Austin immigration attorney Virginia Raymond reflects on her work representing asylum seekers during the Trump years and shares her hopes and fears about what the next four years will bring. On the morning of November 9, 2016, I woke up saddened, ill, and angry, but...
The story is there – or rather the lived experience is – but it has yet to take narrative form. My task as a volunteer “legal assistant” is to talk it through. To listen and to help the client shape her story so that it will be the right sort of story – to find the...
COMMENTARY: The border, migrant laborers, the maquiladoras and now ICE jails and deportation. Why hasn’t the discourse on immigration reform ever taken into account how NAFTA produced waves of migration to the U.S.? Or how CAFTA created maquiladora jobs but did...
Asylum: what is it? “Each year, thousands of noncitizens arriving at our border or already in the United States apply for asylum, or protection from persecution. Asylum seekers must navigate a difficult and complex process that can involve multiple government...
There are over 250 detention centers operating throughout the U.S. (see Detention by the Numbers) Most immigration processing centers are managed by a few private prison corporations such as GEO GROUP. Detained immigrants who aren’t citizens, lack documentation...
