"At the center of it all, immigration attorney Milli Atkinson has been holding things together. She leads the San Francisco Bar Association's Attorney of the Day program, which provides people from all over Northern California with free legal advice when they show up to immigration court. She also leads San Francisco's Rapid Response Network, finding legal representation for anyone in the city arrested by ICE."
"Your alarm goes off at 5am. You drag yourself out of bed while checking Signal to see if any messages about ICE arrests came in overnight on the rapid response network's hotline. You're not a morning person, but you have to get to court by 8am, otherwise you'll miss the already small window you have to give undocumented immigrants legal advice before their hearing starts."
San Francisco immigration court experienced upheaval, with at least 88 asylum seekers arrested by ICE during hearings and more than half of immigration judges fired. A pervasive climate of fear and uncertainty affects respondents and legal advocates. Attorney Milli Atkinson leads the San Francisco Bar Association's Attorney of the Day program and the city's Rapid Response Network to provide free, time-sensitive legal advice and to secure representation for people arrested by ICE. She travels from case to case across Northern California, arriving early to use the narrow window before hearings to advise undocumented immigrants. Missing that window can result in detention or deportation.
Read at www.theguardian.com
Unable to calculate read time
Collection
[
|
...
]