CALA staff members were proud to stand in solidarity with #FightFor15 protests on November 29th throughout the city of Chicago.
CALA stood with fast-food workers at McDonalds, uber drivers, hospital workers, and airport workers at O'Hare International Airport.
We demanded $15 an hour with union rights for all workers, saying no to all deportations, and demanding an end to police brutality against black individuals.
Check Out CALA's Lawyering Beyond Boundaries T-Shirt only $20 Dollars + Shipping. Perfect for this holiday season!
CALA is excited to announce that Charles Clarke is joining our CALA team as a law clerk. Charles will join CALA as a staff attorney in the summer of 2017, after he completes a JD/PhD in law and political theory at Northwestern University. His dissertation examines the relationship between the legal concept of deportation and the political concept of democracy and his master's thesis analyzed the spate of anti-immigrant laws passed by states in 2010-11. He speaks Spanish and is proficient in French.
Charles wants two things out of life: to live in a truly democratic society and to be able to look himself in the mirror everyday knowing he's done all he can to bring this about. He's incredibly grateful to CALA for providing him the opportunity to work towards both.
CALA’s Commitment to Our Communities, Partners, and Clients
Last Tuesday 11/8/16 was a hard day for us—for everyone who believes in justice and equality for all people. We at CALA have spent the past week processing the wounds the election has inflicted on us, our families, and the communities we serve. But we’ve also been preparing ourselves to fight: to fight as hard as we can, in every way possible, against every threat that the government poses, and will pose.
CALA was founded to unite lawyers and activists together, and such collaborations will be desperately needed during the upcoming Trump administration. We promise that CALA’s commitment to working in genuine partnership with communities and activists will not only endure but grow stronger. We are more determined than ever to bringing community-located, community-collaborative, and community-directed free legal services to those threatened by insidious ideology, including undocumented immigrants, laborers, sex workers, and progressive activists.
In light of campaign and post-election statements by Donald Trump regarding the deportation of up to 3 million immigrants, we have developed the following recommendations and strategies to support not only our current partner communities but all immigrants without access to an attorney.
1. Priority and Increased Resources. CALA will prioritize and increase its resources for free legal services to low-income undocumented immigrants.
a. All of CALA’s staff will take on additional work to support initiatives focused on responding to, and protecting those targeted by, Donald Trump’s immigration policies.
b. CALA will develop and support additional pro bono work for immigrants from private attorneys and law firms.
2. Vigilance. We will create an attorney position to specifically monitor and strategize responses to potential threats in collaboration with our partner communities and organizations across the country.
3. Attorney Consultations & CALA Helpline. CALA strongly recommends that all legal permanent residents (green card holders) and undocumented immigrants consult with an attorney as soon as possible. We have created a helpline, 872-267-CALA (2252), to provide legal consultations for any undocumented immigrant who is not able to consult with an attorney. We will respond no later than 48 hours to any calls involving recent detentions, 72 hours to calls related to removal proceedings, and 7 days to all other calls.
4. Screening Workshops. We will work with our partners to hold large-scale screening events, at which we will provide free immigration screenings and legal consultations.
5. Know Your Rights. All immigrants should ensure that they know their rights in dealing with immigration and police officials, and how to handle potential issues arising from these interactions. Therefore, CALA will offer free Know Your Rights immigration presentations and trainings to any community that would like to host one.
6. Citizenship Workshops. All green card holders should consult with an attorney about naturalization as soon as they are eligible. We will increase the frequency and quantity of our citizenship workshops. Please check our website, Facebook page, and e-newsletter for upcoming dates.
7. DACA. CALA will continue to offer DACA services, but only for current DACA recipients seeking renewal who have not had any change in circumstances. We advise against submitting initial applications or renewal applications with material changes such as a change of address or new criminal arrest issues.
8. Advance Parole. We do not recommend applying, and will no longer offer services, for advance parole, except for emergency situations.
9. Immigration Relief Applicants. CALA does not recommend that, absent very extenuating circumstances such as urgent deadlines, undocumented immigrants who have recently arrived; have criminal records; or have been suspected of gang involvement, terrorism, or espionage submit any applications until we have greater clarity regarding the changes that the new administration will make to immigration laws, regulations, and policies. We will continue to offer services for other forms of immigration relief; however, we will not submit most applications on behalf of clients who may be targeted by any deportation agenda set by Donald Trump from now until February 2017. For clients with pending applications, we will closely monitor their situations and contact any client about whom we have concerns.
10. Coalition Building. While undocumented immigrants are the immediate targets, Trump has made clear that his administration will seek to hurt many minority groups. We must ensure that all groups opposed to his divisive, hate-filled ideology work together in the upcoming struggle. CALA hopes its work with diverse communities and activists can contribute to cross-movement coalitions.
Please let us know if there are any other concerns that you would like for us to address, or if there are any other ways that CALA can help. Please also consult our website or Facebook page for future updates as we learn more about how things are developing. Finally, and most importantly, know that we will stand with you, and we will fight alongside you.
Solidarity in Resistance,
CALA (Community Activism Law Alliance)
Thanks to everyone that came to our 2nd Anniversary event on 10/14/16
Please join us as we celebrate two years of community impact through our work with our community partners to create 5 “community activism-law clinics” directly in the communities we serve; helped over 3,500 clients—most of whom are undocumented immigrants, day laborers, and sex workers unable to obtain free legal aid from other legal aid organizations; empowered and protected the rights of activists; and supported activism campaigns that have impacted thousands of people.
CALA's newest board member: Sam Goldberg
CALA is extremely pleased to welcome our newest member of our Board of Directors: Samuel Goldberg. Sam is a public defender in the Juvenile Division of the Office of the Will County Public Defender. He recently moved to the Chicagoland area. Prior to moving, Sam worked at the New Jersey Office of the Public Defender in the Mercer County Trial Region from 2012 to 2015. In that capacity, he represented hundreds of individuals accused of felony-level offenses. Prior to his work at the Office of the Public Defender in New Jersey, Sam was the Gault Fellow at the National Juvenile Defender Center, where he co-authored a best practices manual for juvenile defense attorneys nationwide. Sam earned his Bachelor of Arts in Economics from Columbia University in 2005 and his Juris Doctorate from NYU School of Law in 2010. Sam is fluent in Spanish.
Caitlin with the hard-earned U-Visa certification
During my summer internship at the Community Activism Law Alliance, I have learned quite a bit about the work that needs to be done to help break down the persistent boundaries that our undocumented clients face. This summer, I became familiar with the process for certifying U Visa petitions. For those of you who are not familiar with U Visas, let me first include an explanation of what a U Visa is, just to share a glimpse of the vast practical knowledge I have gained during my internship this summer.
If an undocumented person is a victim of one of twenty-six violent or serious crimes in the United States, and that person made a police report and/or cooperated with law enforcement, prosecution, or a judge, they may qualify for a U Visa. The U Visa program was enacted as a way to help vulnerable undocumented immigrants feel safe reporting crimes to police. Part of the U Visa process, however, is getting that police officer, prosecution, or judge to certify the U Visa supplement. This is key; If no one will certify, that person cannot apply for a U Visa.
Law enforcement agencies under law have discretion to certify U Visas. Many law enforcement agencies are highly cooperative and support the U Visa program. However, occasionally our clients come across agencies who are not so cooperative, even as a matter of their own policy. These agencies may be anti-immigrant, or simply lacking knowledge of the U Visa program. For whatever reason, if they refuse to certify, our clients will not be able to get a U Visa, and may remain vulnerable to their abusers or unable to seek immigration relief.
Marta (client name changed) came to the Community Activism Alliance seeking immigration relief. She had been sexually assaulted by a former partner, and had testified at trial to put him in prison. This made her eligible for a U Visa. However, the crime and the subsequent trial took place in a suburban county, and not in the city of Chicago, and so when attorney Nebula Li asked the Assistant State’s Attorney in that county to certify Marta’s U Visa, they told her that they did not certify U Visas. They would not assist Marta, a woman who had testified about a traumatic experience in her life at trial for them, any further.
By law, police officers and judges can also certify U Visas; so Marta was not out of options. When I called the suburban police department that investigated Marta’s assault, the receptionist told me that she “did not think they do that here.” I then called the office of the judge who helped Marta get an order of protection against her abuser. The judge’s sympathetic clerk had not heard of U Visas but told me that she was interested in learning more about it. I wrote her an informative letter, prepared the certification document, and sent her a packet.
A few weeks later, CALA finally received Marta’s U Visa certification in the mail. CALA’s motto is “Lawyering Beyond Boundaries,” because of the work CALA does to help people that typically no one else can help. The nice clerk however, must have misunderstood our letterhead and instead addressed her cover letter to “Caitlin Cervenk” at “Lawyers Beyond Boundaries.” Thankfully, the certification was filled out accurately, and we are now able to submit the client’s U Visa. This will put her on a path toward legal status, and hopefully permanent legal status.
The refusal of a prosecutor or any other law enforcement agency to certify U Visa applications is an extreme barrier to our clients’ security. Domestic violence crimes and sexual assault are two of the most common crimes that undocumented people experience, and because women experience domestic violence and sexual assault in numbers disproportionately higher than men, the refusal of law enforcement agencies to certify U Visa applications disparately impacts undocumented and vulnerable immigrant women. Further, had Marta’s crime happened in an urban county, the police and prosecutor would likely have been more willing to certify her application. Fortunately, a judge listened to CALA, and was willing to help Marta. CALA will now apply for a U Visa for Marta so that Marta get the relief she deserves.
CONGRATS CAITLIN ON YOUR VICTORY, AND THANKS FOR YOUR HARD WORK THE ENTIRE SUMMER!
CHAD BAKER, HARVARD LAW SCHOOL '15, JOINS CALA TEAM
CALA is extremely excited to have Chad Baker as the newest member of our team. Chad joins us fresh from graduating from Harvard Law School with numerous distinctions and honors.
He graduated HLS magna cum laude (’15), where he served as Executive Director of the Harvard Legal Aid Bureau, the nation’s oldest student-run legal services organization, where CALA founder Lam Ho also trained as a student-attorney. There, he managed the Bureau’s office and docket, represented low-income tenants in eviction proceedings, and staffed a family law clinic at a Boston women’s shelter. Through the Bureau’s strong community partnerships, free legal clinics, and legal support of grassroots organizing, Chad began to discover the power and potential of a community activism lawyering model. During law school, Chad also served as a student advocate with the Tenant Advocacy Project and the Prison Legal Assistance Project and interned at the Public Benefits Practice Group of LAF (formerly Legal Assistance Foundation) and the New York Civil Liberties Union.
Chad won the 2015 Andrew L. Kaufman Pro Bono Service Award in recognition of his commitment to free legal services while in law school: he completed over 2000 pro bono hours at HLS! Prior to law school, he served in the AmeriCorps City Year program, where he provided individualized support to students at Marshall Metropolitan High School on Chicago’s West Side. He graduated summa cum laude from DePaul University (’10) with a B.A. in Sociology.
Read more about Chad and his accomplishments:
http://blogs.law.harvard.edu/clinicalprobono/2015/05/25/chad-baker-15-wins-kaufman-pro-bono-award/
http://today.law.harvard.edu/students-honored-at-class-day-ceremony-3/
WELCOME CHAD! THANKS FOR JOINING OUR COMMUNITY ACTIVISM LAWYERING TEAM!
