Preventing Removals of Survivors Austin, TX – SOLD OUT (Orlando in June still has room!)

CLE One Day Skills Seminar on
Preventing Removals of Survivors

 Date: Thursday, May 16, 2019 ~ 9:00am – 5:00pm

Scott, Douglass, McConnico, 303 Colorado St, Austin, TX, 78701

SOLD OUT – Click here to attend our Orlando training in June (before the AILA conference) which will include many of the same panels, with the addition of some exciting new topics! 

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• What is your plan for responding to NTAs issued by VSC against your VAWA, U, and T clients? 
• Have you prepared survivor-based arguments for challenging removability, requesting continuances or seeking status for survivors in immigration proceedings?
• Are you ready to take improperly denied cases to the AAO, the BIA and federal court? 

Join us for a day-long training featuring national and local experts addressing these issues as well as best practices for avoiding denials that result in NTAs and the need for appeals and litigation.

Click here to view the agenda

Click here to view the faculty biographies

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Prices and Registration

• $250 Legal Worker/Non Profit (includes ASISTA members who are non profits)
• $350 ASISTA or NIPNLG Member
•  $500 Private Attorney

Keep your eye out for speaker and further agenda details. 6 hrs of TX credit will be applied for separately.

 

Not an ASISTA member, JOIN NOW

Questions:  please contact ahlam@asistahelp.org

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ASISTA will be at the FBA Conference in Austin too! 

FBA Humanitarian Track:  May 17 & 18, Austin, TX

again ASISTA helped organize two days of humanitarian workshops at the upcoming FBA conference, May 17 & 18, at the AT&T Conference Center.  (click here to download the agenda and workshops). To register for the conference, click here. 

 

FBA Humanitarian Track 2019 – Austin, TX

Agenda

1. Flagging for Alternative Relief

Are you flagging for all the relief available to your clients? In this panel, experts on different areas of immigration law (business, family, humanitarian) will compare and discuss how their peers can incorporate flagging for relief with which they may be unfamiliar.

(m) Tina Goel, Taylor/Ryan, Baltimore, MD

Samantha Del Bosque, Tahirih, Houston, TX

Kate Lincoln-Goldfinch, Lincoln Goldfinch Law, Austin, TX

2. Creative Ways to Get Us and VAWAs into the US

Experts on this panel will discuss creative ways to get U visa and VAWA clients stranded abroad into the United States. In addition to reviewing special rules on consular processing for these crime survivors, the panel will discuss creative parole strategies, including litigation, and pay special attention to derivative issues.

(m) Lauren McClure, Esq., Kriezelman, Burton & Associates, Chicago, IL

Danielle Fritz, Immigrant Center for Women & Children, CA

Jaime McGuire, Poarch Law, Salem, VA

3. Managing Your Caseload in Challenging Times

When policies change, when processing times become beyond what’s expected, when clients hear something on the news, what do you do? How to advise clients in a day and age where it seems as though nothing is predictable. This panel will also discuss ethical issues that arise when cases languish for many years.

(m) Rena Cutlip-Mason, Chief of Programs, Tahirih Justice Center, DC

Tracie Klinke, Klinke Immigration LLC, Marietta, GA

Christine Poarch, Poarch Law Firm, Salem, VA

Lynn Pearson, Staff Attorney, Tahirih Justice Center, Atlanta, GA

4. Off the Beaten Track – When Us, Ts, and VAWAs Go Off Course

Have you received an RFE, NOID, NOIR or denial in a VAWA, U or T case? Panelists will discuss emerging trends in humanitarian case denials. They will discuss latest best practices in responding to and challenging them, including the special evidentiary presumptions and protections for crime survivors in 8 USC 1367.

(m) Laura Flores Bachman, ASISTA, Phoenix, AZ

Rosemary Vega, Univ. of Houston Law Immigration Clinic, Houston, TX

Edna Yang, American Gateways, Austin, TX

5. Going Outside the Box: Representing Survivors in EOIR and the Federal Courts

This panel will discuss the new skills necessary to ensure U visa, T visa and VAWA applicants are not removed before USCIS approves their cases. Topics will include strategies for EOIR representation, including status dockets, using special arguments and protections Congress created for crime survivors, including 239(e) and 8 USC 1367, and identifying when and how you may need to seek relief in federal court.

(m) Gail Pendleton, ASISTA, Plymouth, MA

Brad Banias, Charleston, SC

Lauren Joyner, Texas Rural Legal Aid, Edinburg, TX

6. Trauma-Informed Lawyering: Questions and Suggestions

An interdisciplinary group of panelists will discuss how practitioners in asylum and VAWA cases can frame, understand and elicit facts regarding gender violence in a social and political context rather than as private acts. The panel will share resources and best practices.

(m) Rina Gandhi, Hayes Novick Immigration, Washington, DC

Laurie Cook Heffron, School of Behavioral and Social Sciences, St. Edward’s University, Austin, TX

Karen Crawford, Law Office of Karen Crawford, Austin, TX

Lisa Johnson-Firth, Immigrants First, PLLC, Manassas, VA

7. Addressing and Presenting Cases Based on Domestic and Sexual Violence

An interdisciplinary group of panelists will discuss how practitioners in asylum and VAWA cases can frame, understand and elicit facts regarding gender violence in a social and political context rather than as private acts. The panel will share resources and best practices.

(m) Elissa Steglich, UT Law School , Austin, TX

Laurie Cook Heffron, School of Behavioral and Social Sciences, St. Edward’s University, Austin, TX

Eunice Lee, Center for Gender and Refugee Studies, San Francisco, CA

Julia Toro, Julia Toro Law Firm, Washington, DC

8. Inadmissibility Grounds in Us, Ts, and VAWAs – Do They Apply and How to Overcome Them

Inadmissibility, and the discretion to deny inadmissibility waivers, is proving one of the main barriers to survivors’ gaining immigration status. This panel will discuss best practices in overcoming inadmissibility for survivors, surviving discretion scrutiny, and challenging improper waiver denials.

(m) Chay Sengkhounmany, Sengkhounmany Law, Murfreesboro, TN

Lizeth Castillo, Immigrant Center for Women and Children, Los Angeles, CA

Cori Hash, Lincoln-Goldfinch Law, Austin TX

9. Us/VAWA/Ts: Updates and Practice Pointers on Latest Developments

This panel will discuss the latest policy and practice developments affecting VAWA, U and T applications and suggest best practices for responding to these developments in your representation of these clients.

(m) Cecelia Friedman-Levin, ASISTA, Washington, DC

Tracey Parsons, VSC USCIS (invited)

Stacy Shore, USCIS Ombuds 

Barbara Velarde, Administrative Appeals Office USCIS (invited)

10. Special Immigrant Juveniles: Updates and Practice Pointers

This panel will discuss the latest policy and practice developments affecting Special Immigrant Juveniles particularly in the removal context. Panelists will discuss best practices in light of the visa retrogression and best practices in challenging NOIDs, RFEs and Denials.

(m) Rachel Thompson, Poarch Law Firm, Salem, VA

Kathleen Glynn, Grob & Eirich LLC, Lakewood CO 80228

Hillary Larsen, Kids in Need of Defense (KIND), Houston, TX