Immigration Today!

On the 41st episode of Immigration Today!, Angeline Chen welcomes Antonio Arellano. Antonio Arellano is the VP of Communications at NextGen America, the nation’s largest youth voting organization which mobilizes millions of young voters every year. He is also a 1st generation immigrant and a former DACA recipient. He has been organizing communities of color in Texas for over a decade. Antonio has worked at some of the most notable newsrooms in America. While at the Houston Chronicle, Antonio advanced digital coverage of a variety of issues impacting one of the most diverse markets in the nation. In 2016, Antonio was offered the opportunity to join ABC News as a social media contributor, where he was instrumental in developing an innovative approach to news dissemination using social media to engage and educate a younger audience. In September 2018, Antonio joined Jolt Initiative, the largest Latino civic engagement organization in Texas, and served as Communications Director. Today, Antonio serves as the Vice President of Communications at NextGen America where he oversees the implementation of a national strategy to increase the progressive power of young Americans and advances economic equity, racial and climate justice as well as efforts to safeguard our democracy. In 2022, Antonio helped NextGen America secure the second-largest youth voter turnout in history. Antonio represents a new era of bold and fearless leadership, emerging from a social climate that is actively demanding fresh perspectives on key issues. His innovative use of digital media and narrative shift work has quickly catapulted Antonio into one of the leading progressive voices in the United States. His work has been mentioned in Time Magazine, MSNBC, The New York Times, The Guardian, The Atlantic, Telemundo, and Univision, among others.

With the upcoming election only a week away, Antonio encourages every single young voter to come out to the polls. In this election, nearly 1/3 of the 36 million Latinos eligible to vote, are between the ages of 18 to 29. So exercising the vote is not just important for the individual, but also important because it plays a huge impact on the policies that affect low income and disenfranchised communities which are often immigrant communities. Voting plays a huge factor in securing protections for DACA individuals who are still battling an uncertain future, it plays a factor in access to reproductive health for migrant communities and much more. Young voters have the power to determine the future of America in this election!

You can follow Antonio’s work via their website, Instagram, Linked in and Twitter. Immigration Today! is always releasing new content.  Please subscribe to our immigration newsletter to stay up to date with any new episodes. 

DISCLAIMER – This podcast is intended for general informational purposes only and does not constitute legal advice or a solicitation to provide legal services. The information in this podcast is not intended to create, and receipt of it does not constitute, a lawyer-client relationship. Listeners should not act upon this information without seeking professional legal counsel. The views and opinions expressed in the podcast represent those of the individual speaker only and are not necessarily the views of Clark Hill PLC.

On the 40th episode of Immigration Today!, Angeline Chen welcomes Dr. Jason De Leon. Dr. Jason De León is a professor of Anthropology and Chicana/o Studies and director of the Cotsen Institute of Archaeology at the University of California, Los Angeles. He is also the Executive Director of the Undocumented Migration Project, a 501(c)(3) research, arts, and education collective that seeks to raise awareness about migration issues globally while also assisting families of missing migrants to reunite with their loved ones. Since 2009, the UMP has been studying clandestine migration between Latin America and the United States using a combination of ethnographic, visual, archaeological, and forensic approaches to understand this violent social process. Dr. De León has published numerous academic articles and his work with the UMP has been featured in a variety of popular media outlets. He is a 2017 MacArthur Foundation Fellow and author of the award-winning book The Land of Open Graves: Living and Dying on the Migrant Trail. Dr. De Leon’s latest work is a new book titled Soldiers and Kings: Survival and Hope in the World of Human Smuggling, which is an in-depth look at the daily lives of smugglers moving migrants across the length of Mexico. 

In this interview, Angeline Chen deep dives into De Leon’s work. For much of his career, Dr. De Leon had focused on the archeological fieldwork of countries like Mexico. He would often work in communities that had high migration rates which eventually led him to grow an interest in the journeys people take to their destination while immigrating. He realized that human migration left an archeological footprint worth discovering. His first book, Land of Open Graves was a combination of archaeology, forensic science, and ethnographic works meant to shed light on the experiences of border crossers. Eventually, his involvement with immigration issues led him to take an interest in the stories of smugglers. Soldiers and Kings was a 7-year-long project that led him from Guatemala to Mexico and back to follow the stories of smugglers and learn about the way organized crime, drug cartels, and transnational gangs have shaped the migration process. Dr. De Leon gives us a new perspective: Are smugglers all “bad”? 

You can follow Dr. Jason De Leon's work via their website, Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram. Purchase your copy of Soldiers and Kings from your favorite retailer today! Please consider making a tax-deductible donation to the Undocumented Migration Project via this link.

Immigration Today! is always releasing new content.  Please subscribe to our immigration newsletter

DISCLAIMER – This podcast is intended for general informational purposes only and does not constitute legal advice or a solicitation to provide legal services. The information in this podcast is not intended to create, and receipt of it does not constitute, a lawyer-client relationship. Listeners should not act upon this information without seeking professional legal counsel. The views and opinions expressed in the podcast represent those of the individual speaker only and are not necessarily the views of Clark Hill PLC.

On the 39th  episode of Immigration Today! Angeline Chen welcomes Megan Thomas,  president & CEO of Catalyst of San Diego & Imperial Counties.  Megan has a passion for helping people and she joined Catalyst because it sits at the intersection of philanthropy and social good. Catalyst is a network of a couple hundred funders and grant makers with a mission to help educate, lead and invest in environmental issues, food security, border issues and more, to promote social change. One of Catalyst's focuses is in border work as the community they serve in San Diego and Imperial County has a strong border identity. They work with many grassroots organizations who are the first point of contact for many immigrants entering the United States or who reside in Tijuana. There has been attention to border issues on the philanthropy side during Trump’s family separations and the current arrival of asylum seekers. Catalyst continues to do great work and hopes to continue building an equitable, impactful, and effective social change ecosystem.

As CEO, Megan provides strategic leadership and partnership to the entire Catalyst staff, board, members, and community partners. She oversees Catalyst’s facilitation of collaborative efforts among its funder members and other stakeholders; leads the production of philanthropy and impact investing skills-building and issue based learning; and spearheads Catalyst’s work related to championing equity and opportunity. She strengthens Imperial and San Diego County communities through shared learning and pooled and aligned funding strategies, and initiatives fiscally sponsored by Catalyst. 

You can follow Catalyst via their website, Facebook, Twitter/X and YouTube. If you want to become a member, sign up here or consider donating. Immigration Today! is always releasing new content.  Please subscribe to our immigration newsletter to stay up to date with any new episodes.

DISCLAIMER – This podcast is intended for general informational purposes only and does not constitute legal advice or a solicitation to provide legal services. The information in this podcast is not intended to create, and receipt of it does not constitute, a lawyer-client relationship. Listeners should not act upon this information without seeking professional legal counsel. The views and opinions expressed in the podcast represent those of the individual speaker only and are not necessarily the views of Clark Hill PLC.

On the 38th episode of Immigration Today! Angeline Chen welcomes Celia Valdez and Nora Phillips.

Celia Valdez has been working in health outreach for over 25 years. As the Outreach and Education Director with Maternal and Child Health Access (MCHA), she has worked diligently with local and state government groups ranging from community-based organizations to government agencies to improve access to free and low-cost health insurance programs. She has advocated on behalf of hundreds of clients, provided testimony on their behalf before government boards, and has made numerous health policy recommendations at state and local levels.  MCHA (MCHA) improves the health of low-income women and families through advocacy, education, training, and direct services.

Nora Phillips is the founder of the Law Office of Nora E. Phillips, APC, in Boyle Heights, Los Angeles. She has been practicing immigration law since 2007, with a focus on immigration remedies for survivors of violence, disabled immigrants, and individuals who have been deported from the U.S. She co-founded Al Otro Lado (AOL), a binational legal services organization, in 2011. While at AOL, she ran the Deportee Program the Healthcare-Legal Partnership while co-supervising the Case Management Program for holistic client advocacy. Prior to that, Nora co-founded Phillips & Urias, LLP, a community immigration law firm in East Los Angeles. Prior to Phillips & Urias, LLP, Nora was a Staff Attorney at the Central American Resource Center (CARECEN) in Los Angeles. 

Celia became passionate about public benefits while in college when she heard a presentation about prenatal healthcare access for immigrant women. She found a job opening at MCHA and has been there for 27 years since! On the other hand, Nora moved to New York in her early 20’s and started becoming involved in civil rights work involving Muslim populations after the 911 attacks. Eventually Nora landed in Chicago and went to law school and has been doing immigration work since. Celia and Nora work together as they both sit at the intersection of public benefits and immigration work. Whether its sending VAWA approved or U Visa approved cases to access public service benefits at MCHA or Celia sending over immigrant populations to seek legal services back to Nora, they both share a passion in making sure everyone is educated about the resources they can access so that no one falls through the cracks.

MCHA has training available for people that want to know the in and outs of public benefits in LA county. You can access those trainings here. They are always in need of donations. Please consider donating via this link. Follow them on Instagram and Facebook to keep up with their work!

Immigration Today! is always releasing new content.  Please subscribe to our immigration newsletter to stay up to date with any new episodes.

DISCLAIMER – This podcast is intended for general informational purposes only and does not constitute legal advice or a solicitation to provide legal services. The information in this podcast is not intended to create, and receipt of it does not constitute, a lawyer-client relationship. Listeners should not act upon this information without seeking professional legal counsel. The views and opinions expressed in the podcast represent those of the individual speaker only and are not necessarily the views of Clark Hill PLC.

On the 37th  episode of Immigration Today! Angeline Chen welcomes Efrén C. Olivares, Director of Strategic Litigation at The Southern Poverty Law Center.  Olivares is a civil rights lawyer who has represented clients before federal courts and international human rights bodies for over a decade. His work focuses on ending immigrant detention and providing pro bono legal representation to detained immigrants at immigration detention centers in the deep South. Efrén and his team also defend workers’ rights, ensure local policing is not entangled with immigration enforcement, seek family reunification, and protect the rights of asylum seekers. In this interview, Efrén tells us about his upbringing and how that influenced the work he does today as an immigration attorney and fearless advocate for civil rights.   

Author of My Boy Will Die of Sorrow: A Memoir of Immigration from the Front Lines, which was published in 2022, Efrén recounts his own immigration journey as young teenager arriving in the U.S. His work has been featured in The New York Times, USA Today, Newsweek, CBS, The Wall Street Journal, NPR, CNN and many other outlets. Efrén's grandfather was born in the U.S. to farmworker parents who would travel in between Mexico and Texas for work which eventually lead to his family establishing roots in Texas when he moved to the U.S at the age of 13. In his book he recounts what life was like assimilating into the U.S. and how his own experiences allowed him to see immigration work through a personal lens.

You can keep up with Efrén on Twitter/X @efrencolivares and on IG @e.olivares.a. Purchase his book via Amazon , Barnes and Noble, Target or any other outlet found on his website. Consider donating to the amazing work done at The Southern Poverty Law Center here. Follow them on Facebook, Twitter/X, and Instagram as well.

Immigration Today! is always releasing new content.  Please subscribe to our immigration newsletter to stay up to date with any new episodes. 

DISCLAIMER – This podcast is intended for general informational purposes only and does not constitute legal advice or a solicitation to provide legal services. The information in this podcast is not intended to create, and receipt of it does not constitute, a lawyer-client relationship. Listeners should not act upon this information without seeking professional legal counsel. The views and opinions expressed in the podcast represent those of the individual speaker only and are not necessarily the views of Clark Hill PLC.

On the 36th episode of Immigration Today! Angeline Chen welcomes Faisal Al-Juburi. Faisal is a strategic partnerships specialist with more than a decade of experience in the nonprofit sector. He currently serves as the Chief External Affairs Officer for RAICES, a 501(c)(3) nonprofit agency founded in 1986, and the largest immigration legal services provider in Texas.

Faisal is the son of Iraqi immigrant parents. He was born in Cincinnati and grew up in Little Rock and D.C. His parents taught him about the power of servicing others from a young age and Faisal has carried these values with him through his work in philanthropy. Throughout his work with RAICES, he has seen the non-profit grow and take on a leadership position in the immigration rights movement. Their work in 2018 during Trump’s Zero Tolerance policy, which resulted in the separation of hundreds of families, was pivotal in their growth and all of the work they continue to do today.

With legal and social services, paired alongside litigation and advocacy for systems change, RAICES is operating on the national frontlines of the fight for the rights of immigrants, refugees, and asylum seekers.

You can keep up with RAICES Texas on their website, Instagram and Facebook. You can also make a donation here and volunteer here. Follow Faisal on Linked-in. Immigration Today! is always releasing new content.  Please subscribe to our immigration newsletter to stay up to date with any new episodes.

DISCLAIMER – This podcast is intended for general informational purposes only and does not constitute legal advice or a solicitation to provide legal services. The information in this podcast is not intended to create, and receipt of it does not constitute, a lawyer-client relationship. Listeners should not act upon this information without seeking professional legal counsel. The views and opinions expressed in the podcast represent those of the individual speaker only and are not necessarily the views of Clark Hill PLC.

On the 35th episode of Immigration Today!, Angeline Chen welcomes Eliza Brennan,  Senior Program Officer for Education and Migration at International Community Foundation (ICF). ICF is the nonprofit foundation of choice for U.S. donors who are passionate about protecting the environment and improving the quality of life in Baja California, Latin America, and the Caribbean. 

Eliza has been passionate about international work from a young age as her parents always fostered a life of community work. She has been involved in community driven work for many years, from her time spent at Georgetown University, to her time spent in Nicaragua. ICF’s historical main focus prior has been environment and conservation work.  Eliza leads ICF’s nearly $3M education portfolio with the goal of expanding educational opportunities for vulnerable children in Latin America to succeed in school, careers and life. Since 2018, Eliza has steered ICF’s programmatic work related to immigrants, refugees, and deportees in the San Diego-Tijuana Border. She also oversees ICF’s growing portfolio of grants in Central America. She has 30 years of experience living and working in Latin America, and academic experiences in China and South Africa.

Around the time Eliza joined ICF, the foundation began to become involved in immigration work after a major influx of Haitians started arriving to the U.S.-Mexican border in 2016. ICF eventually launched a Border Fund which has helped provide food, shelter, basic preventative healthcare and legal services for many at the border. They are heavily involved with border work now and partner with amazing orgs such as the Immigrant Defenders Law Center, This is About Humanity and many others. With ICF’s in-depth knowledge of the issues and long-standing relationships with local nonprofit organizations and community leaders, they help donors connect with the regions and causes they care about. From one-time tax-deductible donations to ongoing grants, ICF offers a variety of international grantmaking tools and advisory services to help orgs achieve their philanthropic goals.

You can learn more about ICF via their website. If you are a donor that is interested in getting connected with ICF, you can contact Eliza here or you can make a direct donation to one of the issues you care about here. If you are interested in donating to ICF’s Border Fund please click here. Immigration Today! is always releasing new content.  Please subscribe to our immigration newsletter to stay up to date with any new episodes. 

DISCLAIMER – This podcast is intended for general informational purposes only and does not constitute legal advice or a solicitation to provide legal services. The information in this podcast is not intended to create, and receipt of it does not constitute, a lawyer-client relationship. Listeners should not act upon this information without seeking professional legal counsel. The views and opinions expressed in the podcast represent those of the individual speaker only and are not necessarily the views of Clark Hill PLC.

Buses transporting asylum seekers have been arriving to Los Angeles for months. Non-profit organizations such as CHIRLA, ImmDef, CARECEN, Haitian Bridge Alliance among many others have quickly reacted and are attending to this emergency.

On episode 34 of Immigration Today! Angeline Chen interviews Angelica Salas, the ED of The Coalition for Humane Immigrant Rights (CHIRLA) who gives us more details on this subject.

Angelica Salas joined us on Immigration Today! in early 2021 where she spoke about her work with CHIRLA, which continues to react to the needs of migrants across our nation including the asylum seekers being dropped off to cities across America. Angelica explains that in order for us to understand this issue, we must look at the context of asylum law in general. Asylum has always been a legal right to pursue but it has been facing attacks since the Trump administration in 2016. Policies such as Title 42 and Remain in Mexico have made it extremely difficult for asylum seekers to practice their right to seek asylum in the U.S. After Biden was elected, not much changed and asylum seekers remained unable to present their case in front of a judge.

Now that Title 42 has been lifted, there is an opportunity for people to seek asylum but a reasonable and humane process has not been created to help with the process.  States like Texas and Florida have been busing migrants to Los Angeles and other areas.  CHIRLA and other organizations have partnered with the city of Los Angeles and picked up the task of receiving these migrants with the level of humanity that they need. They provide basic care such as food, shelter, medical exams, clothes, transportation, legal representation and much more. You can stay connected with the work CHIRLA does via their website. Please consider making a donation here.

Immigration Today! is always releasing new content.  Please subscribe to our immigration newsletter to stay up to date with any new episodes. 

DISCLAIMER – This podcast is intended for general informational purposes only and does not constitute legal advice or a solicitation to provide legal services. The information in this podcast is not intended to create, and receipt of it does not constitute, a lawyer-client relationship. Listeners should not act upon this information without seeking professional legal counsel. The views and opinions expressed in the podcast represent those of the individual speaker only and are not necessarily the views of Clark Hill PLC.

On the 33rd episode of Immigration Today! Angeline Chen interviews Professor Bill Ong Hing. Bill Ong Hing is Professor of Law and Migration Studies at the University of San Francisco, and Professor of Law and Asian American Studies Emeritus, at UC Davis. Previously on the law faculties at Stanford University and Golden Gate University, he founded the Immigrant Legal Resource Center in San Francisco and directs their Immigration & Deportation Defense Clinic. Professor Hing teaches Immigration Law & Policy, Migration Studies, Rebellious Lawyering, and Evidence. He is the author of 6 books and was co-counsel in the US Supreme Court asylum precedent-setting case INS v. Cardoza-Fonseca (1987). Throughout his career, Professor Bill Ong Hing pursued social justice through a combination of community work, litigation, and scholarship. Most recently, he has published his book Humanizing Immigration which argues that immigrant and refugee rights are part of the fight for racial justice and offers a humanitarian approach to reform and abolition.

Professor Hing was passionate about teaching from the moment he stepped foot into law school. He spent his first five years as an attorney representing Spanish speaking and Chinese clients in their deportation needs and visa work. He would also offer evening teaching classes at University of San Francisco and eventually began teaching full time at different campuses. In all if his teaching positions, he remains heavily involved with legal clinic work. Professor Bill Hing has over 50 years of experience in the immigration world and is a strong believer that the conversation around immigration needs to be revisited through a more humanitarian lens. In his most recent book, he offers criticism about the immigration court system and the judges that make decisions in cases, cites to examples of racial injustices in immigration law and ultimately advocates for major reform to the broken immigration system in this country.

Humanizing Immigration was just released on October 24th! You can purchase a copy on Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Target, Walmart and many other outlets.  You can connect with Professor Bill Hing via the University of San Francisco website here.

Immigration Today! is always releasing new content.  Please subscribe to our immigration newsletter to stay up to date with any new episodes.

DISCLAIMER – This podcast is intended for general informational purposes only and does not constitute legal advice or a solicitation to provide legal services. The information in this podcast is not intended to create, and receipt of it does not constitute, a lawyer-client relationship. Listeners should not act upon this information without seeking professional legal counsel. The views and opinions expressed in the podcast represent those of the individual speaker only and are not necessarily the views of Clark Hill PLC.

On the 32nd episode of Immigration Today! Angeline Chen interviews Patrice Lawrence from the UndocuBlack Network.  Black immigrants are often prone to higher rates of detention and deportation, have less access to legal representation, and are likely to be forgotten in the narrative of immigration in general. When entire communities are invisible in these narratives, they are also left out of conversations surrounding the protection and advocacy of their human rights. Listen as Patrice shares her immigration journey into the U.S., how she survived without status, and the work that UndocuBlack Network is doing to ensure that black immigration issues become an important part of the larger immigration narrative.

Patrice Lawrence (she/her) is the Executive Director of the UndocuBlack Network (UBN) and a member of the community it serves - currently and formerly undocumented Black immigrants who are transforming their realities and making their demands known on a local, state, and national level. Originally from Jamaica, Patrice is a graduate of Hollins University. In 2023, she was named by the Washingtonian as one of the top 500 influencers in Washington, D.C. Over the past seven years since the co-creation of UndocuBlack Network, Lawrence’s expertise in legislative matters has been instrumental in securing the largest form of legislative relief in over two decades when she worked with members of Congress on both sides of the aisle to secure immigration relief for Liberians in 2019. Patrice is a fierce advocate for the liberation of all peoples and towards that vision has been a leader in building unity across racial and ethnic communities. Patrice has penned op-eds for CNN, Black Star News, and NewsOne.

As a newly founded network, the UndocuBlack Network relies on the generosity from people like you. Please make a donation here to support their work! Follow UndocuBlack Network on Instagram, Facebook, Twitter and TikTok.

Immigration Today! is always releasing new content.  Please subscribe to our immigration newsletter to stay up to date with any new episodes.

DISCLAIMER – This podcast is intended for general informational purposes only and does not constitute legal advice or a solicitation to provide legal services. The information in this podcast is not intended to create, and receipt of it does not constitute, a lawyer-client relationship. Listeners should not act upon this information without seeking professional legal counsel. The views and opinions expressed in the podcast represent those of the individual speaker only and are not necessarily the views of Clark Hill PLC.