Legal Aid Clinics by @AZStateBar @abc15 @UnivisionAZ mark Law Day

28 attorneys as well as multiple other volunteers assisted at Legal Clinics on Law Day, held in Arizona on April 29, 2017.

News from my colleague Alberto Rodriguez, Public Information and Community Outreach, at the State Bar of Arizona:

On Saturday, April 29, the State Bar of Arizona held the 2017 Law Day Legal Aid Clinics where 28 volunteer lawyers offered free one-on-one legal consultations from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. at two Valley locations.

Volunteer attorneys provided 214 consultations during five-hour law clinic to the 205 consumers who were seen. Several attorneys offered free follow-up services after the clinic to consumers who needed additional help.

The clinics offered free legal consultations by members who practice family law, bankruptcy/foreclosure, probate/trust law, and immigration law at State Bar of Arizona offices in central Phoenix, and Glendale Community College in the west valley.

For the third year in a row, the Bar partnered with ABC15 and Univision Arizona to promote the day-long clinics, which were overwhelmingly successful.

The State Bar of Arizona expresses its sincerest appreciation to our attorney and logistics volunteers, along with our media and community partners. Thank you!

Here is a list of the attorneys who assisted:

• Taylor Anderson, Anderson and Cabrera Law Group PLLC
• Marysol Angulo, Hernandez Global
• Rebecca E. Browning, Browning Law Office PLLC
• Tabitha Cabrera, Anderson and Cabrera Law Group PLLC
• Craig Cherney, Canterbury Law Group LLP
• Kristen DeWitt-Lopez, DeWitt-Lopez Law PC
• Thomas W. Dorsey, The Law Office of Thomas W. Dorsey PLLC
• Nina J. Edidin, My Az Lawyers
• Pam Florian, Florence Project
• Chris D. Graham, Christopher D. Graham PLLC
• Cody L. Hayes, Hayes Esquire PLLC
• Brant Hodyno, Brant Hodyno, Esq.
• Bernard J. Johnsen, Bernard Justice Johnsen Law PLLC
• Lisa Johnson Stone, Law Offices of Stone and Davis PC
• Jeff Katz, Community Legal Services
• Roman A. Kostenko, Law Office of Roman A. Kostenko PLC
• Richard Lee, Community Legal Services
• Jack L. O’Connor III, Curry, Pearson & Wooten PLC
• Alane M. Ortega, Law Office of Alane M. Ortega PLLC
• Daniel R. Ortega III, The Law Office of Daniel R. Ortega III
• Christopher J. Piekarski, Piekarski & Brelsford PC
• Jim T. Rayburn, Rayburn Law Office
• Javier Sobampo, The Sobampo Law Firm PLLC
• Fae Sowders, Sowders Law
• Shawn L. Stone, Stone Law Group
• Shufan Sung, Sung Law Group
• Darren D. Whiting, Whiting Legal LLC
• Jesi L. Wolnick, Manning & Kass Ellrod Ramirez Trester

A complete list of volunteers can be viewed here.

 

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Corporatization of criminal justice system examined in 4-14 @ASULawSchool event

This Friday, speakers at ASU Law School will offer a seminar titled “Corporatization of the Criminal Justice System.”

According to organizers, the event will include a variety of speakers including scholars, attorneys, and advocates “working on the pressing issue of the role of private prisons in mass incarceration and immigration detention.”

The keynote speaker will be Ben Jealous, former CEO and President of the NAACP.

The event opens at 1:30 p.m. and ends with an 8:45 p.m. reception.

The complete agenda with panel titles is here.

Other organizations involved include Abolish Private Prisons, Changing Hands Bookstore, Osborn Maledon, the American Constitution Society, and the Carolina Academic Press.

Organizers plan to address numerous topics, including the relationship between private prisons and:

• the length and severity of sentences and availability of parole
• mass incarceration’s impact on communities of color

Speakers at the event will examine prisons, parole, immigration detention, bail, and probation.

The complete conference website is here.

The website for the speaker information is here.

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Hundreds helped in @AZStateBar Abogados a Su Lado phone bank on immigration

Attorneys assist at Abogados a Su Lado phone bank, March 1, 2017.

News from my colleague Alberto Rodriguez:

The State Bar of Arizona and Univision Arizona hosted the first Abogados a Su Lado (attorneys on your side) phone bank of the year on Wednesday, March 1, 2017. This access to justice program was held to help the immigrant community understand the impact of the President’s Executive Orders.

The Bar’s role as a partner and organizer of the phone bank was to help the immigrant community connect with licensed attorneys for sound legal advice. The immigrant community is often victimized by notarios and document preparers during high-profile activity associated with immigration law.

The phone bank on immigration law was held on Wednesday, March 1, from 5:00 to 10:30 p.m.

There were nine volunteer attorneys:

• Marisol Angulo, Hernandez Global
• Emilia Banuelos, Banuelos Law Office
• Vanessa Black, Vanessa Black Law Immigration Law Firm
• Joshua De La Ossa, De La Ossa & Ramos
• Seth B. Draper, Salvatierra Law Group
• Judy Flanagan, Judy C. Flanagan, PC
• Ayensa Millan, CIMA Law Group
• Edwin G. Ramos, De La Ossa & Ramos
• Javier Sobampo, Sobampo Law Firm

Volunteer attorneys answered 381 calls regarding immigrant rights and changes in immigration law during the five-and-a-half-hour phone bank.

We thank the attorneys as well as Univision Arizona for its continued partnership in providing this valuable program for the Spanish-speaking community. We also thank the volunteers from Mi Familia Vota who helped with event logistics.

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At @Lewis_Roca event, @FlorenceProject to honor #ProBono legal leaders

Tonight, I’ll be attending a great annual event: the Pro Bono Appreciation and Awards evening hosted by the Florence Immigrant & Refugee Rights Project.

It starts at 5:30, at Lewis Roca Rothgerber Christie LLP in downtown Phoenix. I hope to see you there.

Down below, I list those who will be honored tonight. They truly deserve the thanks of all of us for the work they do.

But before I get to those names: If we needed another example of how important the Project’s work is, a recent story from the New York Times provides it. It’s titled “It’s Children Versus Federal Lawyers in Immigration Court,” and you should read it here.

As the Project’s Executive Director, Lauren Dasse, points out in an email to supporters:

“I’m happy to share that the Florence Project’s work representing children was featured in last Sunday’s New York Times! These days, it seems that the only national news attention to immigration issues revolves around campaign promises. That’s why it was refreshing to hear from a reporter who wanted to write a story about immigrant and refugee children who have no right to government provided legal representation. I gladly shared about the Florence Project’s work, and about how we support efforts to increase representation for all immigrants in detention—men, women, and children.”

Lauren Dasse, Executive Director, The Florence Project

“The article focuses on a 15-year-old boy from El Salvador, whose dramatic story of escaping gang violence is one we hear from hundreds of children that we have helped over recent years. The article gives an overview of what children face in immigration court, if they can’t afford a lawyer, and how even children are expected to represent themselves. The boy was afraid to speak for himself in court, but he met a Florence Project attorney who offered assistance. Thankfully, we are able to represent him and he won’t have to go to court alone again.”

“We are closely following the efforts in federal court to obtain the right to government-provided counsel. In the meantime, we will continue our important work providing know your rights presentations, legal intakes, legal representation, and doing all we can to connect children and adults with lawyers.”

(It’s worth noting that the reporter on the article is Fernanda Santos, who also serves as the Times’ Arizona bureau chief. If her name sounds familiar for another reason, it may be due to her exemplary coverage of the Yarnell Hill Fire that took the lives of 19 firefighters. She later turned her breaking-news coverage into a moving and informative book about those men and the families they left behind. It’s titled The Fire Line: The Story of the Granite Mountain Hotshots and One of the Deadliest Days in American Firefighting, and I recommend it. You can read more about it and her here.)

Here, finally, are the names of the attorneys and firms to be honored tonight (photos down below):

• Law Firm Partner of the Year: Lewis Roca Rothgerber Christie LLP
• Lifetime Achievement Award: Anthony Pelino, Esq., Law Office of Anthony Pelino
• Rookie Pro Bono of the Year: Adam Kaplan, Esq., Honeywell International Inc.
• Adult Program Pro Bono of the Year: Lilia Alvarez, Esq., Alvarez Law PLC
• Children’s Program Pro Bono of the Year: Brian Kim, Esq., Lewis Roca Rothgerber Christie LLP
• Pro Bono All-Star: Sambo Dul, Esq., Perkins Coie LLP

If you can’t attend this evening but you know these folks, be sure to reach out with congratulations and thanks.

Sambo Dul, Perkins Coie LLP

Brian Kim, Lewis Roca Rothgerber Christie LLP

Lilia Alvarez, Alvarez Law PLC

Adam Kaplan, Honeywell International Inc.

Anthony Pelino, Law Office of Anthony Pelino

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Immigration legal advice from @AZStateBar @UnivisionAZ amidst shifting federal rules

In case you were not yet recovered from a terrific Independence Day, I share some remarkable news from my State Bar colleague Alberto Rodriguez about an event that aimed to educate and assist the immigrant community. Thank you to all the Arizona attorneys and others who participated:

The State Bar of Arizona and Univision Arizona hosted a special edition of Abogados a Su Lado (attorneys on your side) public service program on Thursday, June 23, along with a community forum and legal help clinic on Tuesday, June 28. Both access to justice programs were held to help the immigrant community understand the impact of the Supreme Court of the United States’ divided decision regarding President Obama’s immigration executive actions.

State Bar of Arizona Abogados a Su Lado Phone Bank and Community Forum, June 2016

The Bar’s primary role as a partner and organizer of the events was to help the immigrant community understand its role as a consumer protection organization, as well as to connect them with licensed attorneys for sound legal advice regarding the SCOTUS decision. The immigrant community is often victimized by notarios and document preparers during high-profile activity associated with immigration law.

The following are recaps of both programs.

Phone Bank Details

What: Abogados a Su Lado Phone Bank

Date:  Thursday, June 23, 2016

Time: 5 to 7 p.m.

Topic: Immigration Issues – DAPA/DACA

The volunteers were five attorneys:

• Marisol Angulo, Hernandez Global
• Ezequiel Hernandez, Hernandez Global
• Claudia Lopez, Law Office of Claude P. Lopez
• Karina Ordoñez, Karina Ordoñez Law Office
• Jose Peñalosa, Jose Peñalosa Attorney at Law

The volunteer attorneys answered 63 calls regarding the SCOTUS decision and immigration law. This special-edition phone bank was two hours.

Forum and Legal Help Clinic Details

What: Community Forum and Legal Help Clinic

Date: Tuesday, June 28, 2016

Time: 6 to 9 p.m.

Topic: Immigration Issues – DACA/DAPA

The volunteers were 10 attorneys:

• Marisol Angulo, Hernandez Global
• Emilia Bañuelos, Bañuelos Law Office
• Josh De La Ossa, De La Ossa and Ramos Law
• Seth Draper, Salvatierra Law
• Ezequiel Hernandez, Hernandez Global
• Claudia Lopez, Law Office of Claude P. Lopez
• Jose Peñalosa, Jose Peñalosa Attorney at Law
• Edwin Ramos, De La Ossa and Ramos Law
• Fae Sowders, Sowders Law
• Ray Ybarra Maldonado, Law Office of Ray A. Ybarra Maldonado

An estimated 350 consumers attended the three-hour access to justice event and 120 families received one-on-one consultations by volunteer attorneys.

The forum included an overview of the State Bar’s consumer protection services by Alberto Rodriguez; endorsements for the Bar by the Consulate General of Mexico in Phoenix, Mi Familia Vota, and United States Citizenship and Immigration Services; and a presentation covering the SCOTUS decision by attorney Ezequiel Hernandez. The entire access to justice program was offered in Spanish.

All attorney volunteers were extremely satisfied with their participation in these access to justice events. We thank them for committing their time and expertise, which helped the Bar continue connecting consumers with legal professionals.

We thank Univision Arizona for their continued partnership in providing this valuable access to justice program for the Spanish-speaking community, as well as volunteers from Mi Familia Vota who helped with event logistics.

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More than 300 consumers helped at @AZStateBar legal aid clinics for #LawDay

Today, an update about a great Law Day event by my colleague Alberto Rodriguez: (What he does not mention in his recap is the huge amount of important and complicated work he himself put in to have the multi-site event come off flawlessly. Thank you and congratulations, Alberto!)

On Saturday, April 30, the State Bar of Arizona held the 2016 Law Day Legal Aid Clinics where 24 of its members offered free one-on-one legal consultations from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. at two Valley locations.

The clinics offered free legal consultations by members who practice Family Law, Bankruptcy/Foreclosure, Probate/Trust Law, and Immigration Law at State Bar of Arizona offices in central Phoenix, and Glendale Community College in the west valley. Once again, the Bar partnered with ABC15 and Univision Arizona to promote the day-long clinics, which were overwhelmingly successful.

Volunteer attorneys provided 325 consultations during law clinic to the 306 consumers who were seen—a dramatic increase from last year’s 216 consultations. Several attorneys offered free follow-up services after the clinic to consumers who needed additional help.

The State Bar of Arizona expresses its sincerest appreciation to its attorney and logistics volunteers, along with its media and community partners. Thank you!

A complete list of volunteers, along with photos and media coverage, can be viewed here.

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Journalism, policing, immigration to be covered at @spjphx @UNITY_JFD conferences

This week’s journalism conference in Phoenix covers many topics of public interest.

I am pleased to share news of two conferences in Phoenix this week (April 28-30) that may serve your needs—in multiple ways. Aimed primarily at journalists, they will be of interest to anyone attuned to public policy, communications, criminal justice, and immigration.

I am helping to organize one of the journo conferences, with the Society of Professional Journalists, and I urge you to consider attending both of them. Links and agendas to each are below:

The Society of Professional Journalists Western Regional conference is on Friday and Saturday, April 29 (evening reception) and 30 (all day):

• The Friday evening reception will be at Macayo’s. The conference will be at the Heard Museum. And the post-conference mixer on Saturday evening will be at the Clarendon Hotel’s Sky Deck.
• The keynote of Saturday’s offerings will be a one-on-one interview of Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio with Arizona Republic columnist E.J. Montini (for reals).
• The full conference schedule is here.

And the UNITY: Journalists for Diversity conference is on Friday, April 29 (all day) at the ASU Cronkite School in downtown Phoenix:

• The full conference schedule is here.
• A day before the summit, Thursday, April 28, UNITY in partnership with ONE Arizona will hold a free special town hall meeting and panel discussion on immigration. The town hall will take place at Puente Human Rights Movement from 5:00 p.m. to 8:00 p.m. Register here.
• UNITY also will be hosting a free rooftop networking reception at Hotel San Carlos on Friday, April 29, immediately following the Regional Summit from 5:30 to 7:30 p.m. Heavy hors d’oeuvres and refreshments will be served. Register here.

I’m helping organize the SPJ event, and I’ll be attending the UNITY conference Friday too. For a pretty modest outlay of dollars, this looks like some great content. I hope you can attend some or all of this!

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Violence, resilience mark path to migrant survival, @EmilyBashah reports in @psychtoday

Warning sign posted at the international boundary between the United States and Canada in Point Roberts, Washington. (photo via Wikimedia Commons.)

In past months, I’ve been privileged to share recent research on the lives of migrants. The work has been done by Dr. Emily Bashah and her colleagues Louise M. Baca and Karen L. Suyemoto. Focused on “the lived experiences of undocumented immigrants,” the work is compelling, timely, and accessible to non-researchers (not always easy to do!).

(You can read my previous posts here and here.)

Today, I share their third and final publication that has been published in Psychology Today on the narrative qualitative themes.

This essay is titled “Nature of Survival: Emerging themes from migrant journeywomen and implications for social policy.” If you’re in a hurry, jump to the bottom of their post where they detail the implications. As the authors write, “As evidenced by the women’s testimonial themes, more just and humane policies are needed to provide immigrants rights to live and work in the U.S. with legal options and protections.”

Once again, if you have thoughts on how we could cover the legal aspects of immigration in a thoughtful and compelling way, write to me at arizona.attorney@azbar.org.

Border fence separating Mexico and United States.

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Migrant experience of Latinas shared by @EmilyBashah in @psychtoday

Central American migrants in southern Mexico, 2008 (Photo: Peter Haden, Wikimedia Commons).

About a month ago, I was pleased to share some research that examines “the lived experiences of undocumented immigrants.” Written by Dr. Emily Bashah and colleagues, it yielded a view into a topic that is too little addressed—the challenges faced by Latinas in their legal and geographic journey.

I am happy to share a second post with you today, also by Dr. Bashah, who lives and works here in Arizona. It is a follow-up to her previous coverage, and it examines “the immigrant women’s core narrative” in Psychology Today.

You’ll see that what these researchers seek to do is to make visible the migrants’ own stories, which rarely factor into public policy dialogues. Here is how the post opens (citations omitted here):

Dr. Emily Bashah

“Undocumented Latinas who cross the Southwestern border into the United States face a myriad of challenges. Among the risks psychological research has identified: trauma, abuse, violence, xenophobia, acculturative stress …, oppression, and lack of legal protection. With that in mind, we wanted to understand the lived experiences of undocumented Latinas who were detained and deported, with particular focus on the challenges they faced and the resiliency that facilitated their survival. The Kino Border Initiative, an organization that provides humanitarian aid in Nogales, Sonora, Mexico, supplied a randomized sample … of testimonials from deported Latinas living in a women’s shelter within 2010-2011.”

“The following passages are a compilation of major themes generated from the women’s stories. Identifying information has been redacted to protect respondents’ confidentiality, while also maintaining the richness of qualitative testimonials in original narrative form.”

Read the whole post here.

If you have thoughts on how we could cover the legal aspects of immigration in a thoughtful and compelling way, write to me at arizona.attorney@azbar.org.

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Arizona immigrant research by @EmilyBashah featured in @psychtoday

The experience of some immigrants in the Southwest is described in new research.

Last month, I had the pleasure to attend an event commemorating the Florence Immigrant & Refugee Rights Project. (In an upcoming issue of Arizona Attorney Magazine, we hope to cover their 25th anniversary year.) It’s always great to catch up with the staff and lawyers who work hard to ensure fair processes and aim for optimal outcomes for their clients.

Dr. Emily Bashah

While at the gathering hosted by Lewis Roca Rothgerber, I met a researcher who has been studying the “lived experiences of undocumented immigrants.” Dr. Emily Bashah, with her colleagues, has spoken with many of those who have sought a better life through migration.

I learned that she not only does research on important public issues, but she is adept at synopsizing them into readable blog posts.

Today, I invite you to read one of her posts, written by Emily and colleagues Lois M. Baca and Karen L. Suyemoto. It’s titled “Crossing the Line,” and it allows the migrants to describe their own sometimes harrowing experiences.

As the researchers note:

“Although not all undocumented immigrants who cross the Southwest border face coercion, exploitation, or other violations of human rights that constitute human and sex trafficking, the risks are prevalent.”

Among the compelling stories, the blog post also shared the Power and Control Wheel, which is stunning in its stark recitation of the variety of abuses that immigrant women and children may face.

Immigrant power and control wheel. Source: National Center on Domestic and Sexual Violence. (2012).

Dr. Bashah tells me that she also plans to publish another blog that more specifically speaks to the deported Latinas’ lived experiences. I’ll share that when I see it.

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