Feerick Center Immigrant Justice Project

October 18, 2023

Watch recording

Topics

• Asylum 
• Credible Fear Interviews
• Expedited Removal
• Family Expedited Removal Management (FERM)

Presenters: 

Shalyn Fluharty
Executive Director
Americans for Immigrant Justice

Cindy Woods 
National Policy Counsel
Americans for Immigrant Justice

Kathleen Maloney
Expert Consultant
Feerick Center for Social Justice
Fordham Law School

Moderator: 

Emerson G. Argueta
Associate Director
Feerick Center for Social Justice
Fordham Law School

November 15, 2022

Watch recording

Topics

• Why DACA Matters
• The nuts and bolts of DACA
• Texas v. United States and Its Impact on DACA Recipients and DACA-Eligible Individuals 
• Examining the Biden Administration's New DACA Rule

Presenters

Jess Hanson
Staff Attorney
National Immigration Law Center

Ted Hutchinson
Florida State Director
Fwd.us

Jesus Reyes
Immigration Attorney
Jesus Reyes Law

C. Cassandra Suprin
Director, Family Defense Program
Americans for Immigrant Justice

Moderator

Rachel Ray
Managing Attorney
UC Immigrant Legal Services Center
UC Davis School of Law

July 12, 2022

Watch recording

Topics

• The end of family detention
• The administration's ongoing use of "dedicated dockets" and Title-42 expulsion procedures
• The new asylum processing rule and its impact on the legal needs of families

Presenters

Azadeh Erfani
Senior Policy Analyst
National Immigrant Justice Center

Shalyn Fluharty
Consultant
Fordham Law School Feerick Center for Social Justice

Maryann Tharappel
Attorney-in-Charge for Immigrant & Refugee Services
Catholic Charities Community Services

Moderator

Emerson Argueta
Supervising Attorney
Central American Refugee Center

January 6, 2022

Watch recording

Topics

• Brief legal overview of the Migrant Protection Protocols (MPP or Remain in Mexico)
• What asylum seekers experienced during MPP 1.0 and what advocates learned and documented
• What is happening on the ground with MPP 2.0
• How does MPP 2.0 compare to MPP 1.0; what does it mean for different groups of asylum seekers
• What is the civil society response to MPP 2.0; opportunities for advocacy, pro bono, and civic involvement

Presenters

Melissa Crow
Senior Supervising Attorney | Immigrant Justice Project
Southern Poverty Law Center

Kennji Kizuka
Associate Director, Research and Analysis, Refugee Protection
Human Rights First

Taylor Levy
Taylor Levy Law

Cindy S. Woods
Special Project Director
Managing Attorney
Proyecto de Ayuda para Solicitantes de Asilo (PASA)

Moderator

Marisa Limón Garza
Deputy Director
Hope Border Institute

Welcome and Closing

Dora Galacatos
Executive Director
Fordham Law School Feerick Center for Social Justice

Clementine Schillings
Senior Project Researcher
Fordham Law School Feerick Center for Social Justice

November 12, 2021

Watch recording

Topics

• Brief overview of history of U.S. immigration policy toward Haitian people
• Push factors, including climate change
• Conditions at the border
• Implications of renewed MPP policy and Title 42 expulsions
• Opportunities for U.S. civil society response - welcoming centers; pro bono opportunities

Presenters

Gabrielle Apollon
Co-Director, Haiti Justice & International Accountability Project
Supervising Attorney, Torture, Rendition, and Detention Project
Center for Human Rights and Global Justice
NYU School of Law

Stephanie M. Baez
Pro Bono Counsel
ABA Commission on Immigration

Ellie Happel
Adjunct Professor, Global Justice Clinic
Co-Director, Haiti Justice and International Accountability Project
Co-Director, Caribbean Climate Justice Initiative
Center for Human Rights and Global Justice
NYU School of Law

Moderator

Professor Gemma Solimene
Clinical Associate Professor of Law
Fordham Law School

Welcome and Closing

Dora Galacatos
Executive Director
Fordham Law School Feerick Center for Social Justice

Clementine Schillings
Senior Project Researcher
Fordham Law School Feerick Center for Social Justice

April 20, 2021

Watch recording

Topics

• Brief overview of the Biden Administration's first 100 days
• Conditions at the border
• Implications of MPP
• Title 42 expulsions at the border
• Developments concerning unaccompanied immigrant children

Presenters

Leah Chavla
Senior Policy Advisor, Migrant Rights and Justice
Women's Refugee Commission

Kennji Kizuka
Senior Researcher and Policy Analyst, Refugee Protection
Human Rights First

Moderators

Grace Carney '22
Board Chair
Fordham Law School's Immigration Advocacy Project

Dora Galacatos
Executive Director
Fordham Law School Feerick Center for Social Justice

Clementine Schillings
Senior Project Researcher
Fordham Law School Feerick Center for Social Justice

May 29, 2020

Immigrant Rights in the Time of COVID-19 Virtual Series Program II

Watch recording

Topics

• Expulsions at the Border: What Is Known
• Reconciling International Human Rights and Public Health Imperatives
• Advocacy Efforts Underway
• What You Can Do to Help

Presenters

Shaw Drake, American Civil Liberties Union of Texas

Shaw Drake joined the ACLU Border Rights Center in 2018 as Policy Counsel. In this role he defends border communities against unconstitutional and inhumane policies, and develops border-related advocacy strategies, working closely with other ACLU border affiliates and ACLU national. Prior to joining the ACLU, Shaw served as a law clerk for the Honorable James Orenstein in the Eastern District of New York and an Equal Justice Works Fellow at Human Rights First, where he authored the report “Crossing the Line – U.S. Border Agents Illegally Reject Asylum Seekers.” Shaw’s work during law school included travel, research, and writing on statelessness in the Dominican Republic, disappearances in Mexico, protests in Venezuela, surveillance and racial discrimination in Colombia, and military justice in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. Before law school, Shaw worked for the Bellevue/NYU Program for Survivors of Torture in New York City and No More Deaths in Southern Arizona and Northern Sonora, Mexico. Shaw graduated magna cum laude from Georgetown University Law Center, where he received a Juris Doctor, a Certificate in Refugees and Humanitarian Emergencies, the Bettina Pruckmayr Award in Human Rights, and was elected to the Order of the Coif. He holds a B.A. with highest honors in Latin American Studies and Romance Language from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Shaw serves on the Steering Committee of the International Migration Bill of Rights (IMBR) Initiative. He speaks fluent Spanish.

Tania M. Guerrero, Catholic Legal Immigration Network, INC (CLINIC)

Tania Guerrero leads CLINIC’s Estamos Unidos Asylum Project since August 2019. She joined CLINIC in November 2018 as an Advocacy Attorney working on policy and outreach. Prior to joining CLINIC, she was in private practice. Her work focused on deportation defense litigation, affirmative and defensive asylum, family-based petitions, and humanitarian relief, including Special Immigrant Juvenile Status matters. Previously, Tania provided legal assistance to adults, unaccompanied minors and families fleeing violence from their home countries. She engaged in advocacy for immigrants’ rights in Monterrey, Nuevo Leon, Mexico. She also served as a criminal defense attorney to detained first-time offenders in Monterrey, Mexico. Tania earned her law degree from the University of Monterrey and master’s degree in international law and human rights from the U.N.-mandated University for Peace. She is a member of the District of Columbia and Mexican bars. She is a fluent Spanish.

Gretchen Kuhner, Institute for Women in Migration

Gretchen Kuhner is the Director of the Institute for Women in Migration (IMUMI) in Mexico City. She has lived and worked in Mexico City with NGOs, academia, and international foundations on issues related to women in migration, human rights and gender. She studied International Relations and Gender Studies at Occidental College and has a J.D. from Seattle University.

Moderators

Casey Miller, Human Rights Advocate

Casey Miller is an organizer and immigrant rights advocate based in San Antonio, Texas. She works transnationally in México and the United States, fighting for the legal rights of asylum seekers. The majority of her work is along the border where she gathers information and shares her findings with attorneys and other advocates who can assist in fighting for the people whose right to seek asylum is in jeopardy. Most recently she has organized the Pack the Courts action on the anniversary of the implementation of the “Remain in México”/Migrant Protection Protocols (MPP) policy and a car rally at the Karnes Family Detention Center fighting against Family Separation 2.0, also known as binary choice. She has also organized pro se workshops and court observation programs for people who have been returned to México under MPP, in Tijuana and San Antonio, respectively. She also worked as a legal assistant for RAICES in the Karnes Family Detention Center while "zero tolerance" was in effect in 2018.

Karuna Patel, Fordham Law School Feerick Center for Social Justice

Karuna Patel is the Deputy Director of the Feerick Center where she works on immigration, education, and economic justice issues. Karuna began her legal career at Mobilization for Justice (formerly MFY Legal Services, Inc.), a legal services organization where she started the Consumer Rights Project. She has worked at the New York City Department of Consumer Affairs leading a division focused on enforcing the City’s consumer protection laws and on educating consumers, and at the Center for Responsible Lending, where she represented consumers in all aspects of predatory lending impact litigation. Before joining the Law School, Karuna spent over five years at the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) working on a range of issues including mandatory arbitration in consumer contracts and consumer protections for remittances. Karuna is a Queens native and received her Bachelor of Arts in Economics from Columbia University and her law degree from New York University School of Law. Karuna clerked for the Honorable John Gleeson of the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of New York and the Honorable Theodore McKee of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.

May 15, 2020

Immigrant Rights in the Time of COVID-19 Virtual Series Program I

Watch recording

Topics

• Conditions in ICE Detention Centers, including at the Karnes and Dilley Family Detention Centers
• Local and National Efforts to Secure the Release of ICE Detainees
• What You Can Do to Help.

Presenters

Bree Bernwanger, Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights of the San Francisco Bay Area

Bree Bernwanger is a Senior Staff Attorney at the Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights of the San Francisco Bay Area (LCCR) and an Adjunct Professor of Law at Fordham University School of Law. At LCCR, Bree leads litigation and advocacy to expand and protect the rights of immigrants. She is on litigation teams challenging conditions of confinement in Northern California ICE detention centers in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic, including Zepeda Rivas v. Jennings, a class action challenge on behalf of everyone detained in the Mesa Verde detention center and Yuba County Jail. She also served on the litigation team in Doe v. Wolf, a groundbreaking constitutional challenge to conditions of confinement in Border Patrol hieleras in the Tucson Sector of Arizona that resulted in a sweeping order mandating their overhaul. Bree joined LCCR from the Feerick Center for Social Justice at Fordham Law School, where she has also continued to teach as an Adjunct Professor of Law. Bree has years of experience directly representing asylum seekers, with a focus on those fleeing gang- and gender-based violence in Central America and Mexico. Before shifting her focus to litigation, she directed LCCR’s longstanding pro bono asylum program. In 2016, she served as Managing Attorney of the Dilley Pro Bono Project, which provides pro bono representation to asylum-seeking women and children detained in the country’s largest family immigration detention center. Previously, Bree taught and supervised students handling immigration and domestic violence cases in Albany Law School’s clinical program. She began her career as a litigation associate at Sidley Austin LLP and as a legal fellow at the New York Civil Liberties Union. Bree is a graduate of the University of Texas and Georgetown Law.

Shalyn Fluharty, Texas RioGrande Legal Aid and the Dilley Pro Bono Project

Shalyn Fluharty directs the Family Detention Project at Texas RioGrande Legal Aid. In this capacity, she manages the Dilley Pro Bono Project in Dilley, Texas. Shalyn previously served as the Supervising Attorney with the Young Center for Immigrant Children’s Rights in Harlingen, Texas. She has worked with detained unaccompanied immigrant children in removal proceedings in Northern California at Legal Services for Children, in Chicago at the National Immigrant Justice Center, and in New York City at Catholic Charities Community Services. After law school, Shalyn worked at the Sacramento County Office of the Public Defender. She obtained a Juris Doctor at the University of California, Davis King Hall School of Law, a Masters of Teaching at Dominican University, and a Bachelor of Arts from Southern Methodist University. Before law school, Shalyn taught Spanish at Harper High School in Chicago. She is barred by the State Bar of California.

Manoj Govindaiah, The Refugee and Immigrant for Education and Legal Services (RAICES)
Manoj Govindaiah is the Director of Litigation at the Refugee and Immigrant Center for Education and Legal Services (RAICES), based in San Antonio, Texas. In his current role, he oversees all of RAICES' federal litigation, appeals, and amicus work. Manoj began his career at the Immigration Project in Granite City, Illinois and later at the National Immigrant Justice Center in Chicago where he provided direct services. Subsequently he worked at the Southern Poverty Law Center in Miami, Florida where he litigated class action civil rights cases on education and juvenile justice matters. Manoj is a 2006 graduate of the University of Illinois College of Law and is admitted to the bars of Illinois, Florida, and Texas.

Moderators

Karuna Patel, Fordham Law School Feerick Center for Social Justice

Karuna Patel is the Deputy Director of the Feerick Center where she works on immigration, education, and economic justice issues. Karuna began her legal career at Mobilization for Justice (formerly MFY Legal Services, Inc.), a legal services organization where she started the Consumer Rights Project. She has worked at the New York City Department of Consumer Affairs leading a division focused on enforcing the City’s consumer protection laws and on educating consumers, and at the Center for Responsible Lending, where she represented consumers in all aspects of predatory lending impact litigation. Before joining the Law School, Karuna spent over five years at the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) working on a range of issues including mandatory arbitration in consumer contracts and consumer protections for remittances.

Karuna is a Queens native and received her Bachelor of Arts in Economics from Columbia University and her law degree from New York University School of Law. Karuna clerked for the Honorable John Gleeson of the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of New York and the Honorable Theodore McKee of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.

Maura Tracy, Class of 2020, Fordham Law School Immigration Advocacy Project
Maura Tracy is in Fordham University School of Law’s Class of 2020 and has served as Co-Chair, Community Outreach Coordinator, and 1L Representative of Fordham Law’s Immigration Advocacy Project. At Fordham, Maura is a Stein Scholar in Public Interest Law and Ethics and the Senior Articles Editor of the Fordham Urban Law Journal. Upon graduation, Maura will begin an Equal Justice Works Fellowship at The Door’s Legal Services Center.