BxD’s Luis Mancheno speaks with CBS News
“Immigration detention, or caging parents and families is not the solution. The question for Americans is, is it fair to make people fleeing terrible violence choose between death and jail?” Our immigration attorney Luis Mancheno sits down with CBS News to speak about the crisis at the border and why family detention and family separation…
Joint Statement from NYIFUP Legal Providers on ICE’s Refusal to Bring People to Immigration Court for Hearings
***FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE*** JOINT STATEMENT FROM NYIFUP LEGAL PROVIDERS ON ICE’S REFUSAL TO BRING PEOPLE TO IMMIGRATION COURT FOR HEARINGS DENYING IN-PERSON APPEARANCES WILL IMPACT DUE PROCESS, ACCESS TO COUNSEL, AND EXACERBATE SEPARATION FROM FAMILIES AND LOVED ONES Andrea Nieves, Brooklyn Defender Services, 718-483-1312, anieves@bds.org Anna Kim, The Bronx Defenders, 646-504-2977, annakim@bronxdefenders.org Redmond Haskins, The…
The New York Times: New Yorkers Facing Deportation Lose Their (Physical) Day in Court
“The fact that someone is not physically in the courtroom really hinders a lot of the less tangible aspects of our successful representation. A judge is less able to assess a person’s credibility if they are not sitting in the room.” Sarah Deri Oshiro, Managing Director of our Immigration Practice illustrates the harmful repercussions of ICE’s refusal…
HuffPost: Addiction Should Not Be Punishable By Deportation
“Samuel is the father of four US-born children whose favorite place for family outings was Applebee’s. He was also a green card-holder who was facing deportation. He had come to the United States in his teens fleeing from gang violence and a life marked by severe neglect, parental abandonment, and chronic community violence. After a…
The Appeal: Locked Up for Three Decades Without a Trial
Jenny Semmel, Supervising Mental Health Attorney in our Criminal Defense Practice speaks with The Appeal about how people with mental illness can spend years trapped in the justice system because they have been found “unfit for trial” and must undergo a competency evaluation to be deemed “competent” for trial. New York’s Article 730 directly links the amount…
Documented: The ICE Ruse: How Agents Impersonate Local Law Enforcement and Lie to Make Arrests
ICE employs an arsenal of ruses to trap immigrants every day, which often includes pretending to be local law enforcement. Our clients have shared stories of ICE officers yelling “police” as they knock on their doors, lying that family members may have been victims of a crime, or even pretending to be looking for someone…
CBS News: Sessions announces stricter asylum rules for victims of domestic battery, gang violence
In response to Attorney General Jeff Sessions’ announcement of a policy to tighten restrictions on people seeking asylum from domestic battery and gang violence, our immigration attorney Luis Mancheno notes that the reach of this unilateral and unchecked decision cannot be understated. “In his decision today, the Attorney General has singularly precluded victims of horrific forms of violence…
CBS News: Seeking asylum: An immigrant’s journey to America
“Seeking asylum is not a privilege, it’s a right. Every single human being in the world has that right. People think it’s a gift. It’s not. It’s an obligation.” In a powerful documentary by CBS News, our immigration attorney Luis Mancheno sheds light on the arduous process he and other asylum seekers have faced in…
Human Rights Watch: New York City: Don’t Exclude Certain Immigrants from Legal Services
A carveout under NYC’s administration excludes immigrants with certain criminal convictions from receiving city-funded immigrant legal services, including representation in deportation proceedings. As a public defender office and provider of universal defense for immigrants in removal proceedings, we are guided by a fundamental belief in due process and liberty not for some, but for all….
City & State: Criminal justice reform would protect immigrants from deportation
In order to truly protect immigrant New Yorkers from ICE and keep our families and communities whole, we must recognize how deeply intertwined all of the various justice systems are. Justine Olderman, Executive Director of The Bronx Defenders along with Tina Luongo, Attorney-in-charge of the Criminal Practice at The Legal Aid Society and Lisa Schreibersdorf,…
BxD’s Lauren Migliaccio speaks with Telemundo
Lauren Migliaccio, attorney in our Immigration Practice, sits down with Telemundo to shed light on ICE’s use of call-in letters as a way to trap immigrants and how this practice has devastating repercussions for our clients and their families. Watch the interview here.
The Intercept: ICE Evades Sanctuary Rules by Using NYPD Fingerprints to Find Immigrants and Send Them Call-in Letters
Sarah Deri Oshiro, Managing Director of the Immigration Practice, and immigration attorney Lauren Migliaccio speak with The Intercept on ICE’s recent adoption of call-in letters as a way to trap immigrants. We have witnessed firsthand how ICE is further exploiting the deep fear felt in immigrant communities by sending letters to people after they have…
BxD’s Justine Olderman Interview with BronxNet TV’s “Today’s Verdict”
“What we’re trying to do is redefine public defense and in doing so, transform the way that people are treated in our justice system…we go wherever the client goes and we defend that client by whatever means necessary.” Justine Olderman, Executive Director of The Bronx Defenders sits down with BronxNet Community Television’s “Today’s Verdict” with…
BxD’s Sarah Deri Oshiro speaks with NY1 Noticias’ Pura Política
Sarah Deri Oshiro, managing director of our Immigration Practice speaks with NY1 Noticias about the urgent need for ICE to stop targeting New Yorkers who are seeking due process and for the New York State court system to prohibit ICE from entering our courthouses. Watch the interview here.
The Bronx Defenders and Legal Aid Issue a Joint Statement on Bronx ICE Courthouse Arrest
***FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE*** BRONX DEFENDERS, LEGAL AID JOINT STATEMENT ON BRONX ICE COURTHOUSE ARREST BRONX, NY –The Bronx Defenders and The Legal Aid Society issued the following joint statement this afternoon after Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) arrested a Legal Aid Society client outside of Bronx Criminal Court which prompted the subsequent walkout and protest…
The Bronx Defenders Responds to White House Immigration Proposal
On January 25, the White House released its Framework on Immigration Reform & Border Security. The Bronx Defenders’ Managing Director of Immigration, Sarah Deri Oshiro, responded with the following statement: “The immigration proposal put forth by the Administration offers questionable relief for Dreamers in return for draconian policies that will harm immigrant communities. Problematic aspects of…
HuffPost: Our Government’s Latest Betrayal
“The end of DACA and TPS violates the trust that about one million people placed in our Government and principles of fundamental fairness. TPS and DACA holders have lived, many of them with legal authorization, in our country for decades, some of them since they were months old. They have opened businesses, paid taxes, formed…
The Place Where One Was Born Cannot Determine Our Access to Courts
Powerful HuffPost op-ed by Luis Mancheno, an immigration defense attorney at The Bronx Defenders about ICE’s intrusive presence in the courts depriving people access to due process: “ICE needs to be stopped and it needs to be stopped today…It is imperative that Chief Judge Janet DiFiore takes all the necessary steps to stop federal immigration…
New York Law Journal: Legal Groups Ask Courts to Issue Rules to Curb ICE Arrests in Courts
The Bronx Defenders joins New York City’s public defense organizations in calling on the Office of Court Administration and Chief Judge Janet DiFiore to issue rules that would limit federal immigration enforcement’s ability to arrest our clients in or around courthouses. Read the story here.
BxD’s Luis Mancheno speaks with NY1 Noticias’ Pura Política
Luis Mancheno, an immigration defense attorney at The Bronx Defenders speaks with NY1 Noticias’ Pura Política about the harmful impacts of ending Temporary Protected Status for Nicaraguans and Hondurans as well as the Diversity Visa Lottery. To watch the interview, click here.
The Bronx Defenders Condemns Trump’s Cruel and Shameful Decision to End DACA
New York – In response to the Trump Administration’s decision to end the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program, The Bronx Defenders issued the following statement: “The Bronx Defenders stands in solidarity with our immigrant clients, their families, and communities and condemns in the strongest terms the Trump administration’s decision to end DACA. This…
What Will Trump Do with Half a Million Backlogged Immigration Cases?
New Yorker writer Jonathan Blitzer visited BxD to speak with our client Christian Yarleque about his experience in immigration detention. Mr. Yarleque, a long-time New York resident with a green card, spent over a year and a half in ICE custody before being reunited with his wife and children. His story highlights the human cost…
Haitian Asylum Seeker Freed in Landmark Bond Case
“The court has rightly recognized that low-income people should not be held in immigration detention with no end in sight while their case is pending, simply because they cannot afford to pay an immigration bond. By ruling that ability to pay must be taken into consideration when determining a bond amount, the court is ensuring…
Immigrants in Detention Centers Are Often Hundreds of Miles From Legal Help
In this investigation, ProPublica demonstrates the benefits and importance of having access to free legal representation during deportation proceedings. As our client Romniel shared with the reporter, being picked up by ICE “was like a nightmare.” He continued, “It’s very important to have a lawyer to defend yourself, because I didn’t know anything about immigration…
Mayor de Blasio blasted for proposal denying free legal help to immigrants with certain convictions
“Under Mayor de Blasio’s proposal someone like me would not deserve free immigration representation. I believe this is cruel and unfair. No one should be judged by a single mistake. Life is hard in the city and even the best people make mistakes. New York City is my home. It is where my children were…