2022 Fall Virtual CLE: Immigration Defense Strategies

2022 Fall Virtual CLE: Immigration Defense Strategies

Wednesday, October 12, 2022: 11:00 AM - 4:00 PM (ET)/ 8:00 AM - 1:00 PM (PT)

Thursday, October 13, 2022: 12:00 PM - 5:00 PM (ET)/ 9:00 AM - 2:00 PM (PT)

This program will be presented over Zoom Webinar.

 – AGENDA –

WednESDAY, October 12, 2022

11:00am - 11:05am ET: Welcome & Announcements

11:05am - 12:05pm ET: Racism in Immigration Law

(60 minutes of instruction/1 CLE Ethics or Recognition and Elimination of Bias Credit)

This panel will situate the current immigration enforcement system in the long history of racial exclusion in the United States. The panel will provide an overview of the racist history of U.S. immigration law, describe some of the more pernicious and institutionalized racial barriers that exist in U.S. immigration laws, and identify how that racism manifests in removal proceedings and connects to the criminalization, policing, and deportation of immigrants today.

Speakers:

• Alina Das, Asst. Professor of Clinical Law, NYU School of Law
• Amber Qureshi, Staff Attorney, National Immigration Project (NIPNLG)

12:05pm - 12:15pm ET: Break 

12:15pm- 1:45pm ET:  Motions to Suppress and/or Terminate for Fourth & Fifth Amendment Violations
 

(90 minutes of instruction/1.50 CLE Credits)

The panel will cover the principles, standards, and nuts and bolts of motions to suppress in immigration court, with a focus on how and where immigration practitioners may be able to use motions to suppress to good effect in their litigation practice. The panel will include motions to suppress for Fourth and Fifth Amendment violations as well as those based on regulatory violations.

Speakers: 

• Veronica Barba, Founding Partner, Lucas & Barba LLP
• Kristen Jackson, Senior Staff Attorney, Public Counsel
• Adhemir Romero, Managing Attorney, Immigrant Legal Defense

1:45pm - 2:15pm ET: Break

2:15pm - 3:45pm ET: A Deep Dive into the Use of Arrest Records & Police Reports in Immigration Court

(90 minutes of instruction/1.50 CLE Credits)

This panel will focus on how arrest records and police reports are used in the immigration context despite the criminal legal system’s recognition that they are unreliable and unduly prejudicial. The panel will provide guidance and strategies to challenge the government’s inappropriate reliance on these records. Arguments to combat the admission of and reliance on these records by the agencies will include strategies that advocates can employ in and outside of the immigration court context, including before federal and state courts.

Speakers: 

• Conor Gleason, Senior Staff Attorney, Rocky Mountain Immigrant Advocacy Network (RMIAN)
• Nayna Gupta, Associate Director of Policy, National Immigrant Justice Center
• Raha Jorjani, Deputy Public Defender, Office of the Alameda County Public Defender

3:45pm - 4:00pm ET: Closing & Announcements

ThursDAY, October 13, 2022

12:00pm - 12:15pm ET: Welcome & Announcements

12:15pm - 1:30pm ET: Bond Hearings and Bond Appeals
 

(75 minutes of instruction/1.25 CLE Credits)

This panel will provide an in-depth review of bond proceedings in immigration court and will discuss the legal standards for obtaining an immigration bond, the nuts and bolts of preparing for bond hearings and filings, strategic considerations for winning bond, how to appeal an adverse bond determination, and how to seek, in the alternative, prosecutorial discretion for your client. The panel will also discuss recent circuit court decisions regarding the constitutional rights at issue in both immigration bond proceedings and mandatory detention hearings (or “Joseph Hearings”).

Speakers: 

• Brent Johnson, Managing Attorney, Florence Immigrant & Refugee Rights Project (FIRRP)
• Maureen Sweeney, Professor of Law & Director, Immigration Clinic, University of Maryland School of Law
• Tanika Vigil, Consulting Attorney, National Immigration Project (NIPNLG)

1:30pm - 2:00pm ET: Break

2:00pm - 3:30pm ET: Habeas Petitions to Challenge Immigration Detention
 

(90 minutes of instruction/1.50 CLE Credits)

As DHS enforcement priorities shift, an ever-smaller proportion of detained immigrants are eligible for bond under INA § 236(a), and an ever-greater proportion are subject to the so-called mandatory detention provisions of INA §§ 235(b), 236(c), or 241(a)(6). Meanwhile, crushing immigration court and especially BIA backlogs mean that detained removal proceedings routinely drag on for years; and various countries use the COVID-19 pandemic as an excuse not to accept their own citizens for removal, leading to extended periods of post-final-order detention. Habeas corpus petitions in federal district court are often the only way out, but the U.S. Supreme Court has shown increasing hostility to arguments that had previously prevailed in various Courts of Appeals. This panel will discuss common factual scenarios and legal arguments behind habeas corpus petitions today, including individuals apprehended at a port of entry and denied parole, individuals denied bond by IJs or ordered to pay unaffordable bond amounts, individuals ineligible for bond hearings due to criminal convictions, individuals in withholding-only proceedings, and individuals with final orders of removal. We will also discuss habeas corpus options for challenging onerous electronic monitoring requirements, habeas corpus petitions on behalf of children in ORR custody, and whether habeas corpus challenges to conditions of confinement remain viable. Finally, the panel will discuss potential strategies, options, and remedies, such as motions to enforce a grant of a writ of habeas corpus, to be used when IJs fail to comply with a federal district court’s habeas order.

Speakers:

• Nadia Anguiano-Wehde, Visiting Assistant Clinical Professor of Law and Director, Federal Immigration Litigation Clinic at the University of Minnesota Law School
• Aaron Korthuis, Staff Attorney, Northwest Immigrant Rights Project (NWIRP)
• Simon Sandoval-Moshenberg, Legal Director, Immigrant Advocacy Program, Legal Aid Justice Center
• Matthew Vogel, Supervising Attorney, National Immigration Project (NIPNLG)

3:30pm - 3:45pm ET: Break

3:45pm - 4:45pm ET: Recent Supreme Court Decisions on Detention
 

(60 minutes of instruction/1.00 CLE Credits)

This panel will cover key recent developments in the immigration detention landscape at the Supreme Court level, including cases such as Rodriguez, Preap, Guzman Chavez, Arteaga, Aleman-Gonzales, Biden v. Texas, and United States v. Texas, as well as cases that are percolating in the lower courts and that are likely to reach the Supreme Court in the coming terms.

Speakers:

• Matthew Adams, Legal Director, Northwest Immigrant Rights Project (NWIRP)
• Carmen Iguina Gonzalez, Counsel, Kaplan Hecker & Fink LLP
• Michael Tan, Deputy Director, Immigrants' Rights Project, American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU)

4:45pm - 5:00pm ET: Closing & Announcement

• CLE sponsored by

  The National Immigration Project of the National Lawyers Guild

• CLE Credits

  The Washington State Bar, the State Bar of Texas, and the State Bar of California have approved this training for 6.75 Continuing Legal Education (CLE) credit hours and 1 CLE Ethics credit or Recognition and Elimination of Bias Credit.

• Group Registration Discounts:  We offer a 10% discount for groups of 5 to 10 and 15% discount for groups of 11 or more. To take advantage of the group registration discount organizations must:

• -Submit a complete list* of registrants (Group Registration Form) to events@nipnlg.org. Link to Group Registration Form - HERE.
• -Pay a singular invoice for reg