Pangea helps Brazilian mother reunite with baby and husband

Pangea helps Brazilian mother reunite with baby and husband

For Immediate Release

Contacts: Niloufar Khonsari 925.785.8735, nilou@pangealegal.com

               Rev. Deborah Lee 415.297.8222, rev.deb.lee@gmail.com

Groups celebrate release of Reylla, call for ICE to release thousands of others still detained 

Background: The case underscores a cosmic disparity between the Obama administration’s immigration rhetoric and the reality of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE)’s cruel deportation policies, which target contributing community members who aspire to be citizens, but who have past deportation orders due to the nation’s lack of a common-sense immigration process. Moreover, as ICE admitted today, their separation of a breast-feeding mother from her sickly infant violated the agency’s own regulations.

“Only when ICE is publicly confronted with these cases do they choose to follow their stated regulations and priorities. Hundreds of families are torn apart every day in violation of Obama administration policies. These are people who, but for being deported today, could be on the road to citizenship tomorrow." – Niloufar Khonsari, Reylla’s immigration attorney

ICE detained Reylla last week. She has been held at West County Jail in Richmond, CA. Since her imprisonment, she has had no contact with her baby, Enzo Gabriel, who has lost one pound because he has not been nursed and is not eating since his mother has been jailed by immigration authorities. Reylla is a peaceful community member and aspiring pastor who poses no risk to public safety whatsoever.

About Reylla: Reylla fled her home country, Brazil, in order to seek protection in the United States on account of politically and religiously motivated violence targeted against her. A devout Christian, she joined the Message of the Peace Church in South San Francisco, where she began her seminary schooling. She is on the path to becoming a Pastor and is also a hard-working domestic worker. She has paid taxes since her arrival. Reylla has no criminal record and volunteers her time and resources to help those in need in her community. As an active member of her church and a future pastor, she is a role model to many.

Reylla has been torn from her family solely for civil immigration issues. She did not appear for an immigration court hearing in 2005 due to fear of being forced to return to a place where she would face persecution. A lack of access to basic information in Portuguese exacerbated the situation. Six years later, in 2011, shortly after her marriage celebration to her husband, ICE officers raided Reylla’s home, and for the first time, informed her of the order of removal. Since that time she has complied with any ICE request to appear. She has an immigration case pending in the 5th Circuit Court of Appeals and is in the process of reopening her asylum claim.

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Please Help Pangea Bring Reylla Home to Her 9-Month Old Baby

Media advisory for: 5:30 p.m., Wed. May 22, 2013

Contact:

Niloufar Khonsari 925.785.8735

Rev. Deborah Lee 415.297.8222

Community groups urge ICE to free nursing mom cruelly separated from baby

As nine-month infant loses weight , groups stage vigil

Mom is a seminary school student and 8-year local resident

What: Community vigil calling for immigration officials to release Reylla Denis Ferraz Da Silva, a nursing mother of a nine-month old US citizen baby. Reylla has lived in the US for the past 8 years and is on the path to becoming a pastor; but is currently detained and at risk of deportation.

When: 5:30 PM, Wednesday, May 22, 2013

Where: 630 Sansome St, San Francisco

Who: Reylla’s husband, friends, members of her church (Message of Peace), and her immigration attorney, Niloufar Khonsari (founder of Pangea Legal Services), along with the SF and East Bay Interfaith Coalitions for Immigrant Rights (CLUE-CA).

Background: The case underscores a cosmic disparity between the Obama administration’s immigration rhetoric and the reality of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE)’s cruel deportation policies, which target contributing community members who aspire to be citizens, but who have past deportation orders due to the nation’s lack of a common-sense immigration process. Moreover, ICE’s separation of a breast-feeding mother from her sickly infant appears to violate the agency’s own regulations.

ICE detained Reylla last week. She is being held at West County Jail in Richmond, CA. Since her imprisonment, she has had no contact with her baby, Enzo Gabriel, who has lost one pound because he has not been nursed and is not eating since his mother has been jailed by immigration authorities. Reylla is a peaceful community member who poses no risk to public safety whatsoever.

About Reylla: Reylla fled her home country, Brazil, in order to seek protection in the United States on account of politically and religiously motivated violence targeted against her. A devout Christian, she joined the Message of the Peace Church in South San Francisco, where she began her seminary schooling. She is on the path to becoming a Pastor and is also a hard-working domestic worker. She has paid taxes since her arrival. Reylla has no criminal record and volunteers her time and resources to help those in need in her community. As an active member of her church and a future pastor, she is a role model to many.

Reylla has been torn from her family solely for civil immigration issues. She did not appear for an immigration court hearing in 2005 due to fear of being forced to return to a place where she would face persecution. A lack of access to basic information in Portuguese exacerbated the situation. Six years later, in 2011, shortly after her marriage celebration to her husband, ICE officers raided Reylla’s home, and for the first time, informed her of the order of removal. Since that time she has complied with any ICE request to appear. She has an immigration case pending in the 5th Circuit Court of Appeals and is preparing to file her asylum claim.

Immigrant Day 2013

On Monday, May 20th, Pangea Legal Services joined over 500 immigrants and advocates from across California for a day of advocacy, education and unity at Capitol Hill in Sacramento.  Immigrant Day 2013 brought a unified voice to Sacramento in support of federal immigration reform and positive state policies that advance immigrant integration and prosperity for all Californians.

Pangea members, Causa Justa, other organizations and community members meet with Assemblymember Ammiano, the author of the TRUST Act and Domestic Workers Bill of Rights, to thank him and to collaborate on lobby strategy on Immigrant Day 2013.

May 1st: Immigrants Rise: Join Us on May Day as we March in San Francisco

Pangea community members and advocates will march in solidarity and alongside with workers, youth, families, and communities of all backgrounds for Equal Justice.  

​The May Day march begins in the Mission at 3pm on May 1, 2013, and leads all the way to City Hall; events continue at 5pm at Civic Center/City Hall.    

Please meet us at our office: Pangea Legal Services, 300 Montgomery Street, Ste 660 at 2:30pm to head to 24th and Mission St with us.  

Everyone is welcome to participate.  Please contact us at welcome@pangealegal.org or (925) 785-8735 if you would like to join our contingent.  We look forward to seeing you!   

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Pangea Legal Services Joins National Day of Action for Comprehensive Immigration Reform in San Francisco

Pangea Legal Services Joins National Day of Action for Comprehensive Immigration Reform in San Francisco

The San Francisco Bay Coalition for Immigrant Justice, of which Pangea is a member, organized a day of action to coincide with the National Day of Action for Comprehensive Immigration Reform in Washington, D.C.  About 1000 people united in front of Senator Dianne Feinstein's San Francisco office at One Post Street to march to Civic Center for a rally on Wednesday, April 10, 2013.  Thank you to all groups and individuals who joined - awesome turnout!   

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Documented and undocumented immigrants in San Francisco rally to stand up for their basic human rights. ​

​Adoubou Traore, Director of the African Advocacy Network and Niloufar Khonsari, Executive Director of Pangea Legal Services - Presente!

​"Reunite Families"

"The IRS Agrees my Taxes are Not Illegal"

Pangea Participates in San Francisco Community Town Hall for Local Immigration Reform

End the Deportations! Citizenship for all!

Thursday, March 21st ||  St. John the Evangelist - 1661 15th St. @ Julian

Pangea Legal Services joined community-based organizations, interfaith groups, legal advocates, worker centers, labor and immigrant and community members from SF to discuss what is being proposed at the national level, the impacts our current broken immigration system is having on our communities, and what we can do locally and statewide to address the criminalization and deportation of our immigrant communities.

Among the myriad of issues discussed were:​

  • The CIR proposals coming out of DC and the negative impacts these could have on workers, families, students.    
  • Testimony from community members including: DREAMers, union workers, low-wage workers, survivors of S-comm and those already torn apart by deportation proceedings. 
  • How to get involved and mobilize locally to help end ICE & police collaboration in San Francisco, ensure due process for all immigrants an​d demand inclusive and just immigration reform - making California a leader in fighting deportations of our communities. 

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Pangea Wins 3 Asylum Cases in 5 Days!

At the end of February 2013, two Haitian and one Guatemalan friends of Pangea with complex immigration cases in removal proceedings received protection and relief from removal in Immigration Court.  Pangea attorneys and interns, together with our partners at the African Advocacy Network, celebrate these asylum wins, after many months of work and preparation.  We are thrilled to begin bringing the immediate families of our friends to join us here in the United States.   

Our Families Matter: Stop the Deportations Community Rally and March

From ASPIRE: 

Join us at 11am on Friday, January 25, 2013 at One Post Plaza, San Francisco, CA.  

"We are urging ICE and our Congressional representatives to stop the deportation of all families. We are seeing unprecedented levels of immigration enforcement with over 1.7 million deportations. 

Join Asian Students Promoting Immigrant Rights through Education (ASPIRE), the first and only Asian Pacific Islander (API) undocumented youth community organization in the nation, and community groups for an action for the “Our Families Matter” Campaign. 

Meet at One Post Plaza for a rally at 11:00am. We will then march over to ICE."

Please refer to ASPIRE's Facebook invite for more information.  

Movement to pass TRUST Act spurs new guidelines from ICE, but few families will be kept together in practice

From: California Immigrant Policy Center

For immediate release: Dec. 21, 2012


Contact: Jon Rodney, 510-451-4882 ext. 304, Gabriela Villareal, 510-451-4882 ext. 303 

Movement to pass TRUST Act spurs new guidelines from ICE, but few families will be kept together in practice
 

Today's announcement underscores need for Gov. Brown to sign TRUST Act to fill in significant gaps in policy

2012.12.21 - Today, Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) announced new guidelines concerning the "Secure" Communities program and immigration detainer requests. In response to the announcement, Reshma Shamasunder, Executive Director of the California Immigrant Policy Center, issued the following statement:

Today's announcement by ICE regarding the S-comm program reaffirms what immigrant advocates have been calling for after several years of watching the program's disastrous results in communities throughout California: S-comm is a program that should be scrapped because it makes no one safer and tears families apart. It further validates the painful experiences of ice cream and tamale vendors, domestic violence survivors, and so many other community members who have unfairly faced deportation.


Hiding in the fine print of the announcement are significant loopholes that mean that in practice, the program will continue to undermine community confidence in law enforcement and will continue to result in unjust detentions of aspiring citizens (or citizens, for that matter.) The guidelines do not reflect our cherished value of due process - of the right to a day in court -and rely on a pre-conviction model that will still trap survivors of domestic violence and other crime victims and witnesses in deportations. The guidelines also continue to confuse criminal matters with immigration violations, meaning many people who aspire to become citizens but have previously been hurt by dysfunctional immigration policies will continue to be held for deportation. A mother seeking only to support her children, or a young person seeking to return to the only home they have ever known after an unjustified deportation, should not be subject to the S-Comm dragnet.

Today's announcement - and the grim figure of over 409,000 deportations nationally this year, a new record of shattered families and broken trust - underscores the need for California to take further action to uphold our values of due process and family unity. With swift passage of the TRUST Act (AB - Ammiano), a strong, statewide standard to limit burdensome ICE hold requests, we will truly rebuild community confidence in law enforcement, save local resources, and keep families together.

Breaking: DREAMer Jesus Ruiz freed from ICE detention after 90 days, but still facing deportation

Jesus and his family embrace after his release.  

Jesus and his family embrace after his release.  

From Pangea Legal Services

For immediate release: Dec 18, 2012

Contact: Ms. Niloufar Khonsari, nkhonsari[at]gmail.com (Attorney for Jesus Ruiz Diego); Ms. Kiran Savage-Sangwan Kiran[at]theniya.org

Breaking: DREAMer Jesus Ruiz freed from ICE detention after 90 days, but still facing deportation 

What:  Jesus to appear publicly for the first time at Wed. press conference, as supporters call for lasting relief for him and other DREAMers 

When: 11:00 AM, Wed., Dec 19

Where: Outside 1 Post Street, SF., (Office of Sen. Dianne Feinstein)

Who: Jesus Ruiz Diego, his attorney, family, and supporters

Why:  After an outpouring of community support that included a rally in front of Immigration and Customs Enforcement's SF offices last month and a petition drive which garnered some 5,000 signatures, detained DREAMer and aspiring marine Jesus Ruiz Diego was released from ICE detention Dec. 18 after 90 days. However, despite this positive step, Ruiz Diego still faces deportation from the country he has called home since he was four years old. 
 

For supporters, Jesus' case underscores the disconnect between current, unjust detention and deportation policies and the Obama  Administration's stated intent and support for creating a reasonable immigration process that keeps families together, via measures like the Dream Act and immigration reform. 

At the same time, Ruiz Diego's release shows that discretion - sorely underused by ICE - can indeed be granted in such cases. In the wake of Jesus' release, activists are urging the agency to release two other DREAMers who, like Jesus, spent the vast majority of their lives in the US, but were deported due to dysfunctional immigrant policies and then caught up again in the deportation dragnet. Those cases are Fredi, from Georgia, and Pablicio from Florida. 

Supporters are holding the press conference in front of the Senator's office to symbolize their hope for increased leadership from other Senators across the country to protect Dreamers who have previously been unjustly deported from detention and deportation. Specifically, supporters call on Senators Reid and Durbin, leaders on the DREAM Act and immigration reform, to take a stand for these young people and bring them home to their families now.  

Jesus embracing his nephew tonight at Church in San Jose after his release. 

Jesus embracing his nephew tonight at Church in San Jose after his release. 

 News conference featuring DREAMer and aspiring marine Jesus Ruiz Diego, who was freed by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) this evening and reunited with his family after 3 months in immigration detention. At the news conference, Jesús and his attorney will discuss next steps in the case. Community supporters will also highlight the stories of two DREAMers with striking parallels to Jesus' case, but who remain detained.

  
Background - about Jesús: Jesus came to the United States with his family at the age of four. He attended kindergarten, elementary, middle, and high school in San Jose, which he considers his hometown.  As the first person in his family and in his neighborhood to graduate from high school, Jesus has served as a role model for his community.
 
After 9/11, Jesus began dreaming of joining the United States military. He graduated in 2004, with the hope of joining the Marines, but learned he was unable to pursue his dream due to his immigration status. While continuing to dream about joining the Marines one day, Jesus was accepted to college. But because he couldn’t afford it, he decided to find work to support his younger U.S.-citizen-brother and to be able to later go to college. 


In 2008, immigration officers raided Jesus’ home in San Jose and deported him to Mexico. Jesus later learned that back in 1998, when he was an eleven-year old boy, his family had been ordered deported as the result of a withdrawn asylum and unsuccessful suspension of deportation claim.  Like so many others trying to navigate the byzantine immigration system, Jesus’ family did not have adequate legal representation.  After his deportation at the age of 22, Jesus was living in Mexico for the first time in his life for as long as he could remember.
 

Surrounded by violence and strangeness, he quickly made his way back to the United States, the place he had considered his home since the age of four. On September 18, 2012, ICE detained Jesus at his workplace and immediately put him in deportation proceedings. He was held at the Yuba County Detention Center until Dec. 18.

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