Month: April 2016

Mizue Aizeki: No Matter the Target, Immigration Raids Are Inhumane (Huffington Post)

No Matter the Target, Immigration Raids Are Inhumane By Mizue Aizeki Deputy Director, Immigrant Defense Project Critics of the federal government’s latest wave of deportations—which started with predawn raids in early January and saw 121 Central American asylum seekers, many of them children and parents, grabbed from their homes by Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents—correctly argue that such tactics are … Read more »

Jamaica Observer: Buju and the deportee

In this January 10, 2016 column, college professor Kirk Anthony James describes his experience fighting deportation, with IDP’s assistance, for an old drug offense. My waiver hearing would occur in January of 2002. The New York State Immigrant Defense Project handled my case pro bono. They would conduct numerous interviews with family and friends in an effort to show the … Read more »

Task & Purpose: Desperate To Return Home, Deported Veterans Face Exile

IDP executive director Alisa Wellek is quoted in this December 17, 2015 article on the website Task & Purpose about an upcoming documentary film, “Exiled: America’s Deported Veterans.” Alisa Wellek is the executive director for the Immigrant Defense Project where she has worked for eight years helping those facing deportation by ensuring they have access to proper legal representation. Wellek has … Read more »

VICE: How the System Is Failing Central American Families Facing Deportation

IDP staff attorney Genia Blaser is quoted in this January 15, 2016 article about immigration raids targeting Central American asylum seekers for deportation. “Since the beginning of this year, what we’ve seen is that ICE is conducting enforcement in the same manner that they’ve been doing it since November 2014, targeting communities that fall under their new priority enforcement program,” … Read more »

DNAinfo: Deportations Prompt Rally Outside Varick Street Immigration Center

IDP is cited in this January 11, 2016 article on demonstrations in New York City protesting ICE raids on the homes of Central American asylum seekers. One day prior, City Council Speaker Melissa Mark-Viverito spoke against the deportations at a press event in Corona accusing the federal government of “ripping families apart, separating families, and putting them back in very … Read more »

NY Daily News: What happens when immigration meets criminal justice

IDP executive director Alisa Wellek is quoted in this March 29, 2016 article about the human toll of laws that impose harsh immigration consequences on non-citizens with criminal convictions. “For the most part most people (coming out of prison) are going to be deportable,” the Immigrant Defense Project’s Alisa Wellek said. While the criminal justice system sees some nuance in terms … Read more »