Bacon Immigration Law and Policy Program
From the Border to Boston: Unpacking the Migrant Crisis
January 25, 2024
Iván Espinoza-Madrigal is the Executive Director of the Lawyers for Civil Rights (LCR), joins us for a catalytic discussion focusing on the surge of migrants and asylum seekers at the U.S. border, and the multifaceted legal and policy responses at the local, state and federal level. How are developments at the border affecting day-to-day life in cities thousands of miles away? Why are employment, housing, and other essential services for survival and community integration scarce? We will explore the comprehensive solutions needed to make progress on these pressing intersectional issues.
Mr. Espinoza-Madrigal was joined by his colleague, Mirian Albert, Senior Attorney for the Lawyers for Civil Rights (LCR). Mirian is co-counsel in LCR’s groundbreaking Martha’s Vineyard litigation against Florida Governor DeSantis. She was among the first attorneys to arrive on the island in response to the crisis, and the news images reflect her extensive work on the ground. She recapped the developments of the Martha’s Vineyard litigation.
Martha's Vineyard and Beyond: Current Immigration Issues
March 13, 2023
Iván Espinoza-Madrigal is the Executive Director of the Lawyers for Civil Rights (LCR), the organization that filed the first lawsuits in the country against the Trump Administration to protect sanctuary cities; to save humanitarian protections on behalf of Honduran, Salvadoran, and Liberian immigrants; and to block immigration arrests in courthouses. He has won dozens of life-changing and law-changing cases across the country on behalf of people of color and immigrants. He also advises federal and state policymakers on the legal needs of marginalized communities and speaks nationally on racial justice and immigration issues, often focusing on the legal needs of people who identify across intersecting lines of race, sexual orientation, gender identity, and immigration status.
Forced Climate Migration of Indigenous Peoples with Juanita Cabrera Lopez and Blake A. Gentry
November 16, 2022
Juanita Cabrera Lopez, the Executive Director of the International Mayan League, is Maya Mam from the western highlands of Guatemala. A survivor of the internal armed conflict and genocide in Guatemala and a former political refugee, she has both personal and professional experience defending Indigenous peoples’ human rights. In collaboration with Maya leaders and elders in Guatemala and the U.S., she uses international law and organizations and traditional knowledge to develop an Indigenous human rights response in the areas of immigration, land rights, and environmental protection. She holds a Master of International Public Policy from Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies.
Blake A. Gentry (Cherokee) researches, writes about and advocates for Indigenous Peoples’ rights in migration, climate change, community health, and languages. He conducted field research in Mexico, China, Guatemala, and the United States. He was Policy Advisor to the Traditional Governor of the O'odham in Mexico (1998-2018) and director of the Indigenous Languages Office at Alitas Shelter in Tucson (2018-2022). He has conducted community projects and research in association with several University of Arizona departments and colleges and is currently adjunct faculty in the Mexican American Studies Department. He has a master's degree in public policy.
The Future of Immigrants' Rights A Conversation with Judy Rabinowitz and Micahel Tan, Deputy Directors of the ACLU Immigrants' Rights Project
March 17, 2022
Judy Rabinovitz has worked for the ACLU Immigrants' Rights Project since 1988, litigating class action and impact cases on a variety of issues affecting the rights of immigrants. In recent years, her work has focused largely on advocacy and litigation challenging immigration detention policies and practices. She played a leading role in the indefinite detention litigation that resulted in the Supreme Court's Zadvydas v. Davis decision, and in subsequent litigation to ensure application of that decision to indefinitely detained Mariel Cubans. In addition, she coordinated a nationwide litigation campaign to challenge the mandatory immigration detention statute that Congress enacted as part of the Illegal Immigration Reform and Immigrant Responsibility Act of 1996 (IIRIRA), culminating in Demore v. Kim, which she argued before the Supreme Court in 2003.
Michael Tan’s practice includes litigation and advocacy relating to immigration detention, immigrants’ access to education, and the rights of undocumented young people. He is a graduate of Harvard College and the Yale Law School and holds a master's degree in Comparative Literature from New York University. After law school, Michael clerked for the Honorable M. Margaret McKeown of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit and worked at ACLU IRP as Skadden Fellow and a Liman Public Interest Fellow. In 2014, he was awarded a California Lawyer of the Year Award in Immigration Law for his work on Rodriguez v. Robbins, a class action lawsuit challenging the prolonged detention of immigrants without bond hearings. Michael was awarded a Best Lawyers Under 40 Award by the National Asian Pacific American Bar Association in 2016 and was also named a Best LGBT Lawyer Under the Age of 40 by the National LGBT Bar Association in 2017.
Driving While Brown: Sheriff Joe Arpaio versus the Latino Resistance
January 28, 2022
Terry Greene Sterling is the author of a previous book, Illegal. She is editor-at-large for the Arizona Center for Investigative Reporting and serves as affiliated faculty at the Walter Cronkite School of Journalism at Arizona State University. A three-time Arizona Journalist of the Year, she’s written for numerous magazines and newspapers.
Jude Joffe-Block has reported for The Associated Press, NPR, The Guardian, and other outlets. For years, her radio stories on immigration and border issues aired on NPR member stations across the Southwest as part of the public media initiative, Fronteras Desk.
Lydia Guzman is director of advocacy and civic engagement for Chicanos por la Causa. She is a longtime Maricopa County activist who helped gather evidence for various lawsuits, including the racial profiling case against Arpaio that is now known as Melendres v. Penzone.
Delia Salvatierra is an immigration and criminal defense attorney in Phoenix who helped the Department of Justice coordinate interviews of non-citizens who had been transferred to ICE custody during Arpaio’s immigration sweeps. She also helped secure the release of non-citizens who had been convicted of identity theft following illegal investigations orchestrated by Arpaio’s "Criminal Employment Squad."
Johnny Sinodis is an attorney at Van Der Hout LLP. His practice focuses on removal defense, the immigration consequences of criminal convictions, and federal court litigation. Previously, at Salvatierra Law Group in Phoenix, he regularly represented noncitizens and undocumented workers who were victims of racially discriminatory policing practices in Maricopa County.
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