Immigration

During difficult economic times, minority and immigrant populations may become scapegoats and be unfairly blamed for social ills. Xenophobic and anti-immigrant attitudes contribute to the impoverishment of hardworking immigrant populations trying to build a better life for themselves and their children and also diminish the ability of policy makers and the public to engage in thoughtful and much-needed debate regarding immigration policies and the successful integration of immigrants into the rest of society.

MLRI’s Immigration Unit engages in systemic law reform initiatives to achieve the following goals:

• To secure and defend low income immigrants' social and economic opportunities via the acquisition and preservation of their legal status and ability to work in the U.S.;
• To vindicate the human worth and dignity of low-income immigrants by ensuring fair treatment by immigration authorities and fair and equal treatment, regardless of status, by federal, state and local government entities generally; and
• To promote greater racial equity in society through progressive reforms of immigration law and policy.

Key Recent Victories: MLRI’s advocates, in collaboration with many advocacy organizations and pro bono counsel, have helped advance successful court rulings and policy decisions protecting the rights of low-income, lawfully-present immigrants. A few recent victories include:

• Protecting Immigrants Against Illegal Detention: The first federal appeals court ruling in the nation holding that the Board of Immigration Appeals (BIA) had misinterpreted a 1996 federal statute that resulted in the detention of immigrants without any bond hearing. The BIA subsequently decided to apply the federal circuit court ruling nationwide, ending an unfair national policy of detaining immigrants without bond hearings once and for all.
• Helping Haitians Affected by the Earthquake: A national re-designation of ”Temporary Protected Status” for Haitians who fled to the U.S. in the months following the January 2010 earthquake – including thousands in Massachusetts, which has the third largest Haitian population in the nation – so that they can now remain here safely, while working lawfully or attending school, as Haiti’s extraordinary reconstruction effort continues.
• Safeguarding Higher Education Opportunities for Immigrant Youth:  Repayment of improperly charged out-of-state tuition to a lawfully-present immigrant by a community college and establishment of uniform policy guidelines by state officials regarding in-state tuition eligibility rules for lawfully present immigrants eager to pursue a higher education and an opportunity to better themselves and the lives of their families.
• Advancing Court Reforms for Neglected and Abused Immigrants:  MLRI has systematically partnered with state court officials, policy leaders, and advocates for abused and neglected immigrant youth in order to educate the public about needed reforms to remove a legal barrier to permanent resident status for such youth because of a limitation in state law.  MLRI has produced leading materials comparing state laws in this area, provided technical assistance to state policy-makers, and collaborated closely with Massachusetts state and court officials to develop appropriate legal remedies to resolve the contradictions between state and federal law. 

New!

MLRI Co-Files National Class Action Lawsuit on Behalf of Asylum Applicants Wrongfully Denied Work Authorization

On December 15, 2011, the American Immigration Council's Legal Action Center (LAC) filed a nationwide class action lawsuit against U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) and the Executive Office for Immigration Review (EOIR) in federal court in Seattle. The complaint was co-filed by MLRI, the Northwest Immigrants Rights Project, and the law firm of Gibbs Houston Pauw. The lawsuit alleges widespread problems with the asylum "clock"-the system that the government uses to determine when immigrants with pending asylum applications become eligible to obtain work authorization in the United States and was submitted on behalf of untold numbers of asylum applicants wrongfully denied work authorization due to unlawful agency policies and practices.  See complaint:

 

MLRI-Immigration-Asylum-Clock-Lawsuit.pdf