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Removal Defense
Enforcement
Date and Time:
11/16/2023 11:00am to 12:30pm PST
Recorded Date:
11/16/2023
Place:
Online
Registration Deadline:
Thursday, November 16, 2023 - 11:00am
MCLE:
1.5 CA & TX

THIS WEBINAR HAS BEEN CANCELED. We apologize for any inconvenience.

Level: Beginner

This webinar is intended for practitioners who want to learn about new developments in USCIS deferred action for immigrant workers involved in labor disputes. We will discuss who might be eligible and best practices on screening clients to determine if they are involved in a labor dispute where a government agency might support a request for deferred action from USCIS. We then will provide a nuts-and-bolts overview of filing applications for deferred action (and employment authorization) for immigrant workers, including case strategy and considerations of other forms of relief.

Presenters

Krsna Avila, Staff Attorney - Immigrant Legal Resource Center

Krsna is based in San Francisco, California, and focuses on immigration enforcement issues, including state and local law enforcement’s cooperation with federal immigration agencies in unlawfully deporting immigrants, Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals advocacy, and surveillance issues relating to noncitizens.Krsna joins the ILRC with a wealth of personal and professional immigration experience. Having immigrated to the United States with his parents when he was only four months old, Krsna grew up undocumented. Prior to law school, Krsna worked closely with the ILRC to establish a legal services program at Immigrants Rising. As their Legal Services Manager, Krsna provided legal support to undocumented youth throughout the countryDirectly feeling the effects of our unjust immigration system, Krsna quickly became interested in attending law school to understand the legal system from a different lens.

While in law school, Krsna worked at the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees in Washington D.C. and the American Civil Liberties Union of Northern California where he supported litigation regarding free speech and racial discrimination issues. He also participated in the Asylum and Convention Against Torture Appellate Clinic, where he helped represent clients before the Board of Immigration Appeals. Krsna also volunteered with the European Council on Refugees and was an editorial member for the Cornell Legal Information Institute U.S. Supreme Court Bulletin.Krsna earned his undergraduate degree from the University of California, Davis, and his law degree from Cornell Law School where he received the 2017 Freeman Award for Civil-Human Rights for his commitment to civil rights and public service.

Jehan Laner, Staff Attorney - Immigrant Legal Resource Center

Growing up in a family and community of immigrants, Jehan is deeply committed to defending the human rights of all people. Jehan joined the ILRC in June 2022.  Prior to joining the ILRC, Jehan represented detained and non-detained immigrants in removal proceedings at Pangea Legal Services and as an Immigration Legal Fellow with Community Legal Services in East Palo Alto. Jehan also fought for policies to disentangle local law enforcement from immigration enforcement, as a Ford Fellow with Advancing Justice – Asian Law Caucus’s Criminal Justice Reform program. Jehan received her J.D. from New York University Law School. During law school, Jehan was a student advocate for two years in the Immigrant Rights Clinic where she defended immigrants facing deportation.  In the clinic, she represented asylum seekers in immigration court in New York and Texas and co-authored amicus briefs before the Eight Circuit and Board of Immigration Appeals. Jehan speaks Spanish fluently.

Lynn Damiano Pearson - Consulting Attorney, National Immigration Law Center (NILC)

Lynn Damiano Pearson is an attorney with a background in immigration law, criminal defense, and appellate advocacy.  She previously worked at Tahirih Justice Center in Atlanta, where she provided direct representation and technical assistance in humanitarian-based cases before USCIS and EOIR, including asylum and T/U visas, and developed an appellate project with cases before the Board of Immigration Appeals and 11th Circuit Court of Appeals. Lynn later co-founded Sur Legal Collaborative, an organization that works at the intersection of immigrant and worker rights in the South.  At Sur, Lynn led the immigration practice, representing survivors of labor trafficking and workers seeking deferred action, as well as women detained at the notorious Irwin County Detention Center.  She currently works as a consulting attorney on labor-related immigration matters at the National Immigration Law Center (NILC)

Jessica Bansal - Legal Director, Unemployed Workers United

Jessica Bansal (she/her) is the Legal Director of Unemployed Workers United. Before joining UWU, Jessica worked as Senior Staff Attorney at the ACLU of Southern California and Co-Legal Director of the National Day Laborer Organizing Network. She has litigated high-impact cases including Ramos v. Nielsen (preserving the immigration status of hundreds of thousands of beneficiaries of the humanitarian Temporary Protected Status program), Hernandez Roman v. Wolf (winning the release of hundreds of people from ICE detention during the pandemic), and Gonzalez v. ICE (challenging unconstitutional immigration detainer arrests). She worked closely on ground-breaking immigrants' rights legislation, including the California Values Act, and has represented numerous immigrant workers subjected to retaliation for defending their labor rights. Jessica was previously an Adjunct Professor with the Immigrant Rights Clinic at the UC Irvine School of Law and law clerk for the Honorable Stephen Reinhardt on the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals. She received her J.D. from Columbia Law School.
 

Mary Yanik, Clinical Associate Professor of Law and Director - Tulane Immigrant Rights Clinic

Mary Yanik is a Clinical Associate Professor of Law and Director of the Tulane Immigrant Rights Clinic. She specializes in assisting immigrant workers, including victims of labor trafficking, and in defending constitutional rights of immigrants. Yanik previously worked at the New Orleans Workers’ Center for Racial Justice, leading a law & organizing practice in support of community-directed campaigns for labor, migrant, and racial justice. She has represented dozens of immigrant workers in reporting labor abuse to the Department of Labor’s Wage and Hour Division, Occupational Safety and Health Administration, and to the National Labor Relations Board, as well as in seeking immigration protections because of their labor exploitation. Yanik received her J.D. from Yale Law School and, before that, received degrees in Chemistry and Government/Politics from University of Maryland. After law school, she clerked for Judge David F. Hamilton of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit

Bliss Requa-Trautz, Executive Director - Arriba Las Vegas Worker Center

Bliss Requa-Trautz is the Executive Director of Arriba Las Vegas Worker Center. The Arriba Las Vegas Worker Center unites day laborers, domestic workers, immigrant workers and low wage workers to defend their rights, fight for dignity and win justice for all. She brings more than a decade of experience in community organizing around issues of economic justice, immigrant justice, and education. She holds Bachelors of Arts in Sociology and Anthropology from the University of Massachusetts Amherst, and a Labor Studies Certificate from the Joseph S. Murphy Institute for Labor Studies and Worker Education at City University of New York