On this World Day of Social Justice, ImmDef commemorates the tens of thousands of people whose hope and chances for survival have been squandered at the gates of the world’s wealthiest and most powerful nation. Since 2009, The United Nations General Assembly has been observing this day as a means to promote social justice, particularly in areas pertaining to poverty, exclusion, gender equality, unemployment, human rights, and social protections.
The United States, one of the General Assembly’s founding members, has failed to uphold these ideals, miserably. It denies vulnerable individuals fleeing violence and chaos the right to representation, leaving them to fend for themselves against highly trained, hostile government attorneys and powerful institutions. It allows unscrupulous government institutions, such as the Department of Homeland Security, and the Border Patrol, to manage our asylum system in a manner that denies asylum to as many people as possible. And now, under the Trump Administration, the asylum system is being destroyed by racists policies such as the Migrant “Protection” Protocols, bans on refugees from Muslim majority countries, and various other racist policies.
It’s up to us now to uphold social justice in the immigration court system.
ImmDef's Commitment
Every interaction that our clients have with our legal team brings us one step closer to our ultimate goal of ensuring that no immigrant is forced to go to court alone. This goal transcends immigration. It represents a missing pillar in our country’s justice system, a pillar whose establishment would serve as a powerful support for the integrity of the system as a whole.
Building this pillar is a mammoth task, and we cannot accomplish it alone. We need support on many levels.
Share Their Stories
We need to make our client’s stories known! ImmDef has recently started investing efforts towards gathering client stories. By sharing these stories via social media and public forums, we have an opportunity to show the world the faces and voices of the people affected by these policies and inspire them to take action, to become defenders.
We need your help sharing our stories. Follow our social media accounts and retweet/share our posts. Encourage your networks to do the same, and feel free to engage with our accounts.
Help Us Share Our Latest Story
Alex is a hard working father, a loving son, and caring husband. Unfortunately, these admirable qualities are overlooked by our immigration system. Despite having valid asylum claims and kind intentions, a majority of people seeking asylum are turned away. The violent gangs waiting in their home countries are very attentive of their good qualities. They exploit people like Alex, they abuse them and often murder them. Read and share Alex's story here.
Read and share this success story here.
Our Legal Services Director, Yliana Johansen-Mendez, has been working hard on winning her clients case for over 2 years. Read and share her success story here.
Congratulations to our staff attorney Neysa Nankrevis and her client Maura* and family for winning their case. Read and share their success story here.
Read and share their success story here.
Support Us
Your monetary contributions help us run programs that provide much needed representation for immigrants and create a precedent for future generations of defenders to build on as we work towards our goal of achieving representation for all.