Date and Time:
05/22/2024 11:00am to 12:30pm PDT
Recorded Date:
05/22/2024
Place:
Online
Registration Deadline:
Wednesday, May 22, 2024 - 11:00am
MCLE:
1.5 CA & TX
Level: All
This webinar is intended for practitioners who want to learn about 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 an overview of filing applications for deferred action (and employment authorization) for immigrant workers, including case strategy and considerations of other forms of relief. This webinar will also cover new updates in the process, including renewals of deferred action.
Presenters
Jehan Laner - Senior Staff Attorney, ILRC
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.
Ann Garcia - Staff Attorney, National Immigration Project (NIPNLG)
Ann Garcia is a Staff Attorney at the National Immigration Project (NIPNLG). Her work at NIPNLG is focused on holding DHS accountable through advocacy, litigation, and training. Before joining NIPNLG, she ran projects at the Catholic Legal Immigration Network (CLINIC) to assist separated families and free immigrants from detention. Ann’s work appears regularly in national media. She previously started a detained removal defense program at the RAICES office in Fort Worth, Texas as an Equal Justice Works Fellow. Ann is a graduate of the American University Washington College of Law, where she was on the editorial board of the ABA’s Administrative Law Review. She has a bachelor’s degree from Middlebury College. Prior to law school, Ann worked on immigration policy at the Center for American Progress.
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 Bachelor 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.
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.
Lynn Damiano Pearson - Immigration Attorney, National Immigration Law Center (NILC)
Lynn Damiano Pearson is an attorney with the National Immigration Law Center where she focuses on technical assistance, training, and capacity building for labor-based immigration matters. Lynn previously co-founded Sur Legal Collaborative, an organization that works at the intersection of immigrant and worker rights in the Deep 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. Prior to that, Lynn was as a Senior Staff Attorney at Tahirih Justice Center, where she represented survivors of gender-based violence in affirmative and defensive immigration proceedings and led the organization’s new appellate project.
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 the 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 the University of Maryland. After law school, she clerked for Judge David F. Hamilton of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit.