RMIAN Executive Director, Mekela Goehring, and Children’s Program Managing Attorney, Ashley Harrington, will be presenting at the Iliff School of Theology to share about actions community members can take today to advocate for our neighbors. Wednesday, April 29, at 12:00 via Zoom. Register here.

RMIAN has an immediate opening for a full-time Staff or Senior Staff Attorney who will work within RMIAN’s Advocacy & Litigation Program and will be supervised by RMIAN’s Director of Advocacy & Litigation. RMIAN seeks a litigator experienced in immigration and constitutional law as well as detention issues. Based on current needs, the attorney will primarily challenge unlawful detention through filing petitions for writ of habeas corpus in federal district court and subsequent appeals. The attorney will also support RMIAN’s other areas of federal court litigation.

RMIAN has an immediate opening for a full-time Staff Attorney in our Detention Program to provide legal information for clients detained at the Aurora Contract Detention Facility. This position is meant for an attorney dedicated to equal justice for all – someone who has experience in immigration law, particularly removal defense (and preferably in a detained setting).

RMIAN has an immediate opening for a Staff Attorney to represent and provide legal information for noncitizens who are detained by ICE at the Denver Contract Immigration Detention Facility in Aurora. The successful candidate is an attorney able to manage a robust caseload independently and demonstrates a keen understanding of immigration law and legal strategy. The Staff Attorney will provide direct representation to noncitizens as well as legal information and consultation to unrepresented noncitizens detained at the Aurora facility.

RMIAN’s Executive Director, Mekela Goehring, and Director of Advocacy & Litigation, Laura Lunn, discuss immigration detention with RMIAN founding Board Member Hiroshi Motomura on his podcast “Unsettled: Immigration in Turbulent Times.” Have a listen to this insightful conversation on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, Castbox or Zolberg Podcasts.

Habeas Training by RMIAN and Colorado Bar Association

On April 28, 2026, RMIAN and the CBA-CLE are providing a half-day training on the nuts and bolts of representing clients in habeas petitions. A group of experts will walk you through the ins and outs of filing habeas petitions, answer burning questions, and offer robust materials that will ease the burden of learning how to file and present habeas petitions in the District Court for the District of Colorado with a litigation goal focused on securing clients’ freedom from detention. The event is free for anyone committing to take on a pro bono case in the next two years and the program has been submitted for four General CLE Credits.

The Rocky Mountain Immigrant Advocacy Network has a “robust attorney-referral program,” according to Laura Lunn, its advocacy and litigation director. “Knowing the rules is absolutely the best tool we have at our disposal,” she says.

RMIAN and 23 other Colorado organizations sent a letter to the members of our Congressional delegation demanding an investigation into and accountability for the death of Delvin Francisco Rodriguez , a Colorado resident from Summit County, who died in ICE detention after being transferred to an ICE detention center in Mississippi.

Immigration attorneys say use of 'pretermission' raises due process concerns for people seeking asylum

Monique Sherman said: “If somebody has never been to a country, they really deserve some time to learn about that country and figure out if they think they would be safe there and to be able to come up with those arguments,” Sherman said. “This is concerning in all cases, but when somebody has an attorney, we’re able to at least give them a fighting chance, and we have won several oppositions to these motions.

“But most people don’t have lawyers,” she said. “We meet with as many of those people as we can to advise them of their rights, and we’ve met with several who were just blindsided by this.”

“Our lawyers and our social workers are on the front lines every day, fighting for justice, ensuring that kids are not forced to represent themselves in immigration court,” said Mekela Goehring, executive director at RMIAN.

Goehring says while donations from small businesses were not finalized by Friday night, the organization received more than $18,000 from more than 100 new community donors on Friday alone.

“This has been a powerful day and just an amazing showing of support at a time in which things have felt certainly quite dark,” Goehring said. “Proud to be a Coloradan today.”