desperate conditions at the border seem to have fallen “out of sight and out of mind.” However, through Estamos Unidos, CLINIC has continued to shed light on this injustice.

MPP, known among advocates and immigrant rights groups as Remain in Mexico, was first implemented in Tijuana, Mexico and San Diego. Months later, in March 2019, the ill-conceived policy was rolled out in Ciudad Juarez and El Paso. The following stories demonstrate the adversity, insecurity and void asylum seekers face while stranded in Mexico, while waiting for their next immigration hearing.

1. Cecilia* and her two minor children have been in Ciudad Juarez for five months. She is a single mom who is HIV positive. Her partner withheld his HIV positive status from her for a long time. The mother and her children are survivors of domestic violence. They were placed under MPP in September 2019; since then, they have been staying in a shelter. Her teenage daughter has a disability and has gradually retreated into her own world. She is constantly fearful of “something bad happening” to her or her mother. She, as well as her younger brother, suffered sexual abuse from a close family member.
   
   Cecilia is a strong woman who radiates positivity. She keeps busy at the shelter, helping in the kitchen or teaching the children. However, she needed to be on a strict medical regimen and counted on the Seguro Popular for her medication. However, the Mexican government recently canceled the program — leaving Cecilia without access to her medication. Local organizations have unsuccessfully tried to find a way to help Cecilia continue her treatment. As a single mother, she is the only caretaker of her children. They must travel eight hours by bus to Laredo to attend each hearing. They still do not have a final hearing date.
    
2. Jessica* is a young woman alone in Juarez. She fled Guatemala due to gang violence and was placed under MPP in late 2019. She is almost six months pregnant. A mother who shares space with Jessica at the shelter said the young woman has been feeling pain in her belly and lays on a floor mat in the room, fearful of leaving the shelter and seeking help. The seasoned mother of four, who has much experience touring the city for medical attention, insisted that Jessica’s pain was constant and worrisome. Two women, a baby and two teens went in search of medical aid for Jessica. Two buses and much walking later, they arrived at a government facility that aids women. However, the staff only directed the group to a family clinic nearby. They found the clinic and Jessica was finally seen by a medical professional. She has a high-risk pregnancy and a miscarriage is probable. The doctor gave her medicine and told her she must be on bed rest. However, every small task can have detrimental implications: a shower entails filling a bucket or two of cold water and carrying it to the bathroom. Eating a healthy diet means walking unpaved uneven roads to the supermarket and carrying groceries back. At the moment, Jessica’s family is unable to send her money, because she does not have a passport. Therefore, when the money is sent to another person to retrieve, the wire transfer company blocks the funds. The community around her helps however they can, but doctors say the stress and anxiety only worsens her physical state.
    
3. Virginia* is a Venezuelan asylum seeker in her 50s who is fleeing persecution. When asked if she feared being in Mexico, her expression became hardened and teary-eyed. She had already requested a fear interview with U.S. immigration authorities in November. Despite telling them about the xenophobic treatment and assaults she experienced in Mexico, she was returned to Ciudad Juarez. She expressed fear of and frustration over being in Mexico because she, like many, was targeted for being a foreigner and not believed. Since she was returned, Virginia said she was targeted by local law enforcement as she asked for directions to a market in downtown Ciudad Juarez. The officers heard her accent, identified her as a foreigner and requested to see her permit to be in Mexico. She was calm and confident that she had everything in order. She showed them her papers, and they accused her of having false documents. They threatened to detain her unless she paid them. She did not have the money they demanded. The two local police officers in broad daylight forced her onto their official truck and told her to provide payment in-kind, and sexually assaulted her. She tried to fight but could not; after some time, she started vomiting and the officers pushed her out. Virginia fears that U.S. immigration authorities will not believe her, and she will be returned to Juarez again if she has the opportunity to request another fear interview with U.S. immigration authorities.
    
4. Esperanza* is a young woman fleeing from El Salvador. She left behind everything and everyone she holds dear. She arrived in Chihuahua, Mexico, in August 2019 and was kidnapped before arriving at the U.S. border. Esperanza was kept locked up in a warehouse for a month. Those responsible beat her until she gave them her father’s phone number, who paid the ransom. After weeks, she was dumped in a ditch near the Rio Grande. It took all her might to walk, as she had no idea where she was. Men on horseback helped her. She later realized they were U.S. officials. They asked her what happened to her, and she explained. They asked her questions about herself and handed her papers she did not understand. After a couple of days, she was told by one of the officers to come back on the date the paper said and to tell her story when she came back. U.S. immigration authorities returned Esperanza to Ciudad Juarez under MPP. 
   
   Esperanza was returned after dark and with nowhere to go, leaving her vulnerable to the violence and insecurity of the city. She was kidnapped a second time. This time there were three other women and two children with her. Her father was again contacted in Guatemala, but he was not able to pay. Tears streamed down her face as she told them her family had nothing to exchange for her release… for her life. The perpetrators forced her to repeatedly watch a video of a woman being tortured. Esperanza believed she was going to end up the same. Fortunately for her, a woman helped them escape.
    
5. Rosy* is a survivor of gender-based violence who fled gang violence with her mother and younger brother. Her nightmares and night sweats are frequent and exhausting. The shelter where she and her family are staying has provided sporadic psychological support. However, she recently was approached by a gang member from her home country. He let her know that he would make her suffer if she informed anyone he was a gang member. The little progress she made during the months of waiting in Ciudad Juarez has faded and the ghosts of suicidal ideations have returned. She was brave and told someone about the threats, and the gang member was eventually removed from the shelter. But for Rosy the damage had been done. Rosy is still under MPP and desperately waiting for her hearing date.
    
6. Doña Alma* is a grandmother who fled her home country in Central America due to gang violence. On her journey north, she was kidnapped by a cartel in Mexico. Her family was able to pay her ransom, but money did not save her from the beatings and assault. The men took all her documents and her cellphone, along with all her personal information. She was placed under MPP several months ago, and in December 2019, her family members were contacted and told she was detained in the United States and on her way out, which was a lie. When the family became suspicious and confronted the caller, the man openly identified himself as the one responsible for her previous kidnapping. He knew exactly where Doña Alma was in Mexico and threatened to harm her if he did not receive the sum of money he demanded. MPP makes Doña Alma a target for more suffering.

These stories show the severe and inhumane repercussions of the Migrant Protection Protocols, and the dire conditions and critical needs of those waiting in Mexico under the policy. Twelve months after MMP’s implementation, affected communities, advocates, leaders and volunteers have been working tirelessly to uphold the right to asylum and protect the dignity of men, women and children at the border. Estamos Unidos started operations in August 2019.Since then, staff and volunteers have provided know your rights presentations, individual consultations, translations of asylum documents, connection to pro bono counsel and general accompaniment aligned with our faith-based identity. During the first quarter of operations last year, Estamos Unidos helped 1,000 individuals in more than 309 consultations, 39 Know your Rights Presentations providing education to over 1000 people and alongside a dedicated group of 30 legal and administrative volunteers. Asylum seekers and migrants’ resilience and hope is unwavering and inspires those who fight for justice every day.

*All names have been changed to protect identities.