Inadmissible VECINA

It’s June 2023, and the government just changed the rules again for asylum seekers at the southern border. So what is going on right now at the southern border? We have talked in previous episodes about Title 42, the public health law that was used as a pretext to block asylum seekers from entering the U.S. during the pandemic. On May 12, the administration ended Title 42 and rolled out a new set of policies aimed at reducing the number of asylum seekers who enter the U.S. every day, including requiring people to sign up for a limited number of daily appointments on a mobile phone app. So how is this all playing out for people?In this episode we talk with Laura Peña, Director of ProBar, which is part of the American Bar Association and provides legal services to immigrants in Harlingen, Texas. Harlingen is in the Rio Grande Valley, right across the border from Matamoros, Mexico. Laura is an immigration expert who has held many directing positions, including working at the Department of State under the Obama Administration, and leading the Beyond Borders program at the Texas Civil Rights Project.. Laura is from the Rio Grande Valley herself, and she also hosts her own podcast, Valle de Sueños. It’s the story of a 10-day journey by border advocates to shut down a refugee encampment in Matamoros, Mexico.
Music: Gymnopedie No. 3 - Wahneta Meixsell

Having to appear in court is stressful for most people. But imagine having to appear in court in a country where you don’t speak the language, you don’t understand the rules, you don’t have a lawyer, there is a government prosecutor who is arguing that you should be deported, and there’s an immigration judge who uses lots of legal terms you don’t understand, and who also seems to want you to leave the country. And imagine you’re afraid to go back to your home country because you’re pretty sure you’ll be killed if you do – but no one in immigration court seems willing to listen to your story. That’s what U.S. immigration court is like for many non-citizens.In this episode, we’re going to do a deep dive into the world of immigration court. We’re joined today by Matthew Archambault, who has been practicing immigration law for over 20 years. Matthew specializes in representing asylum seekers in immigration court. He’s been a part of cases that have set precedent for the entire country. When he’s not representing clients, you can find him over at the podcast Redirect, a fellow immigration law show he co-hosts with his colleague, Stephen Robbins.

In this episode of Inadmissible, we're joined by filmmakers Rae Cerreto and Kelly Scott, the creators of a new documentary called “Seeking Asylum.” The movie follows a Honduran woman, an asylum seeker named Kensy. Kensy made the incredibly hard decision to flee Honduras with her young children after relentless gang threats and violence made it clear that their lives were very much at risk in Honduras. When Rae and Kelly first met Kensy, she was living in a migrant camp on the U.S.-Mexico border with her children. She was trying to make it to the United States to seek asylum here..In this episode, Rae and Kelly join us to talk about their film “Seeking Asylum” and what they learned along the way about what it’s like to seek asylum in the U.S.

In this episode, we're joined by VECINA’s own Project Director, Molly Chew. Molly directs all of VECINA’s projects, but specializes in our ReUnite Project, where we work to assist family members and loved ones of detained unaccompanied immigrant children in the reunification process. Prior to coming on board with VECINA, Molly spent nearly seven years working with unaccompanied refugee children and their families in an array of Office of Refugee Resettlement (ORR) contracted programs. This included ORR shelters, foster care, and home study/post-release services. She previously worked as the Western Regional Supervisor for a program that made reunification recommendations for detained unaccompanied minors and connected these children and their families with community resources upon reunification. Molly is a DOJ Accredited Representative and is obtaining her Master’s Degree in Refugee Protection and Forced Migration Studies from the University of London. Molly’s here to talk to us about a topic that has repeatedly been in the news: the experiences of unaccompanied immigrant children who are detained in the United States.

Vanessa Joseph is the daughter of immigrants, and an attorney at Catholic Charities Legal Services in Miami. In her work, Vanessa serves a wide variety of immigrants, including many black immigrants. She is also the City Clerk for the City of North Miami, and is the youngest as well as the first black female elected to the position. Vanessa joins us today for a focus on black migration, where we specifically dive into the many challenges faced by Haitian asylum seekers in the U.S.

In our first episode of Season 2, we delved into the Biden Administration’s recent new immigration policies, which include “parole” programs for a limited number of people from 4 countries: Cuba, Haiti, Nicaragua, and Venezuela. Last season we talked about the administration’s other specialized parole program for Ukrainians, as well as humanitarian parole for Afghan.
Since our last episode went live, a number of states filed a lawsuit taking aim at some of these parole programs. Here with us today to talk about the lawsuit is Victoria Neilson, Supervising Attorney at the National Immigration Project of the National Lawyers Guild.