This week Matthew and I get together to check in on the status of her Majesty and to discuss developments in our immigration practices. DACA, removal proceedings, our relationships with ICE and more.

I quibbled and squabbled over scrabble and tribbles.

This week we're happy to be joined by Sonia Lenegan, an immigration advocate and solicitor in the U.K. Sonia works as a legal and policy director at a charity helping asylum seekers. 

We wanted to see which country has the worse immigration system, and while it was a close call we ultimately gave our guest the "win." 

This week on Redirect: Immigration Law and Perspectives we're joined by Dr. Reece Jones, author of Nobody is Protected: How the Border Patrol Became the Most Dangerous Police Force in the United States. 

Dr. Jones is a Professor and Chair of the Department of Geography and Enviroment at University of Hawai‘i at Manoa. His new book about the border patrol is a must read for immigration activists and anyone trying to understand how and why we ended up in this place. 

This week we're joined by Austin Kocher to talk abou the growing surveillance aparatus being used by ICE. 

Austin Kocher is an Assistant Professor at @TRACReports @SyracuseU, Graduate of @OSUGeography and friend of the show.

This week we're joined by Sarah Pitney, fellow immigration attorney extraordinaire, to discuss the intersection of LGBTQ issues and immigration. This was a great conversation and I learned a lot. 

Sarah Pitney is a Senior Attorney at Benach Collopy LLP. Sarah joined Benach Collopy after serving as an immigration attorney for two years Miami, Florida. They have represented clients in various proceedings on both the detained and non-detained dockets before the Immigration Courts. In addition to their experience in deportation defense, Sarah has also represented clients in family-based petitions, adjustment of status, waivers, asylum, and naturalization cases before United States Citizenship and Immigration Services.

This week Matthew and I discuss the administration's efforts to speed up the asylum application process. For a system as broken as this one, these changes amount to window dressing. But it is at least a step in the right direction? 

TRAC has some interesting data here: https://trac.syr.edu/whatsnew/email.220217.html…

https://reuters.com/world/us/private-prison-company-test-us-house-arrest-program-immigrants-2022-02-16/…

This week Matthew and I work our way through a couple of recent immigration stories. The owner of a marijuana dispensary has her naturalization application denied for a lack of "good moral character," an attorney tweeting about MPP hearings is asked to take down her tweets, and more. 

This week Matthew and I try to play catch up. It's been just over a year with the Biden administration, and with a few exceptions things remain . . . pretty terrible? The administration continues to defend some of the worst Trump policies in court, while the agencies remain deeply scarred from the previous four years. 

We're going to be taking a little break from the podcast. A recent cancer diagnosis in the family has me stretched for time, and frankly not in the right headspace for "entertaining." Hopefully it's a short break, but we'll see. 

Thank you so much for all the kind words of support from over the years. It's been a real pleasure to get to know some of you and to hear how the podcast has influenced you in your thinking when it comes to immigrants. 

Let's talk again soon under better circumstances.