As we enter another week of the COVID-19 pandemic and social distancing, we want to share with you some of the amazing, and hopefully uplifting, stories that keep us going. They also inspire our incredible gratitude to be able to continue our work: in, with, and directed by communities most adversely impacted by the current crisis.
The first story is particularly poignant as we support our community partners to fight for the release of detainees, like Beto, who for nine months could not be at home, go for a walk, take a breath of fresh air, or eat his favorite food that his mother makes. It also has incredible meaning to the Beyond team because it was a case that other legal aid organizations were unwilling to take. Beto's freedom affirms our core belief that it is communities and community members most impacted by injustice who should decide what cases deserve legal representation--not lawyers. Read his story, and its media coverage, below.
We thank you for your support and hope Beto's victory starts your week off well. We hope the stories we share with you this week will remind you of the fight, spirit, and beauty in our communities. They make us better lawyers and stronger human beings.
Fighting—and Winning—When Other Lawyers Said No
At 3 am on a Tuesday morning last month, Jesus “Beto” Gutierrez’s parents stood at a bus station stop, awaiting their son’s arrival. For 9 months, Beto had been jailed by ICE and deprived of his rights as a recipient of DACA (Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals). But because of a unique collaboration between lawyers at Beyond Legal Aid (Beyond) and organizers with Organized Communities Against Deportations (OCAD), Beto would return to his community, freed to pursue DACA renewal and protection against deportation.
Beto’s struggle for freedom began in May 2019, when he was arrested in Iowa. Charges against him were quickly dropped, but Iowa law enforcement delivered Beto to ICE. Even though Beto was a DACA recipient eligible for DACA renewal, meeting the exact criteria for protection from deportation, the federal government detained him and sought his deportation. Beyond Legal Aid led a complex legal strategy that relied on lessons learned from other fights against deportation: winning a deportation defense case often requires both legal pressure and community activism. Other campaigns to prevent the deportation of young DACA recipients had involved mass mobilization as well as creative federal litigation.
In December 2019, Beyond Legal Aid filed two federal lawsuits, along with his immigration cases--in three different states--challenging ICE’s illegal deprivation of Beto’s rights under the DACA program and his prolonged detention without release on bond. Meanwhile, OCAD mobilized support for Beto organizing pack-the-courtrooms, call-in’s, and fundraisers. They also worked closely with Beto’s family to support his legal case. The experiences of communities across the country engaged in community deportation defense makes clear that legal advocacy is not enough to win campaigns; media attention and community action are critical.
As a result of Beyond Legal Aid and OCAD’s work, the federal government agreed to a new bond hearing, at which Beto was granted bond, which his community raised the money to pay, leading to his release and return home. Beto’s release exemplifies the unique strength of Beyond Legal Aid’s model. Beto overcame substantial obstacles to win his release, including a harmful finding by an immigration judge that would have prevented his relief. Other public interest law organizations declined to take Beto’s case because they found this obstacle too difficult to overcome; Beyond Legal Aid identified a path to overcoming this obstacle by combining legal and community power, and ultimately succeeded in winning Beto’s release.
Beto continues to seek his DACA renewal, which will protect him against deportation once granted. He also continues to challenge ICE’s illegal denial of his rights under DACA and the rights of others through his Administrative Procedure Act lawsuit. But most importantly, Beto is able to do all of this from his home, with the support of his community, able to go for a walk or take a breath of fresh air, able to eat his favorite food that his mother makes, because he has been released.
Read more about Beto's fight:
https://chicago.suntimes.com/2020/3/3/21152901/daca-jesus-alberto-lopez-gutierrez-ice-detention-bond-immigration, https://es-us.noticias.yahoo.com/joven-beneficiario-daca-libre-chicago-201535586.html
https://www.chicagoreader.com/chicago/fight-to-release-beto/Content?oid=77404793
https://wearemitu.com/things-that-matter/daca-recipient-suing-federal-government/
https://www.efe.com/efe/usa/inmigracion/joven-beneficiario-de-daca-libre-al-fin-en-chicago-extranaba-comida-mexicana/50000098-4187356, http://www.latinxtoday.com/3838_inmigracion/6575876_joven-sonador-mexicano-detenido-por-ice-lucha-por-evitar-deportacion.html/www.lowcountryfurnituresc.com