DETAILS: Thursday, March 17, 2022 from 12:00 p.m. to 1:00 p.m. in Warren Hall 2B
A lunch event examining the state of immigration under President Biden. The event will be moderated by Professor Tammy Lin, the supervising attorney for USD School of Law's Immigration Clinic, and feature Leah Chavarria, Director of Immigration Services at Jewish Family Service of San Diego, and Maria Chavez, Partner at Jacobs & Schlesinger, LLP and an active member of the San Diego Immigrant Rights Consortium.
Maria C. Chavez, Esq. is a partner at Jacobs & Schlesigner LLP, focusing on removal defense, family-based applications, and humanitarian relief. Maria actively volunteers with the San Diego Immigrant Rights Consortium, DREAMer Assistance Network, Community Law Project, and North County Immigration Task Force. She frequently gives presentations around the community on various topics in immigration and nationality law.
Leah L. Chavarria, Esq. is the Director of Immigration Services for Jewish Family Service of San Diego where she holds an active complex caseload and loads the legal strategy decisions and legal education of 33 staff members, (including attorneys, Department of Justice accredited representatives, and post-bar clerks) for 3 different programs within the Immigration Legal Services Department.
Moderator: Professor Tammy Lin, supervising attorney for USD School of Law's Immigration Clinic
Throughout the 2020 presidential campaign, one of Joe Biden's biggest promises was to reverse some of the immigration policies that were enacted during the Trump administration. President Biden has made some small actions toward this promise, but many voters and immigration advocates are disappointed in the efforts, as a lot of border policy still looks the same in 2022 as it did before Biden's inauguration.
Biden initially terminated the Migrant Protection Protocols (MPP) on his first day in office, but the Supreme Court deemed that the termination was done in an unlawful manner, so the Biden administration reimplemented the MPP in 2021, and actually expanded it to cover all citizens of countries in the Western hemisphere (instead of just Spanish-speaking countries, as it had been prior).
One of the biggest criticisms of Biden's immigration efforts is that the policy that separates migrant children from their families is still effectively in place. Biden has also continued the Title 42 program that allows the U.S. to expel migrants before they apply for asylum if they come from a country with high COVID-19 rates.
Overall, even though Biden has made some small changes like raising the cap on refugee admissions and expanding temporary protection from deportation for certain groups of people, the U.S.-Mexico border policy largely looks the same to the frustration of some immigration advocates.
