Spent this morning visiting a shelter for Ukrainian refugees in Tijuana.

Spent the afternoon at a shelter @ImmDef visits regularly to provide legal services to mostly Haitian & Central American families.

The differences between the two are stark and soul-shattering. 🧵 While the Ukrainian refugees at the Tijuana shelter are in extremely challenging circumstances, the shelter itself is secure, clean & well organized. There is safe transport to the border, plenty of food & clothing.

And most importantly: OPTIONS for those sheltered there.

Spent a long day at #LongBeach Convention Center with my partner-in-good @Yliana_JM & team @ImmDef. A few things that I keep replaying in my head. Can’t stop thinking about a girl (11) and her little bro (7) who I met. They are nearly the exact same ages as my own son & daughter. During a legal screening the siblings shared a truly heartbreaking story that I will not detail here explaining why they fled their home country. Suffice to say that they were harmed, at grave risk and are now desperate to reunite with their father who lives here in the US.

Spent the day touring the Emergency Intake Site at the Long Beach Convention Center & want to share thoughts. Our tour concluded about an hr before the first group of unaccompanied children arrived, & tomorrow myself & team @ImmDef will be back to begin providing legal services. On the tour were multiple elected officials from Long Beach, including @LongBeachMayor, who reiterated throughout the day his hope that this facility will be a reflection of Long Beach’s rich history of welcoming immigrants and that these children will be met with love and care.

I spoke to the LA Times this weekend about news that additional sites in CA, including the Long Beach Convention Center, may open as Emergency Intake Sites for unaccompanied children.

Some key takeaways I have to this news (short thread):
latimes.com/california/sto… Seeking asylum is legal. Full stop.

Trump spent 4 years decimating our asylum system and emergency measures are needed to protect children in the short term.

We need to meet this moment while also reimagining what our system should look like to truly #WelcomeWithDignity.

Spent a long day touring the newly opened Emergency Intake Site (EIS) for unaccompanied minors at the San Diego Convention Center. Wanted to share a few thoughts on what I observed. The facility is currently detaining about 700 girls & at capacity will hold ~1400. (thread) I will start with the positive: this is a significantly safer place for these girls than CBP custody. CBP is a deadly & dangerous place for UCs & it is a positive step that the administration is moving so quickly to open HHS facilities to get kids out of CBP. It will save lives.

Jose spent 888 days in ICE prisons before he was freed last April. He fled Guatemala as a child after being shot in the stomach and left for dead. He was ordered deported by Judge Tara Naselow in 2017 when he was just 17 y/o and unrepresented. (thread) By chance, I met him shortly after & we began long fight to right this wrong. Over the next 2.5+ years I visited Jose in 4 ICE prisons & told him many times that we weren’t going to give up. Sometimes I cried leaving worried I was creating false hope while he continued to suffer.

Wierd thing happens when I watch border/asylum stories on tv. Like every Sunday, I’m watching @LastWeekTonight but this week its focus is asylum & I keep having to pause it to catch my breath. I have seen all this in real life but somehow watching it on tv rocks me every time. This happened to me with the scene in @OITNB where Blanca was leaving prison and was put on an ICE bus. I was sitting in my living room inconsolable watching her boyfriend stand there with flowers waiting for her, knowing she wouldn’t come.

Towards end of the Obama admin I took my kids to protest his deportation policies. My (now) 11 y/o has asked me since why we went since Trump is much worse. I tell her we went b/c even if you like some things about a friend you still hold them accountable when they are wrong. I know many friends, particularly immigration lawyers, are worried that if Biden wins the election, he will repeat many of Obama’s mistakes on immigration. I share this worry, but I am holding onto hope b/c I think that so much has changed. We are not the same country we were.

A couple weeks ago @taylorklevy alerted me late on a Friday night to a case of a disabled, 12 y/o boy that was missing. We jumped into action, but turns out our govt had already put him on a plane, alone & confused, and "expelled" him to Guatemala. reuters.com/article/us-usa… Gustavo's story is infuriating. On Saturday 8/29, I woke up to an email from ICE telling me they had already expelled him alone to Guatemala. His mom, trapped in Juarez in the "Remain in Mexico" program, still had no idea where he was. I had to call her and be the one to tell her

There are little things in #ImmigrationNation that are just infuriating, but also a window in to how ICE officers lie to themselves about the impact of their work. An example is the decision about whether to detain the Salvadoran, former police officer towards the end of ep 2. Officer asks supvsr about detaining given that the man fears return. Then he says “so should we detain him so his case can be heard quickly?” Supvsr quickly says yes. They seem to be trying to convince themselves (or the audience) that they are somehow helping him by detaining.

Tonight’s decision in #Flores recognizes the grave danger children in ICE prison are in due to COVID & orders prompt releases. But it only guarantees oppty for release of kids, NOT PARENTS. It’s time to get loud and demand ICE not separate these families. #FamiliesBelongTogether This decision sets up a binary choice for these parents. Can you imagine being told your child can leave his prison, but only if they go alone? Or you can stay together in an ICE prison where COVID is spreading rapidly. What would you do? Remember: ICE has power to #FreeThemAll.

On train home to LA from SD, I am thinking about all I saw & heard today as we commemorated the 1 year anniversary of the #MigrantPersecutionProtocols by demanding our govt #RestoreAsylumNOW. And I can’t stop thinking about the last case I watched, a mom w/ her 3 kids. (thread) I wasn’t able to live tweet case b/c IJ Simpson randomly told me I wasn’t allowed to have a phone in court, which isn’t true, but I was too tired to argue. If you read thread @ImmDef today, this was the mom w/ the kids who had to leave & come back at end b/c toddler was crying.

Visited my client Jose at the Adelanto ICE prison today so he wouldn’t feel forgotten on Christmas Eve. He just turned 19 & this will be the 3rd Christmas he has spent in an ICE prison. He has been in @ICEgov custody for 787 days. He asked me to share this note w/ his supporters In English his note says: “Hello to everyone. Thanks to all for your help and all you are doing for me. Even if I’ve been here a long time thank you for being with me and god bless you. I have hope because you all are with me. Thank you. Merry Christmas. -Jose

As the #AsylumBan decision was issued, handing death sentences to 1000s of ppl seeking safety, I was crossing into the US from Mexicali after 3 days providing legal triage to victims of Trump’s #MigrantPersecutionProtocols. I then drove 4 hours back to LA, blissfully unaware. 1/ News of this cruel decision from #SCOTUS is sinking in within the context of what I saw and heard over the last three days. Seems like a good time to share a bit of what is happening in Mexicali, where 6000+ ppl have been forced back after seeking asylum. Here is my context. 2/