RMIAN's Megan Hope Co-Authors Article on Providing Services to Detained Immigrants

RMIAN Social Service Project to Present at Social Work Conference

RMIAN Staff to Participate in DU Civil Rights Summit: All Rise

RMIAN to Receive Civil Rights Award from Anti-Defamation League

RMIAN Announces 2020 Immigrant Liberty Award Honorees

The Rocky Mountain Immigrant Advocacy Network (RMIAN) has announced the honorees for the 15th annual Immigrant Liberty Awards. The ceremony will celebrate the honorees’ extraordinary contributions to Colorado’s immigrant and refugee communities during an evening gala themed “Here to Stay,” to be held in the Seawell Ballroom at the Denver Center for the Performing Arts on Friday, May 1, 2020.

Each year, RMIAN presents the Immigrant Liberty Awards to recognize the unwavering work of exceptional community members to advance the rights and wellbeing of immigrants and refugees in Colorado, allowing them to thrive in their communities. In 2020, the honorees are Jason Crow, U.S. Representative for Colorado’s 6th Congressional District; Araceli Calderón de Weis, Parent Involvement Coordinator for Centennial BOCES; and Marissa Molina, Colorado State Immigration Manager of FWD.us.

Congressman Crow has worked tirelessly with human rights advocates and local government officials to champion the rights of immigrants and refugees by bringing critical national attention to U.S. immigration detention conditions and by increasing oversight of the privately operated facility in Aurora through the creation of the first of its kind ICE Accountability Report in July 2019. This oversight report, written after weekly on-site visits by Crow and staff, provides transparency and accountability to the detention system by monitoring the wellbeing of detained immigrants and refugees and the public health risks to the community. Crow has introduced the Public Oversight of Detention Center (POD) Act to ensure that Congress has oversight access to all detention facilities. He also helped introduce the Refugee Protection Act to support refugees, including setting a 95,000 minimum admission level, update the asylum process, improve the Special Immigrant Visas program, and support immigrant children.

Since before coming to the U.S. in 2004, Araceli Calderón de Weis was a champion for community involvement in policy making in her native Mexico. In her role as Parent Involvement Coordinator at Centennial BOCES, Ms. Calderón de Weis has dedicated her life in Greeley, Colorado to promote the inclusion of immigrant and refugee voices in the spheres of community building and policy setting in northern Colorado. Her work through local educational and cultural programming is a remarkable example of advocacy for immigrant rights through community empowerment.

As Colorado State Immigration Manager with FWD.us, Marissa Molina's advocacy work was critical to galvanize statewide efforts to expand access to drivers’ licenses for undocumented immigrants in Colorado. Ms. Molina's leadership continues to be a catalyst to protect the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program and advance policies that increase access to opportunities for the immigrant community in Colorado. Her appointment in 2019 as the first DACA recipient to the Board of Trustees at Metropolitan State University of Denver is breaking grounds and a true reflection of immigrant contributions in Colorado. 

RMIAN is also thrilled to recognize Davis Graham & Stubbs LLP with the 2020 Pro Bono Service Award. Davis Graham & Stubbs LLP (DGS) has been an invaluable partner with RMIAN for years in providing pro bono representation to individuals in detention and to children in immigration proceedings. In the last year, DGS attorneys have been pro bono champions in responding to the expanding detention of asylum seekers in Colorado. DGS attorneys have been instrumental in representing detained asylum seekers in credible fear proceedings, by taking a leadership role in RMIAN's Preparing Asylum Seekers for Success (PASS) Program including hosting trainings for lawyers from other law firms. Numerous DGS attorneys have also worked diligently to obtain protection for detained asylum seekers in danger of persecution and torture abroad.

This year’s event will include dinner, a live auction, and an awards ceremony. All proceeds from the event will go towards providing free immigration legal services to immigrant children and to adults in immigration detention.

For information about tickets or how to become an event sponsor, please contact libertyawards@rmian.org or visit www.rmian.org.

CPR - Number Of Unaccompanied Immigrant Children In Colorado More Than Doubles

The Need for Universal Representation

Rally to Defend DACA - Friday, November 12

DREAMers Support Rally this Friday in Denver

University of Denver Law Professor César Cuauhtémoc García Hernández to Speak at TEDxMileHigh

80+ Attorneys Attend RMIAN's Annual CLE Training

Full Day Immigration Law Training in October

Upcoming Human Trafficking Events

Pro Bono Spotlight

Amanda Milgrom (pictured above left) and Alex Kimata (right) both came to care about immigration issues for different reasons. Alex went to law school to study international law and human rights law and remained invested in social justice issues after his studies. Amanda was a special education teacher before becoming a lawyer and continued to care deeply about working with disadvantaged children and using her degree to help those who face challenges in accessing the justice system.

Amanda and Alex took the case of a 17-year old teenager from East Africa. When the two lawyers got the opportunity to meet with their new client and learn details of her case, they were both in awe of their client's resilience and courage to escape the extreme violence at home and make the journey alone from East Africa through Central America to the southern U.S. border. "She had done so much already," says Alex. "Our work is really just about getting the system to do what it is supposed to do and we're here to make sure people know what their rights are and help them navigate the system."

When their client finally got the notification that her asylum petition had been granted, she reached out to Amanda and let her know the good news. Amanda couldn't contain herself. “This was by far the most rewarding moment of my legal career thus far,” she said.

Amanda encourages other lawyers to take a pro bono case with RMIAN: "It may seem like a lot of time, but in the grand scheme of things, it is such a small thing to do for someone. And by doing this work, you have the opportunity to impact someone's life. The course of our client's life is altered for the best forever."

"This is why you go to law school!" exclaims Alex. Once the paperwork for their current client is wrapped up, Amanda and Alex plan on taking on another asylum case with RMIAN.

RMIAN Response to Recent ICE Raids

The Rocky Mountain Immigrant Advocacy Network admonishes the recent raids that took place in Colorado and Wyoming and will steadfastly work to provide support to those who are directly impacted. While this administration works to separate families and lock-up treasured members of our communities in the darkness of immigration detention, RMIAN is dedicated to shedding light on their due process rights and walking alongside our clients and their loved ones before the immigration court.

More information on the raids can be found at The Denver Post, The Colorado Independent, Colorado Public Radio, and other local media outlets.

Training Opportunity for Medical Forensic Evaluators

Denver Post's 'On Philanthropy' Column Features RMIAN as Nonprofit of the Month

AILA Colorado's 9th Annual Fall Conference: Immigration Narratives, Civil Rights & Advocacy

Pro Bono Spotlight - Jeff Pearson

Jeff Pearson came out of retirement to take a pro bono asylum case after a close friend told him about RMIAN’s work, and what a critical difference legal representation could make to an asylum seeker’s chances of success.

Jeff’s client is originally from an East African nation, where he’d been imprisoned, beaten and tortured by government security forces because he belonged to a tribe that was identified with the leadership of the armed opposition movement. The client had nothing to do with the armed opposition. In his country of origin, however, tribe is often destiny, and nothing the client said could convince his persecutors that he wasn’t a threat. 

RMIAN got Jeff started on the case with a roadmap of the facts and legal issues, and an overview of local immigration court procedure. Jeff quickly realized that he needed specialists in order to effectively represent his client’s case. He assembled a team including an interpreter to communicate with his client, a country expert to substantiate his client’s fear of persecution, a forensic medical expert, and a witness in Australia whose testimony was key to a legal issue in the case. While those specialized services were either pro bono or subsidized by various sources of funding, the coordination logistics were complex.

The case consumed Jeff for three and a half months. Nothing seemed easy. For five weeks Jeff and his interpreter were barred from seeing the client because of a mumps/chickenpox quarantine at the ICE immigration detention facility in Aurora. Even without quarantine-related restrictions, wait times at the facility were unpredictable and frustratingly long. Asylum law, which was new to Jeff, struck him as a minefield of technicalities that could defeat even meritorious claims.

While Jeff’s own days were something of a mental roller coaster, he says that his client, for all he had suffered, and despite a longer detention in America than any of his detentions in his country of origin, remained a steadfast model of grace, courage, and composure. The client never failed to greet Jeff with a disarming smile and a warm handshake. The client never complained as he repeated the details of his painful story with Jeff and the experts.

At trial, the judge granted asylum. Two days later, Jeff saw the client for the first time outside of detention—in the sunlight and open air. The client’s smile was more radiant than ever. Jeff says he himself had never been happier about the outcome of a case, or, despite the anxiety along the way, more fulfilled by having done one. 

Jeff wants to encourage other retired attorneys to volunteer, and notes that Colorado Supreme Court Rule 204.6 allows them, even if their status is inactive, to take pro bono cases for RMIAN. Furthermore, if they do so, they can be covered under RMIAN’s professional liability insurance. “It’s important work,” Jeff says, “and there are many deserving clients who need your representation now.”

Asylum Law Conference - August 15 & 16

RMIAN, the International Rescue Committee, and the American Immigration Lawyers Association of Colorado Asylum Committee are hosting a two-day training on asylum law at the University of Colorado Law School on August 15 and 16, 2019.

The conference is free for pro bono attorneys who agree to take a case within the next year. CLE credit, including ethics, will be offered and all proceeds of the conference will go to RMIAN and IRC. Register and get additional information here. 

We hope to see you there!

What: Asylum Law Conference
When: Thursday, August 15, and Friday, August 16 from 8:00am-5:00pm
Where: University of Colorado Law School
Register Here