Chicago Lawyers Prepare to Provide Free Legal Representation to Immigrants Caught in Trump’s Enforcement Net
CHICAGO, IL – A week after the president signed executive orders closing U.S. borders to refugees and laying the groundwork for mass detention and deportation of immigrants, more than 100 corporate lawyers will come together at a downtown law firm on Thursday to learn the basics of asylum law and prepare to provide free legal representation to asylum seekers and other immigrants in Chicago who may be targeted by the president’s harsh enforcement plans.
Before the training, representatives from host firm Greenberg Traurig LLP, National Immigrant Justice Center (NIJC), and other pro bono immigration attorneys will hold a press conference to discuss the Chicago legal community’s response to the president’s immigration executive actions, and the need to expand access to legal services for immigrants vulnerable to due process violations.
A press conference about the Chicago legal community’s response to Trump’s planned mass immigration enforcement, preceding an immigration law training for 130 volunteer lawyers will be held Thursday, February 2, 2017, 12:15 p.m. at Greenberg Traurig, LLP, 77 West Wacker Drive, Suite 3100, Chicago.
Greg Ostfeld, co-chair, Chicago Litigation Practice, Greenberg Traurig, LLP
Mary Meg McCarthy, executive director, National Immigrant Justice Center
Juan Arguello, NIJC pro bono attorney from Jones Day who recently won asylum for a detained client will attend.
RSVP is requested (but not required) to facilitate access to the building. Please contact Tara Tidwell Cullen at ttidwellcullen@heartlandalliance.org.
With offices in Chicago, Indiana, and Washington, D.C., Heartland Alliance’s National Immigrant Justice Center is a nongovernmental organization dedicated to ensuring human rights protections and access to justice for all immigrants, refugees, and asylum seekers through a unique combination of direct services, policy reform, impact litigation and public education. Visit immigrantjustice.org and follow @NIJC.
