PROGRAM

Please join us at Roosevelt House for a timely panel discussion at which Immigrant Justice Corps Fellows (IJC) will seek to shed light on, and contextualize, the asylum process. The panel will explore the situation at the Southern border, including the humanitarian crisis of detention, and the challenges involved in defending these cases in immigration court. Immigrant Justice Corps Fellows are uniquely positioned to shed light on the current representation crisis, especially regarding Central American immigrants seeking asylum, as they are embedded in front-line legal services organizations across the country.

IJC is the country’s first fellowship program wholly dedicated to meeting the need for high-quality legal assistance for immigrants seeking citizenship and fighting deportation. The Fellows’ unique experiences representing a wide-range of clients, including unaccompanied minors and adults with children seeking asylum and other forms of relief, help them speak to the challenges and setbacks imposed by the federal government. In the current climate, the need for free and competent counsel has never been more critical. We hope you will be able to participate in this important conversation.

The panel will be followed by a Q&A with audience members.

Participating in the discussion will be Immigrant Justice Corps Justice Fellows, Ryan Clough, Michelle Martinez, Emerson Argueta, and Allison Richman.

Deborah Sontag will moderate. Deborah is a writer and teacher whose celebrated work in journalism spans 35 years, mostly at The New York Times. She is currently a McGraw Professor of Writing at Princeton University. At The Times, she was an investigative reporter, foreign correspondent, Jerusalem bureau chief, magazine writer, immigration beat reporter and editor. She won the Pulitzer Prize as part of a team covering the first World Trade Center bombing, and was a finalist for the Pulitzer in International Reporting for her coverage of Haiti after the earthquake. She also received a George Polk Award for documenting broad corruption and waste in the Immigration and Naturalization Service.