“I’m going to suggest something I have never suggested to
any working person: If you are part of this machine—if you are a guard, an
agent, a janitor, or anything in between—quit. Walk off your job. Right now.
You’ve got bills to pay? A family to support? I get it. So do the people who
come here looking for a better existence. The system you are contributing to is
preposterously evil.”
By Dan Canon, Slate
A couple of weeks ago, for the first time ever, I
represented an undocumented worker in deportation proceedings. Or rather, I
tried to. My attempts to navigate this system were not what I would call
successful. Part of this may be due to the fact that, though I have been a
practicing attorney for 10 years, this was my first go at immigration law. But
another part of it—most of it, I’d venture—is due to the fact that the U.S.
immigration system is designed to be opaque, confusing, and inequitable.
Under most circumstances, I would not wade into this kind of
thing at all. I’m primarily a civil rights lawyer, and immigration is a highly
specialized area of law with a unique set of risks awaiting unwary
practitioners. I would not, for example, take someone’s bankruptcy case or file
adoption papers. I would refer those to lawyers with experience in those areas.
But the crisis of unrepresented detainees is too big and too pressing to leave
to the few organizations and individual practitioners with expertise in
immigration law.[...]
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