This webinar will cover motions to suppress and terminate in removal proceedings, with legal and practice strategies targeted and newer and experienced attorneys. Motions to suppress and terminate are a critical tool for protecting clients and holding the government accountable for violating immigrants’ rights. We will cover the essential law of suppression and termination in the immigration context, filing and litigation procedures, and explore legal theories for suppression and termination responses to the latest enforcement tactics from the Trump Administration.
Presenters
Lena Graber, Special Projects Attorney - Immigrant Legal Resource Center
Lena Graber joined the ILRC in 2013 as Special Projects Attorney based in San Francisco. Lena is a national expert on immigration enforcement by local police, and she has spent years supporting organizers and lawyers around the country to fight unfair and often illegal detention of immigrants, and to push for pro-immigrant local policies. Lena also works on DACA, providing technical assistance and training on all DACA legal issues. In addition, Lena contributes to ILRC manuals, trainings, and Attorney of the Day assistance. Lena has co-authored several ILRC publications including Motions to Suppress: Protecting the Constitutional Rights of Immigrants in Removal Proceedings; DACA: The Essential Legal Guide; and Parole in Immigration Law.
Prior to the ILRC, Lena was a Soros Justice Fellow at the National Immigration Project of the National Lawyers Guild, where she supported campaigns against local law enforcement involvement in deportations and litigated immigration detainer issues in federal courts. She also worked at the National Immigration Forum doing federal advocacy on immigrant rights and border policy.
Lena graduated with honors from the George Washington University Law School, where she served on the journal for International Law in Domestic Courts. She earned her B.A. in history from Wesleyan University. Lena is a member of the California bar and she speaks Spanish.
Rex Chen, Senior Attorney – Safe Passage Project
Rex Chen is nationally recognized for termination and suppression motions in immigration court to challenge government misconduct. He co-authored a 2015 Vera Institute practice advisory about termination motions for children and has given presentations at conferences, seminars, and law schools across the country. Before joining the Safe Passage Project in 2015, he worked at Legal Aid Society and Catholic Charities of Newark. At Catholic Charities of Newark, he directed its immigration program and handled a wide range of immigration cases in immigration court, the BIA, and the Third Circuit, including a successful Third Circuit appeal in 2008 involving the intersection of a United Nations Convention and immigration law. He runs a joint defense group about suppression motions and has been a Board member of the National Immigration Project for several years. Before Catholic Charities, he practiced commercial litigation at a NYC law firm, clerked for the New Jersey Supreme Court, and graduated with honors from NYU Law School. He has made a documentary video about an immigrant wrongly convicted of murder, studied poetry creative writing in college, speaks Spanish, and enjoys watching fútbol on television.
Francisco Ugarte, Immigration Attorney – San Francisco Public Defender’s Office
Francisco is an Immigration Specialist with the San Francisco Public Defender's Office, where he advises criminal defenders how to navigate immigration consequences in criminal cases. He specializes in removal defense, and has litigated many successful suppression motions in immigration court. In 2009, Francisco litigated Matter of Garcia-Garcia, 25 I&N Dec. 93 (BIA 2009), which held that immigration courts had jurisdiction to order ICE to remove electronic ankle bracelets if they posed a hardship to the non-citizen. Francisco has worked on policy issues relating to immigration enforcement, and was recognized in 2011 by Chinese for Affirmative Action for his immigrant rights advocacy. He frequently lectures on topics relating to immigration enforcement. He previously worked as Senior Attorney at Dolores Street Community Services, and currently serves on the Board of Directors of the ACLU Northern California and the Central American Resource Center of San Francisco.