Working through Pandemic

We’re going on our eighth week of working through the COVID19 Pandemic! Like many other organizations and companies, we’ve moved our operations to our respective homes. Despite being physically apart, we are in constant contact with each other and have continued to consult with clients, take new cases, and even conduct hearings with the court.

At the beginning of the month we received a grant of $15,000.00 from the Community Foundation of Greater Memphis to support an increase in need for representation of people in detention. In response to the COVID19 pandemic, we are focusing our efforts on being available and accessible to detainees to try to get people released in short order, given that increasingly detention facilities are becoming breeding grounds for the corona virus. We are conducting screening and consultations for people in detention and are representing people in requests for release, motions for bond, applications for asylum and other types of immigration benefits with the Immigration Court.

All of our detained clients have been housed in detention facilities across Louisiana; they have come from countries across the globe: Mexico, Honduras, Guatemala, El Salvador, Cuba, Cameroon, Ghana, Ivory Coast, Eritrea, Iraq, Sri Lanka, and Russia. Several lived in the United States prior to their detention: two from Memphis, 1 from Hermitage, TN, 1 from Fayetteville, TN 2 from NW Arkansas, 2 from Alabama, 1 from Mississippi, 1 from Minnesota, 1 from Florida. 

We often get calls from people across Arkansas, and Tennessee, and as the only non-profit in Memphis handling detained cases, we are the only resource for people in the Mid-South for representation from detention.

We've also been using this time to take stock of our work, the systems we employ, and the needs of our clients to try and glean wisdom from this chaotic time. Advocates for Immigrant Rights is committed now more than ever to compassionate and energetic advocacy for immigrants across the Mid-South.

Our work feels more relevant than ever as the administration has systematically limited the possibility of immigration in this country, all with very little fanfare. The government signed an agreement with Honduras, one of the most dangerous countries in the world, so that the US can send people seeking asylum in this country to that one instead. The President also issued a proclamation declaring that because of the pandemic, that no one would be able to petition for their family members to seek legal status in this country.

Despite everything that’s going on, we’re chugging through each day, working through out cases, talking to clients, filing motions, and staying healthy.