Immigration Update - June 2021
Halfway through 2021, let's take stock! In this webinar, we will provide immigration law and policy updates from the first months of the Biden administration. We will review what's new on the legislative agenda, regulations and law. We will focus on hot topics and latest updates, while thinking back on the administration's promises.
Erin Quinn is an attorney based in San Francisco. Her work focuses on building capacity of organizations and practitioners to assist immigrants. She conducts trainings on immigration law throughout the United States and provides legal expertise through the ILRC's Attorney of the Day program. Erin has contributed to numerous ILRC publications as author or editor, including Removal Defense: Defending Immigrants in Immigration Court; Essentials of Asylum and many others. In addition, Erin works on issues related to immigration status and healthcare as well as consumer protection. She has published articles with LexisNexis Emerging Issues and American Immigration Lawyers Association (AILA).
Prior to coming to the ILRC, Erin represented immigrants in all aspects of their immigration matters, with an emphasis on removal defense and complex cases. She was owner and attorney at her own firm for 5 years after defending immigrants as an associate at the Law Office of Robert B. Jobe. Her experience in immigration law and policy includes working as a fellow for the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, EU headquarters in Belgium; clerking for the Immigration Court of San Francisco; and teaching courses as a lecturer at California State University, East Bay. Erin is on the Advisory Council for the Northern California Chapter of the American Immigration Lawyers Association (AILA), in which she serves as Consumer Protection Coordinator.
Erin holds a joint degree in law and public policy (JD/MPP) from the University of Michigan, where she was co-editor of Michigan Journal of Gender & Law. She received her undergraduate degree from University of California, Los Angeles, where she majored in English and Anthropology. She is a member of the California Bar and proficient in Spanish.
Veronica joined the ILRC in December 2017 as a San Joaquin Valley Law Fellow. Prior to joining ILRC, Veronica completed an Equal Justice Works Fellowship at Centro Legal de La Raza as an DACA/DAPA Emerson Fellow. Veronica is a graduate of Howard University School of Law. During Law school, Veronica interned at various immigrant right organizations, including Kids in Need of Defense and New York Legal Aid. Additionally, Veronica was recognized by the Hispanic Bar Association of Washington D.C. (HBA-DC) for her commitment to the advancement of the Hispanic community by being awarded the inaugural HBA-DC Foundation Scholarship.
As an immigrant who grew up in Oakland California, Veronica strives to use her legal education and experience working directly with immigrant communities.
Nithya Nathan-Pineau is a policy attorney & strategist based in Washington, D.C. She focuses on federal legislative advocacy at the ILRC. Her work is focused on policies combatting criminalization of immigrant communities. This includes developing and cultivating partnerships with community-based organizations and elected officials, and providing legal education and training.
Nithya brings nearly a decade of experience providing legal services to immigrants in Texas, Virginia, and Maryland. Prior to joining the ILRC, Nithya served as the Director of the Children's Program at the Capital Area Immigrants' Rights (CAIR) Coalition. She also worked at the Tahirih Justice Center and the South Texas Pro Bono and Asylum Representation Project (ProBAR). Nithya focused on removal defense and humanitarian-based immigration relief including affirmative and defensive asylum, special immigrant juvenile status, protection under the Violence Against Women Act (VAWA), DACA, and U and T visas.
Nithya obtained her Bachelor's Degree in Spanish and Political Science from Tufts University and she earned her law degree from Brooklyn Law School. Nithya is admitted to the bar in Texas and New Jersey. She is fluent in English and Spanish and conversational in Tamil.