44. How a DACA Organizer Became a Leading Activist For Immigration Rights in El Paso – Claudia Yoli Ferla, Executive Director at MOVE Texas

On the 44th episode of Immigration Today!, Angeline Chen welcomes Claudia Yoli Ferla. Claudia is the Executive Director at MOVE Texas, a nonprofit organization working to build the social, cultural, and political power of young people in Texas. She is a dedicated community organizer born in Venezuela and raised in El Paso, Texas. A proud DACA recipient and community organizer, Claudia draws from her personal experiences to amplify the voices of young people and immigrants in Texas, a state at the epicenter of the national immigration debate. Under her leadership, MOVE Texas is driving the fight for a more just and inclusive future at the Texas State Capitol. Claudia is proud to be part of the generation of young people who won the protections of the DACA program and who unapologetically continue to tell the world that immigrant stories do not belong in the shadows.

Immigration issues are deeply personal to Claudia, as she is a DACA and TPS recipient still waiting for her opportunity to become a US citizen. Throughout her youth, she directly faced the complications of what it meant to have her future at the discretion of an immigration system that didn’t favor her. During and after college she became connected with organizations that did direct policy work in D.C., later with communities that implemented social change in El Paso, and eventually became inspired by the youth that she worked amongst to lead an organization like MOVE Texas who is founded by young people for young people with a mission to increase political participation.

“At MOVE Texas, we come together and we fight at the local level within communities that are within our sphere of control. We have youth that will occupy the capital with their voices to remind politicians that the capital does not belong to them. It does not belong to the special interest groups nor the lobbyists. It belongs to you, the people of the State, and by infusing your story with the joy, with the hope and the vision for a better future…we can make change happen.”

— Claudia Yoli Ferla

You can keep up with MOVE Texas work via their website, LinkedIn, Instagram, Facebook and Twitter/X. Follow Claudia on LinkedIn. Please subscribe to our immigration newsletter to stay up to date with any new episodes!

DISCLAIMER – No information contained in this Podcast or on this Website shall constitute financial, investment, legal and/or other professional advice and that no professional relationship of any kind is created between you and podcast host, the guests or Clark Hill PLC. You are urged to speak with your financial, investment, or legal advisors before making any investment or legal decisions.

43. Storytelling as a Tool for Social Change – Dr. Pierre R. Berastain, Interim Executive Director at Centre for Public Impact

On the 43rd episode of Immigration Today!, Angeline Chen welcomes Dr. Pierre R. Berastain. Dr. Pierre Berastaín is the Interim Executive Director of the Centre for Public Impact. The Centre for Public Impact (CPI) was founded in 2015 as a not-for-profit foundation dedicated to improving the effectiveness of governments and public institutions worldwide. Dr. Berastaín joined the CPI team as Regional Director for North America in 2023. In 2024, he became the Interim Executive Director of the organization. Dr. Berastaín is also the Co-Founder at Caminar Latino – Latinos United for Peace and Equity, a culturally specific, national organization dedicated to working with Latino families affected by domestic violence. Prior to Caminar Latino, he was the Chief Strategy & Operations Officer for the District Alliance for Safe Housing, the District of Columbia’s largest housing provider for survivors of domestic and sexual violence. His work has appeared in national and international publications and books, including the Huffington Post. From 2015 – 2018, he served on the board of MERGE for Equality, an organization that works to engage men around violence prevention. He is one of the founders of Latinos United for Peace and Equity; and served on the Board of Directors for Transition House, a domestic violence shelter and social justice organization in Cambridge, MA. He currently serves on the board of directors for ImmSchools, an organization that focuses on supporting immigrant students by ensuring schools are safe environments. 

In 2019, Dr. Berastaín was named Top 25 Most Influential LGBTQ People of Color in Boston. Originally from Peru, he immigrated to the United States with his family in 1998 and remained an undocumented immigrant for 14 years until he received DACA in 2012 and later became a lawful permanent resident. Dr. Pierre R. Berastaín holds a B.A. in Social Anthropology from Harvard College, a Master of Divinity from Harvard Divinity School, and a doctorate in Public Health (DrPH) from the Gillings School of Global Public Health at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

From his former work advocating for survivors of domestic and sexual violence, Pierre now focuses on impacting systems and Federal government entities through the lens of communities directly affected by government inefficiency.  Dr. Berastain describes his path to doing this work and the importance of using storytelling in making social change.  CPI’s work creates system change by centering the most marginalized, such as low income, LGBTQ and immigrant communities.

“At CPI, storytelling is a powerful tool because stories serve as portals into the experiences that we might have never imagined. They are imbued with meaning, and they offer insights that can challenge our assumptions and expand our understanding. At their core, stories are tapestries of human experience. They’re woven with threads of emotion and resilience and shared humanity. They reveal our interconnectedness, and they remind us of our common ground…Through storytelling we don’t just share our perspectives, we uncover new ones, and it’s that exchange of stories of narratives that can shift mindsets and can spark empathy and even catalyze action.”

— Dr. Pierre R. Berastain

You can keep up with CPI’s work via their website, LinkedIn, Facebook and Twitter/X. Follow Dr. Berastain on LinkedIn and Twitter/X. Please subscribe to our immigration newsletter to stay up to date with any new episodes!

DISCLAIMER – This podcast is intended for general informational purposes only and does not constitute legal advice or a solicitation to provide legal services. The information in this podcast is not intended to create, and receipt of it does not constitute, a lawyer-client relationship. Listeners should not act upon this information without seeking professional legal counsel. The views and opinions expressed in the podcast represent those of the individual speaker only and are not necessarily the views of Clark Hill PLC.

42. How Newly Arrived Immigrants are Adjusting to America Via the Classroom – Jessica Lander, Teacher at Lowell High School and Author of Making Americans

On the 42nd episode of Immigration Today!, Angeline Chen welcomes Jessica Lander. Jessica Lander is an award-winning teacher, author, and advocate. She is currently a teacher at Lowell High School in Lowell, Massachusetts. She teaches history and civics to recent immigrant students and has won several teaching awards, including being named a Top 50 Finalist for the Global Teacher Prize in 2021, a 2023 MA Teacher of the Year Finalist, and the 2023 Massachusetts History Teacher of the Year. She offers a unique perspective on the role that public schools have in helping newcomer immigrant students succeed in America. Previously, she has taught students in middle school, high school, and universities in the United States, Thailand, and Cambodia. Jessica is also an advocate serving as a district-wide family engagement coach, a mentor teacher, and an education consultant for national and state education policy organizations. Besides teaching, she is also the author of Making Americans: Stories of Historic Struggles, New Ideas, and Inspiration in Immigrant Education, a comprehensive book that looks at immigrant education as told through key historical moments and court decisions, a book that shares current experiments to improve immigrant education and profiles of immigrant youth and schools across the country. She is also the winner of the 2024 George Orwell Awardee for Making Americans, which was presented by the National Council of the Teachers of English to, "writers who have made outstanding contributions to the critical analysis of public discourse".

In this episode, Jessica shares her journey in writing Making Americans. Jessica was able to take a year to step out of the classroom to delve into the research for writing this book. First, she tells us about stories from the past with cases such as Mendez v. Westminster School District and Plyler v. Doe, landmark cases for what immigrant education is today. She also talks to us about the present through examples of classrooms like her own or Las Americas in Texas which have taken the experiences of students and their varying backgrounds to build innovative and transformative education for their students. Jessica also delves into personal stories of students and educators in order to reimagine what the future of American education might look like.

“We need stories of our young people and their experiences as young immigrants and their experiences at our schools. If we are serious about reimagining what immigrant education looks like, we need to be asking the young people what they are experiencing. This is the best way to be able to imagine what’s possible in immigrant education.”

— Jessica Lander

Keep up with Jessica via their website, LinkedIn, and Twitter. You can purchase a copy of Making Americans on Barnes and Noble, Harvard Bookstore, Amazon, or your preferred retailer. Immigration Today! is always releasing new content.  Please subscribe to our immigration newsletter to stay up to date with any new episodes. 

DISCLAIMER – No information contained in this Podcast or on this Website shall constitute financial, investment, legal and/or other professional advice and that no professional relationship of any kind is created between you and podcast host, the guests or Clark Hill PLC. You are urged to speak with your financial, investment, or legal advisors before making any investment or legal decisions.

41. Getting Out the Vote! - Antonio Arellano VP of Communications at NextGen America

On the 41st episode of Immigration Today!, Angeline Chen welcomes Antonio Arellano. Antonio Arellano is the VP of Communications at NextGen America, the nation’s largest youth voting organization which mobilizes millions of young voters every year. He is also a 1st generation immigrant and a former DACA recipient. He has been organizing communities of color in Texas for over a decade. Antonio has worked at some of the most notable newsrooms in America. While at the Houston Chronicle, Antonio advanced digital coverage of a variety of issues impacting one of the most diverse markets in the nation. In 2016, Antonio was offered the opportunity to join ABC News as a social media contributor, where he was instrumental in developing an innovative approach to news dissemination using social media to engage and educate a younger audience. In September 2018, Antonio joined Jolt Initiative, the largest Latino civic engagement organization in Texas, and served as Communications Director. Today, Antonio serves as the Vice President of Communications at NextGen America where he oversees the implementation of a national strategy to increase the progressive power of young Americans and advances economic equity, racial and climate justice as well as efforts to safeguard our democracy. In 2022, Antonio helped NextGen America secure the second-largest youth voter turnout in history. Antonio represents a new era of bold and fearless leadership, emerging from a social climate that is actively demanding fresh perspectives on key issues. His innovative use of digital media and narrative shift work has quickly catapulted Antonio into one of the leading progressive voices in the United States. His work has been mentioned in Time Magazine, MSNBC, The New York Times, The Guardian, The Atlantic, Telemundo, and Univision, among others.

With the upcoming election only a week away, Antonio encourages every single young voter to come out to the polls. In this election, nearly 1/3 of the 36 million Latinos eligible to vote, are between the ages of 18 to 29. So exercising the vote is not just important for the individual, but also important because it plays a huge impact on the policies that affect low income and disenfranchised communities which are often immigrant communities. Voting plays a huge factor in securing protections for DACA individuals who are still battling an uncertain future, it plays a factor in access to reproductive health for migrant communities and much more. Young voters have the power to determine the future of America in this election!

“Consistently, the narrative is that young people don’t vote, that young people don’t turn out, that young people are not a worthwhile investment when it comes to voter registration and mobilization. But anybody that’s been looking at the stats can tell you that in 2020, the Biden-Harris Administration was elected with the largest youth voter turnout in modern American history. In 2022, young voters turned out in record numbers during a midterm election, and this year in 2024, I predict that you will see a substantial amount of young voters that will come out and make their voices heard.”

— Antonio Arellano

You can follow Antonio’s work via their website, Instagram, Linked in and Twitter. Immigration Today! is always releasing new content.  Please subscribe to our immigration newsletter to stay up to date with any new episodes. 

DISCLAIMER – No information contained in this Podcast or on this Website shall constitute financial, investment, legal and/or other professional advice and that no professional relationship of any kind is created between you and podcast host, the guests or Clark Hill PLC. You are urged to speak with your financial, investment, or legal advisors before making any investment or legal decisions.

40. Dr. Jason De Leon, Anthropologist and Author of Soldiers and Kings: Survival and Hope in the World of Human Smuggling

On the 40th episode of Immigration Today!, Angeline Chen welcomes Dr. Jason De Leon. Dr. Jason De León is a professor of Anthropology and Chicana/o Studies and director of the Cotsen Institute of Archaeology at the University of California, Los Angeles. He is also the Executive Director of the Undocumented Migration Project, a 501(c)(3) research, arts, and education collective that seeks to raise awareness about migration issues globally while also assisting families of missing migrants to reunite with their loved ones. Since 2009, the UMP has been studying clandestine migration between Latin America and the United States using a combination of ethnographic, visual, archaeological, and forensic approaches to understand this violent social process. Dr. De León has published numerous academic articles and his work with the UMP has been featured in a variety of popular media outlets. He is a 2017 MacArthur Foundation Fellow and author of the award-winning book The Land of Open Graves: Living and Dying on the Migrant Trail. Dr. De Leon’s latest work is a new book titled Soldiers and Kings: Survival and Hope in the World of Human Smuggling, which is an in-depth look at the daily lives of smugglers moving migrants across the length of Mexico. 

In this interview, Angeline Chen deep dives into De Leon’s work. For much of his career, Dr. De Leon had focused on the archeological fieldwork of countries like Mexico. He would often work in communities that had high migration rates which eventually led him to grow an interest in the journeys people take to their destination while immigrating. He realized that human migration left an archeological footprint worth discovering. His first book, Land of Open Graves was a combination of archaeology, forensic science, and ethnographic works meant to shed light on the experiences of border crossers. Eventually, his involvement with immigration issues led him to take an interest in the stories of smugglers. Soldiers and Kings was a 7-year-long project that led him from Guatemala to Mexico and back to follow the stories of smugglers and learn about the way organized crime, drug cartels, and transnational gangs have shaped the migration process. Dr. De Leon gives us a new perspective: Are smugglers all “bad”? 

“A big part of the problem with understanding smuggling is that so many people conflate human trafficking with human smuggling. They are two very different things. This book is also aimed at getting people to understand that smugglers provide a service to people. Some of them are good, while others exploit people. In this book, I was trying to explain all the different variations of what a smuggler is.”

— Jason De Leon

You can follow Dr. Jason De Leon's work via their website, Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram. Purchase your copy of Soldiers and Kings from your favorite retailer today! Please consider making a tax-deductible donation to the Undocumented Migration Project via this link.

Immigration Today! is always releasing new content.  Please subscribe to our immigration newsletter to stay up to date with any new episodes. 

DISCLAIMER – No information contained in this Podcast or on this Website shall constitute financial, investment, legal and/or other professional advice and that no professional relationship of any kind is created between you and podcast host, the guests or Clark Hill PLC. You are urged to speak with your financial, investment, or legal advisors before making any investment or legal decisions.

WEBINAR: Permanent Residency Options for DACA Recipients

Join us for a discussion about family-based and employment-based US permanent residency options for individuals on Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA). We will also discuss how DACA recipients can qualify for public benefits in California and give updates on the future of DACA. This is open to attorneys and non-attorneys who are interested in learning about these options.

October 10, 2024
3PM ET; 2PM CT; 1PM MT; 12PM PT

REGISTER HERE

1 hour of continuing legal education (CLE) is pending for the following states: California, Illinois, New York and Texas.

Presenters – Angeline Chen, Alexandra Fuxa Ramirez, Benyamin Chao, Ignacia Rodriguez Kmec

39. Leading a World of Social Change through Philanthropy – Megan Thomas from Catalyst of San Diego & Imperial Counties

Megan Thomas, CEO, Catalyst of San Diego & Imperial Counties

On the 39th  episode of Immigration Today! Angeline Chen welcomes Megan Thomas,  president & CEO of Catalyst of San Diego & Imperial Counties.  Megan has a passion for helping people and she joined Catalyst because it sits at the intersection of philanthropy and social good. Catalyst is a network of a couple hundred funders and grant makers with a mission to help educate, lead and invest in environmental issues, food security, border issues and more, to promote social change. One of Catalyst's focuses is in border work as the community they serve in San Diego and Imperial County has a strong border identity. They work with many grassroots organizations who are the first point of contact for many immigrants entering the United States or who reside in Tijuana. There has been attention to border issues on the philanthropy side during Trump’s family separations and the current arrival of asylum seekers. Catalyst continues to do great work and hopes to continue building an equitable, impactful, and effective social change ecosystem.

As CEO, Megan provides strategic leadership and partnership to the entire Catalyst staff, board, members, and community partners. She oversees Catalyst’s facilitation of collaborative efforts among its funder members and other stakeholders; leads the production of philanthropy and impact investing skills-building and issue based learning; and spearheads Catalyst’s work related to championing equity and opportunity. She strengthens Imperial and San Diego County communities through shared learning and pooled and aligned funding strategies, and initiatives fiscally sponsored by Catalyst. 

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“Storytelling is important and very few people are picking up a book about statistics. Instead, they are going to pick up the book that has beautiful photographs and so that’s how Catalyst invites people in. In that story, there are some hard truths to tell, and some of the truths are that the funders in San Diego and in California have contributed millions of dollars to support folks and the nonprofits that are assisting immigrants in the absence of Federal Government and public agencies help. The level of funding from the Federal Government and other public agencies has not met the need so it’s been local philanthropy in California and San Diego and the Imperial Counties that has tried to fill that gap and that is just not sustainable.”

— Megan Thomas

You can follow Catalyst via their website, Facebook, Twitter/X and YouTube. If you want to become a member, sign up here or consider donating.

Immigration Today! is always releasing new content.  Please subscribe to our immigration newsletter to stay up to date with any new episodes. 

DISCLAIMER – The views and opinions expressed in the podcast represent the view of the host and guest(s) and not necessarily the official view of Clark Hill PLC. No information contained in this Podcast or on this Website shall constitute financial, investment, legal and/or other professional advice and that no professional relationship of any kind is created between you and podcast host, the guests or Clark Hill PLC. You are urged to speak with your financial, investment, or legal advisors before making any investment or legal decisions.

38. The Fear of Access to Public Benefits for Undocumented Immigrants with Celia Valdez from Maternal and Child Health Access (MCHA) and Immigration Attorney Nora Phillips

Celia Valdez (L) and Nora Phillips (R)

On the 38th episode of Immigration Today! Angeline Chen welcomes Celia Valdez and Nora Phillips.

Celia Valdez has been working in health outreach for over 25 years as the Outreach and Education Director with Maternal and Child Health Access (MCHA). She has worked diligently with local and state government groups ranging from community-based organizations to government agencies to improve access to free and low-cost health insurance programs. She has advocated on behalf of hundreds of clients, provided testimony on their behalf before government boards, and has made numerous health policy recommendations at state and local levels.  MCHA (MCHA) improves the health of low-income women and families through advocacy, education, training, and direct services. MCHA provides information, support, and technical assistance to health and social service organizations, assists individual women to achieve healthy pregnancies and obtain quality health care for themselves and their children, and educates policymakers and the general public to improve the health and social services systems to benefit the entire community.

Nora Phillips is the founder of the Law Office of Nora E. Phillips, APC, in Boyle Heights, Los Angeles. She has been practicing immigration law since 2007 and is graduate of the DePaul University College of Law. Nora's practice focuses on immigration remedies for survivors of violence, disabled immigrants, and individuals who have been deported from the U.S.. Prior to starting her own practice, she co-founded Al Otro Lado, a binational legal services organization, in 2011. While at AOL, she ran the Deportee Program the Healthcare-Legal Partnership while co-supervising the Case Management Program for holistic client advocacy. Prior to that, Nora co-founded Phillips & Urias, LLP, a community immigration law firm in East Los Angeles. Prior to Phillips & Urias, LLP, Nora was a Staff Attorney at the Central American Resource Center (CARECEN) in Los Angeles. Nora is fluent in Spanish, French, and English. Some of her recognitions include winning the National Lawyers Guild Los Angeles Chapter Annual Award, 2019; East Los Angeles Women’s Center Mujer de Paz Award, 2019; YWCA San Gabriel Valley Racial Justice Award, 2018; American Immigration Lawyers Association (AILA), 2018; Child 10 Award and Courageous Luminaries Award presented by the National Immigration Law Center (NILC), 2018. 

Celia became passionate about public benefits while in college when she heard a presentation about prenatal healthcare access for immigrant women. She found a job opening at MCHA and has been there for 27 years since! On the other hand, Nora moved to New York in her early 20’s and started becoming involved in civil rights work involving Muslim populations after the 911 attacks. Eventually Nora landed in Chicago and went to law school and has been doing immigration work since. Celia and Nora work together as they both sit at the intersection of public benefits and immigration work. Whether its sending VAWA approved or U Visa approved cases to access public service benefits at MCHA or Celia sending over immigrant populations to seek legal services back to Nora, they both share a passion in making sure everyone is educated about the resources they can access so that no one falls through the cracks.

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“There isn’t enough education about immigration status and access to public benefits. For example, MCHA serviced a women that had dropped all her benefits recently. Her child’s benefits, health benefits, social benefits, SSI benefits, everything because she was so afraid of becoming a public charge. Now, after she wound up in the hospital, she ended up with a huge medical bill and we had to advocate to get all their benefits reinstated. This is just one example of the misinformation among immigrant populations and their right to get public benefits.”

— Celia Valdez

MCHA has training available for people that want to know the in and outs of public benefits in LA county. You can access those trainings here. They are always in need of donations. Please consider donating via this link. Follow them on Instagram and Facebook to keep up with their work!

Immigration Today! is always releasing new content.  Please subscribe to our immigration newsletter to stay up to date with any new episodes. 

DISCLAIMER – The views and opinions expressed in the podcast represent the view of the host and guest(s) and not necessarily the official view of Clark Hill PLC. No information contained in this Podcast or on this Website shall constitute financial, investment, legal and/or other professional advice and that no professional relationship of any kind is created between you and podcast host, the guests or Clark Hill PLC. You are urged to speak with your financial, investment, or legal advisors before making any investment or legal decisions.

37. Efrén C. Olivares, Immigration Attorney and Author of My Boy Will Die of Sorrow: A Memoir of Immigration from the Front Lines

Efrén C. Olivares, Director of Strategic Litigation, Southern Poverty Law Center

On the 37th  episode of Immigration Today! Angeline Chen welcomes Efrén C. Olivares, Director of Strategic Litigation at The Southern Poverty Law Center.  Efrén is a civil rights lawyer who has represented clients before federal courts and international human rights bodies for over a decade. His work focuses on ending immigrant detention and providing pro bono legal representation to detained immigrants at immigration detention centers in the deep South. Efrén and his team also defend workers’ rights, ensure local policing is not entangled with immigration enforcement, seek family reunification, and protect the rights of asylum seekers. In this interview, Efrén tells us about his upbringing and how that influenced the work he does today as an immigration attorney and fearless advocate for civil rights.   

Author of My Boy Will Die of Sorrow: A Memoir of Immigration from the Front Lines, which was published in 2022, Olivares recounts his own immigration journey as young teenager arriving in the U.S. His work has been featured in The New York Times, USA Today, Newsweek, CBS, The Wall Street Journal, NPR, CNN and many other outlets. Efrén's grandfather was born in the U.S. to farmworker parents who would travel in between Mexico and Texas for work which eventually lead to his family establishing roots in Texas when he moved to the U.S at the age of 13. In his book he recounts what life was like assimilating into the U.S. and how his own experiences allowed him to see immigration work through a personal lens.

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“There was an audio during the family separation crisis, a heartbreaking audio of children crying, that was leaked and this was a turning point because that audio is so difficult to listen to. It was leaked on a Monday night and by Wednesday afternoon the President signed an executive order reporting an end to family separation policies. That audio was so powerful in turning public opinion against this policy. This audio was so powerful and much more effective than a video or a photograph because when you hear those children cry… you don’t see the color of their skin. All children cry the same. It got to people at a visceral level in a way that when you see somebody’s skin, or hear them speak a different language or the way they look, you’re able to treat them as the “other”… The power of that audio transcended race in a way that very few other things have.”

— Efrén C. Olivares

[Listen to the audio during the family separation crisis here.]

You can keep up with Efrén on Twitter/X @efrencolivares and on IG @e.olivares.a. Purchase his book via Amazon, Barnes and Noble, Target or any other outlet found on his website. Consider donating to the amazing work done at The Southern Poverty Law Center here. Follow them on Facebook, Twitter/X, and Instagram as well.

Immigration Today! is always releasing new content.  Please subscribe to our immigration newsletter to stay up to date with any new episodes. 

DISCLAIMER – The views and opinions expressed in the podcast represent the view of the host and guest(s) and not necessarily the official view of Clark Hill PLC. No information contained in this Podcast or on this Website shall constitute financial, investment, legal and/or other professional advice and that no professional relationship of any kind is created between you and podcast host, the guests or Clark Hill PLC. You are urged to speak with your financial, investment, or legal advisors before making any investment or legal decisions.

36. Trump’s Zero Tolerance Policy and how RAICES Showed Up – Faisal Al-Juburi, Chief External Affairs Officer for RAICES

Faisal Al-Juburi, Chief External Affairs Officer, RAICES

On the 36th episode of Immigration Today! Angeline Chen welcomes Faisal Al-Juburi. Faisal is a strategic partnerships specialist with more than a decade of experience in the nonprofit sector. He currently serves as the Chief External Affairs Officer for RAICES, a 501(c)(3) nonprofit agency founded in 1986, and the largest immigration legal services provider in Texas.

Faisal is the son of Iraqi immigrant parents. He was born in Cincinnati and grew up in Little Rock and D.C. His parents taught him about the power of servicing others from a young age and Faisal has carried these values with him through his work in philanthropy. Throughout his work with RAICES, he has seen the non-profit grow and take on a leadership position in the immigration rights movement. Their work in 2018 during Trump’s Zero Tolerance policy, which resulted in the separation of hundreds of families, was pivotal in their growth and all of the work they continue to do today.

With legal and social services, paired alongside litigation and advocacy for systems change, RAICES is operating on the national frontlines of the fight for the rights of immigrants, refugees, and asylum seekers.

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“RAICES represented 13 families in a suit against Geogroup which is a private prison contractor. People need to know that these ICE detention centers are immigration prisons that are run by private prison contractors. Family separation is a function of U.S. Immigration policy and is not only specifically what happened under the Zero Tolerance policy of the physical tearing apart of mother from child but the intention of it - to make you give up. You’re breaking people off from their support system and from their ecosystem. It’s breaking people down and we see it in very many ways. We see it continuing now where there’s been a very troubling pattern of fathers at the border being separated from their spouses and their children, of them being taken in and charged for criminal trespassing while the rest of their family goes into the immigration system. Sometimes it can be a minimum of months until they’re reunited.”

— Faisal Al-Juburi

You can keep up with RAICES Texas on their website, Instagram and Facebook. You can also make a donation here and volunteer here. Follow Faisal on Linked-in. Immigration Today! is always releasing new content.  Please subscribe to our immigration newsletter to stay up to date with any new episodes.

Immigration Today! is always releasing new content.  Please subscribe to our immigration newsletter to stay up to date with any new episodes.

DISCLAIMER – The views and opinions expressed in the podcast represent the view of the host and guest(s) and not necessarily the official view of Clark Hill PLC. No information contained in this Podcast or on this Website shall constitute financial, investment, legal and/or other professional advice and that no professional relationship of any kind is created between you and podcast host, the guests or Clark Hill PLC. You are urged to speak with your financial, investment, or legal advisors before making any investment or legal decisions.

35. Giving for Good: A Conversation with Eliza Brennan, Senior Program Officer, Education & Migration at International Community Foundation (ICF)

Eliza Brennan, Senior Program Officer, ICF

On the 35th episode of Immigration Today!, Angeline Chen welcomes Eliza Brennan,  Senior Program Officer for Education and Migration at International Community Foundation (ICF). ICF is the nonprofit foundation of choice for U.S. donors who are passionate about protecting the environment and improving the quality of life in Baja California, Latin America, and the Caribbean. 

Eliza has been passionate about international work from a young age as her parents always fostered a life of community work. She has been involved in community driven work for many years, from her time spent at Georgetown University, to her time spent in Nicaragua. ICF’s historical main focus prior has been environment and conservation work.  Eliza leads ICF’s nearly $3M education portfolio with the goal of expanding educational opportunities for vulnerable children in Latin America to succeed in school, careers and life. Since 2018, Eliza has steered ICF’s programmatic work related to immigrants, refugees, and deportees in the San Diego-Tijuana Border. She also oversees ICF’s growing portfolio of grants in Central America. She has 30 years of experience living and working in Latin America, and academic experiences in China and South Africa.

Around the time Eliza joined ICF, the foundation began to become involved in immigration work after a major influx of Haitians started arriving to the U.S.-Mexican border in 2016. ICF eventually launched a Border Fund which has helped provide food, shelter, basic preventative healthcare and legal services for many at the border. They are heavily involved with border work now and partner with amazing orgs such as the Immigrant Defenders Law Center, This is About Humanity and many others. With ICF’s in-depth knowledge of the issues and long-standing relationships with local nonprofit organizations and community leaders, they help donors connect with the regions and causes they care about. From one-time tax-deductible donations to ongoing grants, ICF offers a variety of international grantmaking tools and advisory services to help orgs achieve their philanthropic goals.

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“One of the most inspiring success stories was about a young woman who came from El Salvador. She was attending university in El Salvador when family members were killed and were threatened by the gangs so she was forced to leave her country with her mother. In order for her to continue university, she had to have some sort of legal status in Mexico, and so she worked with some of the local organizations to get enrolled and is now studying to be a lawyer. She became a community outreach coordinator, was living in a shelter, and then decided to continue pursuing this dream of hers. She’s now in university and she has become a staff member of an organization that previously didn’t even have a paid Executive Director. These types of stories show the whole package. The organization has succeeded. They’re hiring people who are themselves migrants and then inspiring them to pursue careers that will continue to build the resources and the ecosystem needed in the border.”

— Eliza Brennan

You can learn more about ICF via their website. If you are a donor that is interested in getting connected with ICF, you can contact Eliza here or you can make a direct donation to one of the issues you care about here. If you are interested in donating to ICF’s Border Fund please click here.

Immigration Today! is always releasing new content.  Please subscribe to our immigration newsletter to stay up to date with any new episodes.

DISCLAIMER – The views and opinions expressed in the podcast represent the view of the host and guest(s) and not necessarily the official view of Clark Hill PLC. No information contained in this Podcast or on this Website shall constitute financial, investment, legal and/or other professional advice and that no professional relationship of any kind is created between you and podcast host, the guests or Clark Hill PLC. You are urged to speak with your financial, investment, or legal advisors before making any investment or legal decisions.

34. Why are Migrants Being Dropped off in Buses? An Interview with ED of CHIRLA Angelica Salas

Angelica Salas, Executive Director, CHIRLA

Buses transporting asylum seekers have been arriving to Los Angeles for months. Non-profit organizations such as CHIRLA, ImmDef, CARECEN, Haitian Bridge Alliance among many others have quickly reacted and are attending to this emergency. On episode 34 of Immigration Today! Angeline Chen interviews Angelica Salas, the ED of The Coalition for Humane Immigrant Rights (CHIRLA) who gives us more details on this subject.

Angelica Salas joined us on Immigration Today! in early 2021 where she spoke about her work with CHIRLA, which continues to react to the needs of migrants across our nation including the asylum seekers being dropped off to cities across America. Angelica explains that in order for us to understand this issue, we must look at the context of asylum law in general. Asylum has always been a legal right to pursue but it has been facing attacks since the Trump administration in 2016. Policies such as Title 42 and Remain in Mexico have made it extremely difficult for asylum seekers to practice their right to seek asylum in the U.S. After Biden was elected, not much changed and asylum seekers remained unable to present their case in front of a judge.

Now that Title 42 has been lifted, there is an opportunity for people to seek asylum but a reasonable and humane process has not been created to help with the process.  States like Texas and Florida have been busing migrants to Los Angeles and other areas.  CHIRLA and other organizations have partnered with the city of Los Angeles and picked up the task of receiving these migrants with the level of humanity that they need. They provide basic care such as food, shelter, medical exams, clothes, transportation, legal representation and much more.

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“Immigrants are coming because they had been denied the opportunity to come forward and seek asylum. That context is really important as we talk about the buses…the busing of individuals to democratically led cities around the country is now happening as numbers of people are actually able to apply for asylum. So, states like Texas and other republican led states have been vilifying individuals who are coming to our ports of entry and vilifying anybody who’s seeking to assist them. And, worse than that, they are using individuals to score political points, to try to tell a political narrative of chaos at the border and try to create an optics that is politically motivated which basically disregards people’s lives. And most importantly, trying to show that the border was in crisis, as opposed to demonstrating that our policies were wrong.”

— Angelica Salas

You can stay connected with the work CHIRLA does via their website. Please consider making a donation here.

Immigration Today! is always releasing new content.  Please subscribe to our immigration newsletter to stay up to date with any new episodes.

DISCLAIMER – The views and opinions expressed in the podcast represent the view of the host and guest(s) and not necessarily the official view of Clark Hill PLC. No information contained in this Podcast or on this Website shall constitute financial, investment, legal and/or other professional advice and that no professional relationship of any kind is created between you and podcast host, the guests or Clark Hill PLC. You are urged to speak with your financial, investment, or legal advisors before making any investment or legal decisions.

33. Discussing Professor Hing’s Book, Humanizing Immigration: How to Transform Our Racist and Unjust System

Bill Ong Hing, Professor, University of San Francisco

On the 33rd episode of Immigration Today! Angeline Chen interviews Professor Bill Ong Hing. Bill Ong Hing is Professor of Law and Migration Studies at the University of San Francisco, and Professor of Law and Asian American Studies Emeritus, at UC Davis. Previously on the law faculties at Stanford University and Golden Gate University, he founded the Immigrant Legal Resource Center in San Francisco and directs their Immigration & Deportation Defense Clinic. Professor Hing teaches Immigration Law & Policy, Migration Studies, Rebellious Lawyering, and Evidence. He is the author of 6 books and was co-counsel in the US Supreme Court asylum precedent-setting case INS v. Cardoza-Fonseca (1987). Throughout his career, Professor Bill Ong Hing pursued social justice through a combination of community work, litigation, and scholarship. Most recently, he has published his book Humanizing Immigration which argues that immigrant and refugee rights are part of the fight for racial justice and offers a humanitarian approach to reform and abolition.

Professor Hing was passionate about teaching from the moment he stepped foot into law school. He spent his first five years as an attorney representing Spanish speaking and Chinese clients in their deportation needs and visa work. He would also offer evening teaching classes at University of San Francisco and eventually began teaching full time at different campuses. In all if his teaching positions, he remains heavily involved with legal clinic work. Professor Bill Hing has over 50 years of experience in the immigration world and is a strong believer that the conversation around immigration needs to be revisited through a more humanitarian lens. In his most recent book, he offers criticism about the immigration court system and the judges that make decisions in cases, cites to examples of racial injustices in immigration law and ultimately advocates for major reform to the broken immigration system in this country.

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“One of the experiences that I write about in the book is interviewing several dozen children that were detained and separated from their families at a border patrol station in Texas right before the pandemic. This was during the Trump administration. It still haunts me. I think about them all the time because many were sick, many had the flu, and they were lonely. They were sad, they were traumatized, and they were malnourished… the youngest person that we interviewed was 2 years old. And this kind of separation continues even during the Biden administration.”

— Bill Ong Hing

Humanizing Immigration was just released on October 24th! You can purchase a copy on Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Target, Walmart and many other outlets.  You can connect with Professor Bill Hing via the University of San Francisco website here.

Immigration Today! is always releasing new content.  Please subscribe to our immigration newsletter to stay up to date with any new episodes.

DISCLAIMER – The views and opinions expressed in the podcast represent the view of the host and guest(s) and not necessarily the official view of Clark Hill PLC. No information contained in this Podcast or on this Website shall constitute financial, investment, legal and/or other professional advice and that no professional relationship of any kind is created between you and podcast host, the guests or Clark Hill PLC. You are urged to speak with your financial, investment, or legal advisors before making any investment or legal decisions.

32. Immigration is a Black Issue! – Patrice Lawrence from UndocuBlack Network

Patrice Lawrence, Executive Director, UndocuBlack Network

On the 32nd episode of Immigration Today! Angeline Chen interviews Patrice Lawrence from the UndocuBlack Network.  Black immigrants are often prone to higher rates of detention and deportation, have less access to legal representation, and are likely to be forgotten in the narrative of immigration in general. When entire communities are invisible in these narratives, they are also left out of conversations surrounding the protection and advocacy of their human rights. Listen as Patrice shares her immigration journey into the U.S., how she survived without status, and the work that UndocuBlack Network is doing to ensure that black immigration issues become an important part of the larger immigration narrative.

Patrice Lawrence (she/her) is the Executive Director of the UndocuBlack Network (UBN) and a member of the community it serves - currently and formerly undocumented Black immigrants who are transforming their realities and making their demands known on a local, state, and national level. Originally from Jamaica, Patrice is a graduate of Hollins University. In 2023, she was named by the Washingtonian as one of the top 500 influencers in Washington, D.C. Over the past seven years since the co-creation of UndocuBlack Network, Lawrence’s expertise in legislative matters has been instrumental in securing the largest form of legislative relief in over two decades when she worked with members of Congress on both sides of the aisle to secure immigration relief for Liberians in 2019. Patrice is a fierce advocate for the liberation of all peoples and towards that vision has been a leader in building unity across racial and ethnic communities. Patrice has penned op-eds for CNN, Black Star News, and NewsOne.

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“We have got to be really radical and make some changes so that all black people have the right to migration no matter who they are, where they’re coming from, how much money they have, or which border of the United States they enter. Whether they enter by sea or water…and that folks who are really vulnerable, like folks who need to seek asylum, which is an international human right, are able to do so, no matter their way of entry to the United States.”

— Patrice Lawrence

As a newly founded network, the UndocuBlack Network relies on the generosity from people like you. Please make a donation here to support their work! Follow UndocuBlack Network on Instagram, Facebook, Twitter and TikTok.

Immigration Today! is always releasing new content. Please subscribe to our immigration newsletter to stay up to date with any new episodes.

DISCLAIMER – The views and opinions expressed in the podcast represent the view of the host and guest(s) and not necessarily the official view of Clark Hill PLC. No information contained in this Podcast or on this Website shall constitute financial, investment, legal and/or other professional advice and that no professional relationship of any kind is created between you and podcast host, the guests or Clark Hill PLC. You are urged to speak with your financial, investment, or legal advisors before making any investment or legal decisions.

31. Serving and Empowering Domestic Violence Survivors in LA – A Conversation with Carmen McDonald, ED from Los Angeles Center for Law and Justice (LACLJ)

On the 31st episode of Immigration Today! Angeline Chen interviews Carmen McDonald. Carmen McDonald is the new Executive Director for Los Angeles Center for Law and Justice (LACLJ) as of March 2023. LACLJ was founded in 1973 and has provided legal advocacy to low-income and primarily immigrant and Latino populations in Los Angeles for over 40 years. Their goal is to secure justice for survivors of domestic violence and sexual assault and empower them to create their own futures. Carmen was previously the Director of legal services at LACLJ. In her role, she oversaw LACLJ’s domestic violence, sexual assault, and human trafficking projects and LACLJ’s pro bono program, which pairs attorneys with survivors of domestic violence seeking representation at their restraining order hearings. Driven by her passion to help others, she has led representation for hundreds of domestic violence survivors in family court and immigration proceedings and overseen precedent-setting appeals.

Prior to working at LACLJ, Carmen was an attorney at Neighborhood Legal Services of Los Angeles County where she represented survivors of domestic violence in family law and immigration matters and worked in the Shriver Access to Justice Project assisting tenants with unlawful detainer proceedings. Carmen also previously worked at Break the Cycle where she represented teen survivors of domestic violence in family law matters. Prior to becoming an attorney, Carmen interned at the YWCA of San Diego County assisting survivors of domestic violence in family law matters and at the Gay and Lesbian Center of San Diego County assisting clients living with HIV/AIDS with accessing benefits.

Carmen is the daughter of Cuban immigrants. Carmen received her bachelor’s degree in Political Science from the University of Central Florida with a minor in Women’s Studies before graduating from California Western School of Law. Carmen was awarded the 2020 Los Angeles Domestic Violence Council Betty Fisher award for her service to survivors of domestic violence.

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“I was always interested in fighting for people’s rights, but the domestic violence piece came later when I saw that women were afraid that if they called the police their abuser would lose their job, and how they would feed their kids? They were afraid that if they called the police, they wouldn’t have a place to live. And so, the whole part about women’s issues and domestic violence all came full circle.”

— Carmen McDonald

If you want to apply for services with LACLJ use this link. If you need crisis support, immediate assistance, or shelter 24 hours a day/ 7 days a week, please reach out to:

• the National Domestic Violence Hotline at 1-800-799-SAFE (7233)

• the National Sexual Assault Hotline at 1-800-656-HOPE (4673)

• the National Human Trafficking Hotline at 1-888-373-7888 or by texting 233733

You can volunteer with LACLJ by signing up here. Follow LACLJ on Instagram, Facebook, Linked-In and Twitter. Please consider donating so that they can continue doing amazing work via this link. Immigration Today! is always releasing new content.  

Please subscribe to our immigration newsletter to stay up to date with any new episodes.

DISCLAIMER – The views and opinions expressed in the podcast represent the view of the host and guest(s) and not necessarily the official view of Clark Hill PLC. No information contained in this Podcast or on this Website shall constitute financial, investment, legal and/or other professional advice and that no professional relationship of any kind is created between you and podcast host, the guests or Clark Hill PLC. You are urged to speak with your financial, investment, or legal advisors before making any investment or legal decisions.

30. How a Daughter of an Immigrant Family became a Lawyer at the Largest Video Streaming Service in the World - A Conversation with Keya Koul, Business & Legal Affairs Counsel at Netflix

Keya Koul, Business & Legal Affairs Counsel, Netflix

On the 30th episode of Immigration Today! Angeline Chen interviews Keya Koul. Keya Koul is Business & Legal Affairs Counsel at Netflix. She serves as one of the co-leads of the Pro Bono Committee in the LA office and has been with Netflix for nearly four years. Keya currently holds an American Bar Association (ABA) Presidential Appointment to the Commission on Sexual Orientation and Gender Identity (SOGI). Prior to working at Netflix, Keya served as the Director of Career Services at University of San Francisco School of Law. Before that, Keya practiced law in New Mexico for nearly a decade, during which time she was named a Super Lawyers Rising Star. She received her J.D. from Southwestern Law School and obtained her masters from UCLA. She is the eldest daughter of immigrants from Srinagar, Kashmir, India. She speaks English, Spanish, Hindi, Kashmiri, and a little bit of French and Arabic. Keya is passionate about diversity, inclusion, and equity, and believes strongly in giving back through public service and pro bono work.

On this podcast, she talks to us about what her journey growing up as the daughter of Indian immigrant parents was like, her journey in her career and her transition into an in-house attorney at Netflix and what living in LA has been like for her. Keya also talks to us about her battle with cancer in 2014 and how that changed the trajectory of her life. In many ways, her decision to join Netflix as an in-house attorney is tied to her desire to live life in the moment. With her background in entertainment law, her love for social justice, and learning new languages, she found the perfect career for her.

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“I pinch myself daily. Honestly, [working at Netflix] is a dream job for me. I often tell law students that there’s pressure in law school to have to pick civil or criminal, transactional or litigation.. etc. But life is not linear, life is a roller coaster. So, you must be able to move with that. Because of my life trajectory, I learned to be super adaptable and be open to opportunities. And then, at the end of the day, taking that leap of faith will allow you to be where you want in life.”

— Keya Koul

You can follow Keya Koul on LinkedIn. Immigration Today! is always releasing new content. Please subscribe to our immigration newsletter to stay up to date with any new episodes.

DISCLAIMER – The views and opinions expressed in the podcast represent the view of the host and guest(s) and not necessarily the official view of Clark Hill PLC. No information contained in this Podcast or on this Website shall constitute financial, investment, legal and/or other professional advice and that no professional relationship of any kind is created between you and podcast host, the guests or Clark Hill PLC. You are urged to speak with your financial, investment, or legal advisors before making any investment or legal decisions.

29. An Interview with Creators of Documentary Film “Seeking Asylum” – Rae Ceretto and Kelly Scott from Honeypot Productions

On the 29th episode of Immigration Today! Angeline Chen interviews Rae Ceretto and Kelly Scott. They are the co-founders of Honeypot Productions and creators of the film Seeking Asylum. Rae Ceretto is a director and cinematographer, and Kelly Scott is a producer. Honeypot Productions was founded in 2020 and is a female owned and operated production company specializing in documentary and nonfiction storytelling. They foster conversations of understanding, compassion, and growth in our world through visually stunning and character driven narratives.

Rae started her career as a photojournalist documenting refugees and women’s rights issues around the globe. At the age of 16, Rae completed her first documentary short film about the 1999 NATO bombings and death of former Yugoslavian dictator Slobodan Milosevic. She graduated with honors from New York University and went on to collaborate with some of the biggest companies in the nonprofit, commercial, and entertainment world. In 2021 Rae was named one of SHOOT Magazine’s emerging directors.

Kelly is an award-winning producer with a background in Fine Art.  After attending The Cooper Union for the Advancement of Science and Art in New York, she began her production career working in advertising, fashion, and music. Her productions have won a Cannes Silver Lion, a Clio, Ad Age Campaign of the Year, and multiple Experiential Awards from Adweek.

Their film Seeking Asylum is a feature documentary that documents the challenges asylum seekers face and shows why asylum is an integral part of the American Dream. This film is an expansion of their award-winning short documentary, We Do Not Live Here, which was featured in Rolling Stone Magazine. It follows Kensy’s arduous journey from Honduras to Los Angeles where she is currently waiting for her asylum trial and all the issues she faces after entering the United States along with her children.

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“One thing that we really want the audience to see after watching our film is that this is a humanitarian issue. Obviously, there are politics involved. But the number of politics that are involved in immigration and asylum is unfortunate, because it’s a pendulum that swings left, it’s a pendulum that swings right and the people that are getting hurt are the people that are trying to come to the U.S. and find safety.”

— Rae Ceretto

You can watch Seeking Asylum on Amazon, Apple, Google Play or other streaming sites. Please consider donating to Kensy’s GoFundMe page to help alleviate some of the financial burdens that her and her family face. Provide money for legal support to asylum seekers via these resources or volunteer here. You can follow Honeypot Productions on their Instagram to keep up with their latest work. 

Immigration Today! is always releasing new content. Please subscribe to our immigration newsletter to stay up to date with any new episodes.

DISCLAIMER – The views and opinions expressed in the podcast represent the view of the host and guest(s) and not necessarily the official view of Clark Hill PLC. No information contained in this Podcast or on this Website shall constitute financial, investment, legal and/or other professional advice and that no professional relationship of any kind is created between you and podcast host, the guests or Clark Hill PLC. You are urged to speak with your financial, investment, or legal advisors before making any investment or legal decisions.

28. Anyone can be a Victim of Human Trafficking – An Interview with Erika Gonzalez from The Coalition to Abolish Slavery and Trafficking (CAST)

On the 28th episode of Immigration Today! Angeline Chen welcomes Erika Gonzalez. Erika Gonzalez is a Training and Technical Assistance Managing Attorney at the Coalition to Abolish Slavery & Trafficking (CAST), in Los Angeles CA.  Erika is a national expert in legal remedies access for survivors of all forms of human trafficking. She is proud to be the daughter of Mexican and Salvadoran immigrants whose work focuses on approaching the legal representation of trafficking survivors from a trauma-informed, victim-centered, and race equity lens. 

Erika co-founded and continues to lead the Office for Victims of Crime’s first training and technical assistance program dedicated to legal remedies for trafficking survivors at CAST. Through this program, she trains attorneys and social service providers across the U.S. on issues of immigration, victims’ rights, criminal record relief and ethical considerations. Erika has devoted her career to working with survivors of human trafficking, sexual assault, and domestic violence. At Opening Doors, Inc. in Sacramento, CA, Erika assumed the low-bono immigration program focused on assisting victims of crime with immigration relief. As a staff attorney at CAST and Opening Doors, she represented crime victims in immigration, criminal victims’ rights, and criminal record relief matters.

Erika is the co-author of several advisories on T visas and other forms of relief. She is a member of the Freedom Network, a network of over 60 individual and member agencies representing trafficking survivors and is an active participant of their Steering and Racial Equity Committees. She graduated from the University of Pacific, McGeorge School of Law and the University of California, Berkeley. Erika is currently a fellow for the New Leaders Council, Class of 2021. She was raised in South Lake Tahoe.

CAST is one of the pioneers of the US anti-trafficking movement. CAST’s immeasurable contribution to survivors of human trafficking has been recognized by President Obama, who honored CAST with the Presidential Award for Extraordinary Efforts to Combat Trafficking in Persons in 2014. Erika has been doing anti-trafficking work since 2011 and has specifically been with CAST since 2014. She began as a Staff Attorney and eventually transitioned to the Technical Assistance role. 

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“Anybody could be a victim of trafficking. All people of all ages, race, genders, identities, and education backgrounds. What generally makes someone more vulnerable to traffic, though, are people who are already disproportionately more vulnerable by society. For example, people who tend to be marginalized by structural racism, by homophobia, transphobia people with disabilities, people with unstable immigration status, people who are poor, and who have a history of abuse. All of those things tend to impact the vulnerabilities and make someone generally more vulnerable to trafficking as a whole.”

— Erika Gonzalez

You can learn about CAST by visiting their website online. Here is a link to the Training and Technical Assistance Program to learn about the free support to attorneys and social service providers assisting trafficking survivors. For our attorney and legal providers that listen, here is a link for trauma-informed lawyering resources. You can make a donation to CAST and follow them on Instagram, Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn.

Immigration Today! is always releasing new content. Please subscribe to our immigration newsletter to stay up to date with any new episodes.

DISCLAIMER – The views and opinions expressed in the podcast represent the view of the host and guest(s) and not necessarily the official view of Clark Hill PLC. No information contained in this Podcast or on this Website shall constitute financial, investment, legal and/or other professional advice and that no professional relationship of any kind is created between you and podcast host, the guests or Clark Hill PLC. You are urged to speak with your financial, investment, or legal advisors before making any investment or legal decisions.

Deporting Veterans – Fact or Fiction? – An Interview with Amanda Schuft from Immigrant Defenders Law Center

On the 27th episode of Immigration Today! Angeline Chen welcomes Amanda Schuft. Amanda Schuft is the Legal Services Director of Community Defense Programs at Immigrant Defenders Law Center. Immigrant Defenders Law Center is Southern California's largest deportation defense non-profit. They provide full‐scale deportation defense, legal representation, legal education, and connections to social services. Amanda has been a part of the Immigrant Defenders Law Center team for almost 8 years while serving various roles. Her focus is in representing adults who have been detained by ICE and who have been found incompetent to represent themselves through their National Qualified Representative Program. She is also the Directing Attorney for ImmDef's Deported Veteran Program where she helps veterans who have been deported with legal resources and post-conviction relief in an effort to eventually get legal status in the U.S. Prior to this, she was a staff attorney at Esperanza Immigrant Rights Project. She attended the University of Oregon School of Law. 

Amanda explains how she always knew she wanted a career that was of service to people. Her mother was a teacher and would help vulnerable students better access the education system. Amanda became a bilingual teacher in Honduras for a year and eventually realized education was not for her. She pursued law school instead and eventually understood that there was a real need in the immigrant community to better access the legal system. Now she dedicates herself to representing individuals that are not competent to represent themselves in immigration court and has made huge strides in helping deported veterans come back home.

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“Public focus on [deporting veterans] can really change the landscape of services available. Right now, there is more focus on this, so hopefully, it will just expand access to services and encourage people to reach out to their Congress people and support bills that will help repatriate veterans who are still in removal proceedings.”

— Amanda Schuft

You can learn more about the Deported Veterans Program on ImmDef’s website here. For client referral’s you can email deportedvets@immdef.org.

You can also make a donation here or sign up to volunteer here. Please follow ImmDef on Instagram, Facebook, Tik Tok, Linked-In and Twitter. Amanda Schuft is on Linked-In.

Please share this podcast to shed more light on this topic!

Immigration Today! is always releasing new content. Please subscribe to our immigration newsletter to stay up to date with any new episodes. 

DISCLAIMER – The views and opinions expressed in the podcast represent the view of the host and guest(s) and not necessarily the official view of Clark Hill PLC. No information contained in this Podcast or on this Website shall constitute financial, investment, legal and/or other professional advice and that no professional relationship of any kind is created between you and podcast host, the guests or Clark Hill PLC. You are urged to speak with your financial, investment, or legal advisors before making any investment or legal decisions.

How One Person Started a Movement to Heal Skid Row - An Interview with Andy Bales, CEO of Union Rescue Mission

On the 26th episode of Immigration Today! Angeline Chen interviews Rev. Andrew (Andy) J. Bales, the CEO of Union Rescue Mission. Union Rescue Mission (URM) is one of the largest missions of its kind — bringing help and hope to men, women, and children experiencing homelessness in Downtown Los Angeles. URM is an organization that was founded in 1891 which dedicates itself to helping men, women, and children escape the streets of Skid Row through food, shelter, education, counseling, and long-term recovery program. During their early days, URM took to the streets in gospel wagons to offer food, clothing, and salvation to the less fortunate. Over the years, URM has continued and expanded its efforts to feed both the body and the soul, helping individuals and families break the cycle of poverty and achieve self-sufficiency.

On this episode of Immigration Today!, Andy talks to us about his upbringing and how he came into the field of service naturally. His father experienced homelessness and alcoholism. That, coupled with his eventual passion for teaching and his faith brought him to lean a hand in and help those in need. Andy Bales has over 35 years of experience in community outreach and service to the homeless community. While at URM, he has assisted in the development of transitional housing and permanent supportive housing for the community of LA. Andy has had a pivotal role in reshaping hospital and governmental policies related to the “dumping” of homeless patients on to the streets of Skid Row. Andy’s present focus is organizing and working with community partners to address the epidemic of homelessness in Los Angeles.

 Andy discusses the diverse demographic that exists in the streets of LA, including the growing Latinx and undocumented population. He also describes the work being done by LA Mayor Karen Bass and the strong support she has given to not only get people off the streets, but to treat the long history of mental illness that haunts our fellow Angelenos.  

Andy was named as the 930th Point of Light by President George Bush in 1992, receiving the 1999 Des Moines NAACP Community Service Award, and receiving the 2004 Martin Luther King, Jr. Award from the Interdenominational Ministerial Alliance of Pasadena. He was declared a Treasure of LA by the Central City Association in 2017. He has been featured in CBS’s 60 Minutes, NBC’s Dateline, CNN and Social Media, and is a frequent guest speaker at conferences, schools, and clubs. The list goes on.

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“I think our area of the most success this year so far has been finding people jobs and people keeping their jobs. They need some light at the end of the tunnel that isn’t a train coming their way, before they’ll give life another try. I’ve made a career of going out on the streets and encouraging people to give life another try and I’ve rarely been rejected. Sometimes it’s taken 32 weeks in a row before somebody makes the decision to come in and get help, but they do.”

— Andy Bales

You can support Union Rescue Mission by making a donating here. You can also register to be a volunteer here. If you or someone you know is experiencing homelessness, URM can help. To learn more about their emergency and recovery services, please call them at (213) 347-6300. Follow Union Rescue Mission on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and YouTube!

 Immigration Today! is always releasing new content. Please subscribe to our immigration newsletter to stay up to date with any new episodes. 

DISCLAIMER – The views and opinions expressed in the podcast represent the view of the host and guest(s) and not necessarily the official view of Clark Hill PLC. No information contained in this Podcast or on this Website shall constitute financial, investment, legal and/or other professional advice and that no professional relationship of any kind is created between you and podcast host, the guests or Clark Hill PLC. You are urged to speak with your financial, investment, or legal advisors before making any investment or legal decisions.