Join us in a major statewide action tomorrow!
What: community members and advocates gather to stop the detention & deportation of immigrant families.
Where: S.G. Walton Square (at Front and Davis St), San Francisco, CA
When: Tuesday Jan. 26 @ 10am
Dear Friends,
We are happy to share that on Monday, December 14th, Ernesto Reynoso was released on bond by the immigration court! After being detained for over 5 years in Mexico, where he was tortured, Ernesto fled to the United States for safety only to be detained another 6 months by ICE. Ernesto is now reunited with his wife, son, granddaughter, mother and siblings, just in time for the holidays and to attend his granddaughter's first birthday!
Thank you for your tireless advocacy, reaching out to ICE in San Francisco and DC, reaching out to legislators, developing strong legal arguments, and for building community power with us. Our work wouldn't be possible without our partnerships with each of you. You helped us gather 700 signatures, you rallied outside of the San Francisco ICE Building for Ernesto’s release, and you let ICE know that our communities wanted Ernesto to be unified with his family.Ernesto and his family felt the love and the community support.
Queridos Amigos,
¡Nos alegra compartir con ustedes que el Lunes, 14 de diciembre, Ernesto Reynoso fue liberado con fianza por la corte de inmigración! Después de haber sido encarcelado por más de 5 años en México, donde fue torturado, Ernesto huyo a los Estados Unidos en búsqueda de seguridad solo para ser de nuevamente encarcelado por inmigración por 6 meses. ¡Ahora que ha sido liberado, Ernesto se ha reunido con su esposa, hijo, nieta, madre y hermanos y hermanas, justo a tiempo para compartir los días festivos en familia y atender el primer cumpleaños de su nieta!
Gracias por su apoyo, que sin descansar, nos ayudó a contactar las oficinas de inmigración en San Francisco y en Washington D.C., a promover el caso con legisladores, a desarrollar argumentos legales sofisticados, y a construir poder en nuestras comunidades. Nuestro trabajo no sería posible sin la asociación que hemos forjado con usted. Usted nos ayudó a obtener 700 firmas de apoyo, usted se movilizo en el mitin en las afueras del edificio de inmigración en San Francisco donde urgimos la libertad de Ernesto, y usted le dejo saber a inmigración que nuestras comunidades querían ver a Ernesto reunificado con su familia. Gracias a usted, Ernesto y su familia se sintieron apreciados y apoyados por la comunidad.
!Si se pudo!
Marie, Luis Angel, and Nilou
Today is an important day that recognizes that no matter where we are from, or why we moved, we deserve to be treated with dignity under international law. In the words of Ban Ki-moon, "On International Migrants Day, let us commit to coherent, comprehensive and human-rights based responses guided by international law and standards and a shared resolve to leave no one behind."
Check out the International Migrants Bill of Rights (IMBR), which provides a baseline of our rights as migrants. Learn more here: http://www.law.georgetown.edu/academics/centers-institutes/isim/imbr/index.cfm.
Warmly,
Pangea Family
We are saddened about the House's vote to shut down the U.S. refugee resettlement program in Syria and Iraq. Please join community members today in standing with Syrian and Iraqi refugees.
What: Press Conference - No more war on Syria
When: Friday, Nov. 20th @ 12-1pm
Place: Steps of San Francisco City Hall (Polk Street)
Organized by World Can't Wait, CODEPINK, and OccupySF Action Council
Read more about the refugee emergency here: http://www.motherjones.com/politics/2015/11/obama-calls-rejection-syrian-refugees-betrayal-our-values
Photo by https://twitter.com/Raqqa_SL/status/663021952576135168
For more info, please visit: http://www.pangealegal.org/jobs/
PRESS ADVISORY: For Tuesday, Sept. 15, 12:00PM
PRESS CONTACTS: Marie Vincent, Attorney at Pangea Legal Services, (415) 635-7187; Niloufar Khonsari, Attorney at Pangea Legal Services, (415) 254-0475. (family of the detainee will be present for interviews).
What: In response to the prolonged detention of Ernesto Reynoso Cardenas (A029-637-211), we will gather and call on ICE to release Ernesto from detention and reunite him with his family! Ernesto is the sole breadwinner in his family and has been detained for over 3 months. Because Ernesto was tortured in Mexico, he is eligible to apply for withholding of removal. He should have an opportunity to pursue his immigration case outside of detention. On September 15, our community will gather around the suffering family to call for an end to the separation of families by our broken immigration system. Speakers will explain why Ernesto is a classic example of ICE’s unreasonable detention policy and enforcement priorities.
When: Tuesday, September 15, 2015 at 12:00PM
Where: SF ICE, 630 Sansome St, San Francisco, CA
Who: Family and friends of Ernesto, UC Berkeley colleagues and students, Interfaith Coalition for Immigrant Rights, and Pangea Legal Services
Background: Ernesto Reynoso Cardenas is from Mexico and has resided in California ever since coming here in 2008. He and his family fled torture and politically motivated persecution in Mexico and came to the United States for safety and a better life. Ernesto is eligible for withholding of removal. He received a positive determination after his reasonable fear interview with an asylum officer. However, ICE has refused to release him because they consider him a high priority for deportation. For further information, please visit: https://actionnetwork.org/petitions/help-reunite-ernesto-with-his-family
Ernesto’s ICE Officer is Officer Degnim. He may be reached at (415) 844-5575.
First client meeting in our new South Bay office (July 1, 2015)
600 Valley Way, 538A, Milpitas, CA 95035
On July 1, 2015, we opened our doors to clients and community members in Santa Clara and San Mateo counties.
Thanks to the support of the Silicon Valley Community Foundation and Sobrato Family Foundation, Pangea now has an office in the Sobrato Center for Nonprofits at 600 Valley Way, Milpitas, California. We are excited to build and grow our work in the South Bay, and we are thrilled that Pangea attorney, Celine DinhJanelle, will be spearheading this effort as our Director of South Bay Programs.
Stay tuned for an office warming party announcement soon!
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Published by PSJD-NALP on April 20, 2015.
The Low Down on Low Bono:
Identifying a Need and Starting up a Nonprofit Organization
While the government funds many important pro bono programs in the United States, low-income communities are still underserved in many legal service areas: housing, family, criminal justice, public benefits, immigration and more. This article focuses on the gap in immigration and removal defense services in Northern California and how nonprofit organizations can sustain themselves while filling some of that gap.
More than 29,000 immigrants currently find themselves in court proceedings at the San Francisco Immigration Court.[1] Nationally, there are over 431,000 immigrants in court proceedings. With increased deportations nationwide, there is a clear need for court and immigration defense services. Immigrants in removal proceedings need a lawyer because of the complexity of immigration law and the negative consequences of deportation. Also, many immigrants in the court process are eligible for relief or protection under existing laws, and they may have a pathway to citizenship.
Unfortunately, only a small percentage of immigrants have immediate access to legal counsel. Private immigration attorneys can be prohibitively expensive. And most nonprofits, even in San Francisco, do not represent clients in complex removal proceedings. The key to this gap is providing access to counsel.
Pangea Legal Services (Pangea) is one example of an organization that was created to help bridge the access gap. While it hasn’t come without its challenges, Pangea created a low-fee, sliding-scale model that grew to five full-time employees between January 2013 and December 2014. Low bono, or affordable fee models similar to Pangea are growing around the country in various areas of law, creating a financially viable avenue to fill the justice gap.[2]
To continue reading, click here.
On November 14, 2014, the Daily Journal published an article written by Pangea attorneys, Niloufar Khonsari and Bianca Santos, discussing gang-based asylum claims for Central American children in removal proceedings. "[W]hile gang-based cases are challenging, they are winnable and more lawyers must stand up for these children to ensure their lives are not lost to the complexities of the law." Read the full article here.
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Stanford, Calif., November 6, 2014—The Northern California Collaborative for Immigrant Justice (NCCIJ) and the Immigrants’ Rights Clinic at Stanford Law School released a report, analyzing the effect of attorney representation in immigration removal proceedings before the San Francisco Immigration Court.
Pangea Legal Services is a contributor to the report and one of the members of the NCCIJ collaborative.
Report Finds Immigrants Represented by Attorneys Three Times More Likely to Win Deportation Cases
The report focuses on immigrants whom the federal government locks up while their deportation cases are pending in San Francisco Immigration Court. These Northern California immigrants can be locked up for months or even years. The federal government generally takes the position that immigrants facing deportation—even those who are detained—are not entitled to attorneys unless they can pay for them or find someone to represent them for free. The report analyzes data obtained through the Freedom of Information Act, as well as a survey conducted by the Stanford clinic of all Northern California organizations that provide low- or no-cost representation to detained immigrants. The report concludes:
- Detained immigrants with attorneys were three times more likely to win their deportation cases in San Francisco Immigration Court than those without attorneys.
- Despite this fact, about two-thirds of detained immigrants have no legal representation at any point in their removal proceedings.
- Many detained immigrants have family and community in Northern California. Over 50 percent of immigrants represented by the surveyed organizations had lived in the United States for at least 10 years or more, while 77 percent of the immigrants had family members living at home in the United States.
For more information, click here.
CONTACT
Jayashri Srikantiah, Director, Immigrants’ Rights Clinic, Stanford Law School
(650) 724 2442 (w) or (415) 305 0794 (c)
Terry Nagel, Associate Director of Media Relations, Stanford Law School
(650) 723-2232 or (650) 678-7082
The following organizations are members of NCCIJ:
Alameda County Public Defender’s Office; API Legal Outreach; Asian Americans Advancing Justice-Asian Law Caucus; The Bar Association of San Francisco, Lawyer Referral and Information Service; Bay Area Legal Aid; Berkeley Law Policy Advocacy Clinic; California Immigrant Policy Center; Canal Alliance; Catholic Charities San Francisco; Center for Gender and Refugee Studies, U.C. Hastings College of Law; Central American Resource Center; Centro Legal de la Raza; Chinese for Affirmative Action; Community Legal Services in East Palo Alto; Dolores Street Community Services; East Bay Community Law Center; East Bay Sanctuary Covenant; Immigrant Legal Resource Center; Immigration Center for Women and Children; International Institute of the Bay Area; La Raza Centro Legal; La Raza Community Resource Center; Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights of the San Francisco Bay Area; Legal Aid Society of San Mateo County; Legal Services for Children; One Justice; Pangea Legal Services; San Francisco Public Defender’s Office; Social Justice Collaborative; Stanford Law School Immigrants’ Rights Clinic; Transgender Law Center; the University of California, Davis, School of Law, Immigration Clinic; and USF Immigration Clinic.
Pangea is thrilled to announce its first immigration clinic in the South Bay!
In partnership with the Sobrato Center and through the support of the Silicon Valley Community Foundation, Pangea attorneys will provide bi-monthly clinics in various parts of the South Bay for immigrants in removal proceedings.
Who: Pangea attorneys and volunteers
What: Immigration consultations for immigrants in removal proceedings
When: November 3, 2014
Time: 8am-11am
Where: Sobrato Center, 330 Twin Dolphin Dr., Interior Bay C, Redwood City, CA 94065
Stay tuned for more clinics upcoming!