Immigration Today!

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 c...

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...

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 d...

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 ...

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 co...

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 ab...

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 Immigrat...

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 s...

On the 31st episode of Immigration Today! Angeline Chen interviews Carmen McDonald. Carmen McDonald is the new Executive Director for Los Angeles Center for Law and Justice (LACLJ) as of March 2023. LACLJ was founded in 1973 and has provided legal advocacy to low-income and primarily immigrant and Latino populations in Los Angeles for over 40 years. Their goal is to secure justice for survivors of domestic violence and sexual assault and empower them to create their own futures. Carmen was pr...

On the 30th episode of Immigration Today! Angeline Chen interviews Keya Koul. Keya Koul is Business & Legal Affairs Counsel at Netflix. She serves as one of the co-leads of the Pro Bono Committee in the LA office and has been with Netflix for nearly four years. Keya currently holds an American Bar Association (ABA) Presidential Appointment to the Commission on Sexual Orientation and Gender Identity (SOGI). Prior to working at Netflix, Keya served as the Director of Career Services at Univ...