Meeting the Moment

Over the past several months, attacks on immigrant communities have left many of our clients and neighbors afraid to leave their homes — scared that a routine trip to work, school, or church will end in an arrest or deportation. As the immigration crackdown unfolded across the District, the work of Legal Aid DC’s newly expanded Immigration Law Unit became more urgent than ever. At the same time, nonprofits focused on immigrant legal services and immigrant rights lost funding, deepening the shortage of resources available. Legal Aid has helped fill that gap.

Anticipating the increase in need, Legal Aid expanded its immigration practice to now include a supervising attorney, three senior case-handling attorneys, two junior case-handling attorneys, and a legal assistant. The larger team has helped Legal Aid secure protected status for more eligible immigrants, including survivors of crime, domestic violence, human trafficking, child abuse, or persecution in their home country. But even people who are lawfully present in the U.S. or who are waiting for a decision haven’t been safe from detention or deportation. And Legal Aid’s immigration team has had to stretch into new areas of law to respond to the crisis.

For example, a former client with protected status was picked up off the street by immigration enforcement without a warrant. He was sent to a detention center and pressured to self-deport. Legal Aid jumped into action and filed a habeas petition, a first for our team, and a federal judge ordered the client’s release. It was Legal Aid staff who picked him up in the middle of the night and brought him home to his family in DC.  

Unfortunately, his ordeal didn’t end there. Despite his protected status, the government is still trying to deport him, and Legal Aid continues to fight on his behalf.

Our immigration team argued against these types of warrantless arrests, supporting a lawsuit from the ACLU DC and others against the Department of Homeland Security.  

Legal Aid has also ramped up our community outreach and conducted a dozen brief advice clinics at Carlos Rosario International Public Charter School. Bringing together immigration law and family law attorneys, Legal Aid also hosted an in-depth clinic on custodial power of attorney to help residents plan for their children’s care in case of arrest or deportation.