Sam Halpert, NALP Director of Public Service Initiatives

Hello there, interested public! In a relatively slow week (aside from ongoing immigration developments) I have one specific recommendation for you: 

In Wired Magazine, Professor Susan Crawford of Harvard Law wrote about a recent event where “a hand-picked group of university presidents and provosts from across the country, plus a few university faculty members, met for two days at an estate-turned-conference center on Long Island to catalyze the intentional creation of a new academic field aimed at addressing precisely this gap in interdisciplinary opportunities. This new area, “public interest technology,” is still being defined; it encompasses designing public policy and laws with an awareness of how technology actually works, as well as ensuring that technology is being used to serve public values of fairness and equity.”

One more thing: PSJD is currently considering nominations for the 2018 Pro Bono Publico Award. If you know students at PSJD subscriber schools who have made outstanding pro bono contributions to their communities, please take a moment and let us know about their work. The deadline for nominations is 8/31.

See you around,
Sam

Immigration & Refugee Issues

• According to the San Diego Union Tribune, “[t]he Center for American Progress published ” the third in a series of surveys of Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program recipients by UC San Diego professor Tom Wong, who worked as adviser to the White House under the Obama administration. Wong found that 55 percent of more than 1,000 DACA recipients surveyed said they think about being deported from the U.S. at least once per day.”
• In San Diego, CA, a federal judge granted a temporary restraining order preventing the federal government from forcibly deporting parents while their children’s asylum claims are pending.
• In Washington, DC, 29 parents filed a lawsuit alleging that the federal government acted improperly when it rejected asylum claims based on interviews conducted with confused and traumatized parents who had been separated from their children: “Lawyers representing their parents…claim it violates procedural safeguards set out for people fighting deportation…and violates their due process.”
• Insider NJ called attention to the DOJ’s recent practice of “disqualifying specific immigration judges with whom the Attorney General disagrees. Earlier this month, the National Association of Immigration Judges filed a grievance against the Department of Justice for removing Judge Steven A. Morely, who sits in Philadelphia, from 87 cases, because Sessions found fault with the way Judge Morely handled a case of an undocumented Guatemalan national who in 2014 entered as an unaccompanied 17-year-old.”

Disaster Aid

• In Santa Clara County, CA, as part of a legal brief filed in a lawsuit aimed at restoring ‘net neutrality’ “[t]he Santa Clara County Central Fire Protection District says a communications vehicle it dispatched to the Mendocino Complex, the largest wildfire in California’s history, was rendered essentially useless after Verizon reduced data speeds to a fraction of what firefighters needed.”

Access to Housing

• Non-Profit Quarterly reported that “US Dept. of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) Secretary Ben Carson issued a statement last week explaining why he was in the process of rescinding the Affirmatively Furthering Fair Housing (AFFH) rule enacted during the Obama administration…The rules…required communities and local governments receiving federal funding to…actively work[] to eradicate historical discrimination and segregation practices in housing.“

Music Bonus!

Paul Simon, “Me and Julio Down by the Schoolyard”

Sam Halpert, NALP Director of Public Service Initiatives

Hello there, interested public! Immigration policy continues to be a major story, with a number of new developments this week. You’ll also want to check out the A2J news out of LA, which may join other major cities in the right-to-counsel-for-eviction movement.

Closer to home (or rather, my desk), I’d like to take this opportunity to welcome the 2018-2019 PSJD Fellow, Awa Sowe! You’ll begin seeing Awa’s work on PSJD.org and here on the blog in the coming weeks. We’re very lucky to have her with us.

One more thing: PSJD is currently considering nominations for the 2018 Pro Bono Publico Award. If you know students at PSJD subscriber schools who have made outstanding pro bono contributions to their communities, please take a moment and let us know about their work. The deadline for nominations is 8/31.

See you around,
Sam

Immigration & Refugee Issues

• The Huffington Post reported that “[o]nly a small fraction of the nearly 600 migrant children reported to still be in the custody of the U.S. government at the beginning of the month have been reunified with their families, according to a status update from the Trump administration filed Thursday.”
• NBC News reported that “The Trump administration is expected to issue a proposal in coming weeks that would make it harder for legal immigrants to become citizens or get green cards if they have ever used a range of popular public welfare programs…part of White House senior adviser Stephen Miller’s plan to limit the number of migrants who obtain legal status in the U.S. each year.”
• In Washington, DC, “a federal judge…halted a deportation in progress…and threatened to hold Attorney General Jeff Sessions in contempt after learning that the Trump administration started to remove a woman and her daughter while a court hearing appealing their deportations was underway.“
• In Boston, MA, the ACLU filed documents in an immigration case that “show officials from the Boston-area offices of ICE…discussed scheduling interviews with immigrants at times that were convenient for ICE agents who would be waiting to arrest them — and in some cases initiate the deportation process…ICE officials ask[ed] to spread the interviews over time to avoid media scrutiny and for logistical reasons.”
• In response to an EOIR memo requiring immigration judges to complete at least 700 cases per year, “more than 120 law professors denounced the Justice Department’s new performance metrics for immigration judges as a danger to due process and an infringement on judicial independence.”

Disaster Legal Aid

• “A legal hotline is now available for people impacted by the Carr Fire [in] Shasta County, California (additional counties may be added).”

Public Service Job Search

• You may hear some familiar voices on the Los Angeles County Bar Association’s latest edition of their “ADMITTED” podcast for law students: Rachel Kronick Rothbart of USC and Katrina Denny of Loyola LA. The episode covers legal career search issues generally, but includes some tips specific to public service careers, such as the ideal timeline when reaching out to employers in the LA area.

Voting Rights

• Noting that “although voting restrictions for ex-offenders are getting looser in a handful of states, many of those potential voters aren’t aware of changing laws,” NonProfit Quarterly suggested that “responsibility for educating [those affected] is part of the ongoing debate on voting rights for ex-felons.“

Legal Technology

• The ABA’s Legal Rebels podcast interviewed Nicole Bradick about her technology-focused approach to access to justice issues. “For example,…creating an app to help low-income tenants in Chicago navigate landlord-tenant matters such as evictions and to help pro bono lawyers better serve these tenants by providing information and automated document tools.”

Access to Justice – Civil

• In Los Angeles, CA, the “City Council’s Housing Committee has recommended that the city explore a ‘right to counsel’ ordinance that would guarantee tenants have access to the information and representation they need when faced with landlord harassment, eviction or other issues.” This move puts LA on track to join other major cities such as NYC and SF in initiatives to provide counsel in eviction cases, as noted in earlier editions of this digest.
• In Ohio, the state’s “nonprofit legal aid societies are teaming up to provide more legal services to low-income residents[–]the Alliance of Ohio Legal Aids[.]“

Music Bonus!

“Bridge Over Troubled Water,” Aretha Franklin

Hello there, interested public! It’s been a relatively slow news week, but one with a couple particularly weighty pieces. Several high profile organizations including government, civil society, and corporate actors critiqued law enforcement’s growing reliance on facial recognition technology. In Canada, experts warn that proposed changes to sentencing structure for minor offenses could have a profound affect on defendants’ ability to obtain representation from law student volunteers.

See you around,
Sam

Immigration and Asylum

• In New York, NY, Mayor DeBlasio announced plans “to send city government lawyers and social workers to Texas to provide free legal help to families being detained at the border.”

Legal Technology

• Law.com published an article detailing various high-profile critiques of law enforcement use of facial recognition, challenging the appropriateness and accuracy of the technology. Critics include the ACLU (which demonstrated dramatic flaws with Amazon’s facial recognition API, Microsoft (which called for greater government oversight), and members of Congress.
  • In particular, Microsoft’s critique–posted by its CEO on the company’s blog–is worth a look.
• In Canada, a research project headed by a professor at Carleton law and funded by the Law Foundation of Ontario’s Access to Justice Fund aims to study the benefits of mobile apps for family law, in hopes of helping the increasing numbers of self-represented litigants using Canada’s courts.

Access to Justice – Civil

• In Nevada, a study commissioned by the Nevada Supreme Court’s Access to Justice Commission found that “three out of four low-income Nevadans with legal challenges aren’t able to get a lawyer for cases involving issues such as domestic violence, home foreclosures or workplace discrimination.”

Access to Justice – Criminal

• In Canada, “[p]roposed changes to Canada’s Criminal Code could have serious consequences for low-income, first-time offenders of less serious crimes,” as changes to minimum sentencing would reclassify these offenses and inappropriate for law student volunteer representation. According to a criminal defense attorney, “[i]f these students aren’t allowed to help anymore, we’re going to have a greater number of self-representing litigants in the system.”
• In North Carolina, more accounts of plainclothes ICE agents conducting arrests at courthouses (see earlier editions of the digest for coverage of similar episodes in New York City) prompted an ABC News piece interviewing experts who caution these tactics “could have a chilling effect on immigrants’ willingness to access and participate in the criminal justice system.“
• In Nevada, the Sixth Amendment Center’s Executive Director warned the state that it has “no infrastructure to ensure that [it’s Constitutional obligation to ensure defendants are provided effective legal representation] is being met.” (The Center is advising a commission studying Nevada’s public defender system.)

Music Bonus!

“I’ll be Watching You”, Sting & the Police