Amid increasingly aggressive efforts by federal authorities to detain and deport people from the country, an immigrant rights organization says their legal team is ready to provide free or low-cost services to people from Los Angeles County facing deportation proceedings or who are locked away in a detention facility.
“Warriors for Justice,” a team newly created by the Coalition for Humane Immigrant Rights, is visiting detainees at detention facilities in Los Angeles and Orange counties, and working with families whose relatives are in removal proceedings, according to the group’s senior immigration attorney Richard Lucero.
Lucero said it can be daunting for family members to navigate a complex and frequently changing immigration system on their own, and to deal with authorities who may not be very responsive. Even immigration attorneys frequently have difficulty getting officials to respond to calls, he said.
“It’s very, very difficult for family members to try to get information, because there’s no accountability with ICE (U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement),” Lucero said. “There’s nothing that forces them to return your call, there’s nothing that forces them to look into your situation and get you information, because again, there is really no accountability with them.”
Lucero said that among the changes to immigration policy that he has seen in the past six months is an effort by immigration authorities to “work backwards,” by researching people who have convictions, for such crimes as DUI or petty theft.
“And if they find out you don’t have any status here, they’ll go to your house and try to pick you up,” he said.
CHIRLA, which also helps members of the immigrant community process Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) applications, began hiring attorneys for its deportation defense team back in October, and recently added Lucero as the unit’s managing attorney to respond to an increasing need.
“When people think of CHIRLA, they think about their DACA applications,” Lucero said. “I don’t think the community really knows we have this deportation defense unit.”
The team’s attorneys are fluent in English and Spanish, and can represent detainees held at the Adelanto Detention Facility near Victorville, the Theo Lacy Facility in Orange, and the James Musick Facility in Irvine. They can also represent Angelenos facing removal proceedings in immigration court.
“We are inviting people to come in so we can give them a free consultation, and if we accept the case, we can help their family members on a pro-bono basis,” Lucero said.
CHIRLA is directing those who wish to set up a consultation to fill out a “confidential” form on their website. Consultations are held at the organization’s downtown Los Angeles office, at 2533 West Third St., Suite 101, on Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday mornings, Lucero said. They also have a satellite office in Pacoima.
Perla Esquivel, another attorney with CHIRLA, said that “before we can help someone, we need to have a family member contact us and tell us what their case is about.”
“Once we meet, we can begin fighting for the person and look for options to try to keep them in this country,” Esquivel said.
CHIRLA’s defense team is funded by grants, including one from the Los Angeles Justice Fund that was set up by the county and city. About $7.4 million from that fund was awarded last November to CHIRLA and 16 other organizations to boost their legal teams and allow them to represent immigrants who would not otherwise be able to afford legal services.
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The legal fund was first announced by local leaders in December 2016, soon after Donald Trump was elected as president and immigrant rights groups were anticipating harsher immigration policies.
