Now that my schadenfreude has calmed a bit after #TrumpsVerdict the specter of 47 and what will happen with immigrants is looming large.

I'm a lawyer and we dig in, we prepare. We don't scare.

So, in no particular order, my off-the-cuff 10 things lawyers and advocates can do: 1. File FOIA's.

Get copies of your immigration file. It's just handy to have because you never know if you're going to need to prove something to someone down the road.

The Buffalo terrorist left yet another manifesto that once again cited the Great Replacement Theory (GRT) pushed by @TuckerCarlson, @IngrahamAngle, Donald Trump, @StephenM, and others in what @DefineAmerican calls the Great Replacement Network.

defineamerican.com/research/great… Yes, it's a movement - and a well-funded one. No longer a fringe viewpoint confined to white supremacist dens like American Renaissance or Stormfront: it's mainstream. A tribute to the success of its funders.

Talked w @shaysiggs on MSNBC:

After a triglyceride scare in the summer of 2020, I decided to not go on a diet, but make a series of small lifestyle changes. I used a habit tracking app to help build up small habits. In particular: logging calories, and walking. I cut out most sugar and refined carbs. And I started walking. I use the time walking to take conference calls, revise Quran, listen to podcasts, practice various languages, or just think. It didn't take up much more time than I would have otherwise spent.

Nothing like a Friday #asylum approval for a whole family! It took nearly 7 years. My clients survived persecution in their country and then survived again - over a legal landscape that shifted like quicksand under three administrations.

Having the future of your family on hold for year after year is mental torture.

Five years ago, Dulles Airport, the first night of the #MuslimBan. A night that shifted the direction of so many lives, mine included. What our community endured (and continues to) has been recorded on the Wall of Shame.

facebook.com/hassanmahmad/v… A year into the next admin, and guess what? Not much has changed. I remember 5 years ago how the stark visibility of prejudice-I felt so alien-successfully jammed up the fragile mechanisms of due process. We all blamed the admin, as if change is measured in 4 year terms.

#TantonPapers Update - We're inching closer to breaking the seal!

Thank you to our lawyer @olcplc for a well-argued Motion to Compel yesterday before the Michigan Court of Claims.

Watch the hearing here (starts at 15:25):

At issue: @UMich has lost all of their "blanket" defenses to disclosure of the #TantonPapers. Only the personal/privacy exemption remained, which exempts info that constitutes a clear invasion of privacy (such as SSN).

So they had to go through 25,000 papers 1 by 1.

In November, we successfully obtained an index prepared by @UMich of the sealed #TantonPapers. The first glimpse of the papers I've fought to see for 5 years now.

Oral argument 1/12; if you're just getting here: here's why these papers are important:

motherjones.com/politics/2021/… Interesting tidbits out of the Vaughn index:

1. Finances of the Pioneer Fund, (the eugenics "research" funder who adopted much Nazi ideology and funded the Tanton Network in its formative years)

2. Publication ideas

3. State-specific documents (CA, AZ, MD, TX, FL, MI, others)

As a practitioner, I can tell you that immigration law is complex. It frequently doesn't make sense, exalts form over function, and when misused, works against people.

So long as you're not calling on ICE to pick up undocumented people brave enough to speak out, we're allies.

https://twitter.com/JamalSimmons/status/1479899668465209344

But to answer the question:

ICE doesn't have the capacity to pick up everyone.

Immigration status is fluid. It's not as simple as undocumented vs documented.

What we need to do is reform the law to give people a chance. That's all: a chance.

We've been listening to white supremacists & allies for far too long.

The Trump years were just a peek at what they would've done if they were in the driver's seat. But a year in, they've still got their hands on the wheel.

Who in particular am I talking about? Glad you asked! Groups:
Federation for American Immigration Reform
Center for Immigration Studies
NumbersUSA
Immigration Reform Law Institute
Progressives For Immigration Reform

#ADOS/PFIR/MAGA been busy on my feed for 3 days now.

Summary of argument: "Go back to the Middle East, you white Klansman Indian Pakistani."

What else do you expect from a group funded and founded by white nationalists? One would wonder why a group that advocates for black folks would shout classic white nationalist theories like the Great Replacement.

It's because they've bought John Tanton's bullshit. Like other MAGAs, they've found it's easier to blame the new kids on the block.

White supremacy front group asks how immigration helps black people.

It's a bullshit question. Here's why.

https://twitter.com/PFIRorg/status/1466963661294305280

It assumes immigration is a monolithic Thing that is either good or bad.

The reality is that immigration is a necessity, a lifeblood. It is freedom of movement.

8 years ago I took the case of a young girl fleeing a horrific situation in her country. Because she got the right advice at the right time, we got her a green card as a "special immigrant juvenile."

Today, her application for naturalization was recommended for approval. She blew through the civics, reading, and writing tests without making a single mistake: even her handwriting was the neatest I've seen!

My dad shared this with me today. A letter dated 60 years ago that confirms his last name registration as Ahmad.

Naming conventions differ wildly around the world. When he was born, my father was not given a "last name." He may have been known as son of Chiragh-ud-din, his father. Or perhaps by the village of his birth, clan, or family occupation. But when he immigrated to England in the early 1960's, he needed a last name. So he picked one.

We've only been Ahmads for 60 years, as of yesterday.

Update on #TantonPapers Lawsuit:

@UMich, after losing at the Mich Supreme Court, and losing again on remand, is re-appealing the case up to the Michigan Court of Appeals.

We had asked them to prepare a log of which FOIA exemptions they thought applied to the sealed papers. Of course they resisted, even after the Court ordered them to. Now they're appealing that.

I get that UM is part of the identity of the State of Michigan.

Why they're fighting to keep an influential white nationalist's papers secret is beyond me.

Every time I win an asylum claim I'm struck by how much has to go right to eke out a win.

I'm overjoyed for my client, who's breathing sighs of relief through the numbness. As his lawyer, I try to prep giving a holistic view of the entire system but that's risky: too scary. I can't say much about the claim, but his deportation would have been a death sentence. His persecutors are still looking for him.

I can't imagine the courage it takes to testify in an asylum hearing. But our judge was willing to listen and get the truth.

That's all we ask for.

Camouflaged white nationalists Exhibit 843: @JoeGuzzardi19. This guy writes for @PFIRorg (yeah: Progressives for Immigration Reform) a Tanton-Network front group.

The usual drivel: "Haitians are coming, and Afghans too, what will we do? Remember in '22!"

news-journal.com/opinion/guzzar… What's funny - or sad - is this article came with this Bible verse:

The anti-immigrant movement should really be called the deportation movement. that's what they're really about.

Think about how different the discourse would be if we were arguing about how to let people in instead of how to keep - and kick - them out. Nearly seventy years ago, the Supreme Court described deportation as "a drastic punishment, and at times equivalent to banishment or exile." Finding the stakes to be high, it refused to read laws resulting in deportation broadly.

We immigration lawyers have become desensitized to the struggles of our clients.

This is not to say we don't feel for them. We do. But it doesn't shock us.

Meanwhile, the vast majority of people still ask questions like, "Why can't they come legally?" So here are some things our clients commonly face that most people may not realize.

Remember, these aren't isolated examples.

These are the rules, not the exceptions.

BOOM!

Just won another major milestone in the quest to unseal the #TantonPapers. If you're just getting here, some background:

motherjones.com/politics/2021/… After our win in the Michigan Supreme Court and remand back to the Court of Claims, the University filed a motion to dismiss. This morning, it was denied.

Decision:
hmalegal.com/uploads/3/7/9/…

Who is the anti-immigrant movement?

It's time to pull off their masks. My colleague @MarkPotok with @C4ARR put together profiles of key players in this network.

They're the reason we're in this mess. 1. Dan Stein

President of Tanton flagship @FAIRImmigration and faithful acolyte of John Tanton, racist architect of the movement.

Wants to bring back racial quotas into immigration.
Thinks Latinos and Muslims are a threat to American identity.

I've seen a lot of ink over the last two weeks attempting to explain the Taliban's lightning takeover of this beautiful country. Biden botched the withdrawal. Afghans are tribal. The Taliban wouldn't have been able to if they weren't popular. Pakistan enabled them. I won't opine on the accuracy of these statements. People a lot smarter than I can duke it out. My calling is to help the traumatized and voiceless and take their stories to lawmakers to give them a voice. Same I did in Tijuana and Texas and at Dulles during the Muslim Ban.