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lawful assembly podcast
Episode 4: Help Our System of Justice Work Best
This episode is an interview with Rev. Craig B. Mousin, founder and former Executive Director of the Midwest Immigrant Rights Center which later became the National Immigrant Justice Center (www.immigrantjustice.org), and an Adjunct Faculty member at DePaul University’s College of Law and The Grace School of Applied Diplomacy. He responds to the federal government’s proposed regulations that would limit the discretion of Immigration Judges and change the procedure for appeals to the Board of Immigration Appeals. These proposed rules will hinder the ability of individuals to pursue cases without lawyers and increase the difficulty of pro bono representation by volunteer lawyers. Cumulatively, if implemented, they will harm our communities and undermine our system of justice. We encourage you to file your own comments opposing part or all of the proposed procedures and asking the government to withdraw the entire proposed rule. To assist you in obtaining a link to the proposed procedures or in filing your comment, you may incorporate your remarks into one of the templates provided by the following:Our colleagues at the Catholic Legal Immigration Network, Inc. have provided sample comments and a link to file comments at: https://cliniclegal.org/resources/federal-administrative-advocacy/clinic-template-comment-eoir-proposed-rule
You may also find the American Immigration Lawyers Association’s template at:
https://www.aila.org/takeaction#/88
Both websites provide additional information on how the proposed regulations restrict access to the courts and prevent bona fide applicants from litigating and their cases. To be accepted by the government, please ensure your comments are filed on or before 11:59 p.m. EDT, Friday, September 25, 2020.
The critical point remains that you choose at least one element of the proposed rules that you believe is incompatible with our nation’s commitment to fair process to achieve justice and make your voice heard.
Justice Ginsburg’s law review article, “In Pursuit of the Public Good: Access to Justice in the United States,” 7 Washington University Journal of Law & Policy 1, 8 (2001) can be found at: https://openscholarship.wustl.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1534&context=law_journal_law_policy
The Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals case can be found at page 8 of Meza Morales v. Barr, 2020 WL 5268986, (7th Cir.).
The TRAC Immigration report from Syracuse University on “The Life and Death of Administrative Closure” can be found at: https://trac.syr.edu/immigration/reports/623/ (September 10, 2020).
Please share this podcast and links with members of your community or faith organizations, family members and friends. Encourage them to file comments to help ensure that our nation continues its commitment to a fair process and access to justice. Thank you for your consideration of this request.
Lawful Assembly Episode 3: Repair the Breach: Help All in Your Community Be Counted in the 2020 Census
This episode is an interview with Rev. Craig B. Mousin founder and former Executive Director of the Midwest Immigrant Rights Center and an Adjunct Faculty member at DePaul University’s College of Law and The Grace School of Applied Diplomacy. He discusses how the Census, by counting all those residing in the United States every ten years, if done well, helps the nation repair past breaches to our body politic. In the wake of a pandemic, civic unrest and the long road to healing our nation from the consequences of slavery and racism, the Census offers an opportunity for all of “We the People” to be counted and leading to a fairer representation. The government will stop counting residents in this Census on September 30, 2020, thus necessitating that we all use our resources to ensure a fair count. You can go to www.census.gov for information on how to encourage greater participation. If you would like to participate in a phone bank sponsored by the Urban League of Chicago on Wednesday, September 9, 2020 to encourage participation in the City of Chicago, you can volunteer by emailing kbutler@chiul.org (Kareem Butler, Director of Learning and Evaluation, Chicago Urban League). The quotation from Professor Akhill Reed Amar can be found in American’s Constitution, A Biography,” (Random House, N.Y., 2005), 87. For a description of rotten districts / rotten boroughs see P.84.
Please share this podcast and links with members of your community or faith organizations, family members and friends. Encourage them to assist all members of their communities to file their Census form to generate a fair count of all. Thank you for your consideration of this request.
Episode 2: New Opportunity to Oppose Proposed Regulations Precluding Asylum Eligibility
This episode is an interview with Rev. Craig B. Mousin founder and former Executive Director of the Midwest Immigrant Rights Center and an Adjunct Faculty member at DePaul University’s College of Law and The Grace School of Applied Diplomacy. He talks about responding to the federal government’s proposed regulations that would make asylum seekers ineligible for asylum and related remedies based on purported public health considerations. We encourage you to file your own comments opposing part or all of the proposed procedures and asking the government to withdraw the entire proposed rule. To assist you in obtaining a link to the proposed procedures or in filing your comment, you may incorporate your remarks into one of the templates provided by the following:
The National Immigrant Justice Center’s template.
If you are concerned about unaccompanied minors or children refugee issues, you can use the Young Center’s template.
Both websites provide additional information on how the proposed regulations restrict access to the courts and prevent bona fide applicants from presenting their cases for asylum. To be accepted by the government, please make sure your comments are filed on or before 11:59 p.m. EDT, Monday, August 10 2020.
For additional information on the pretext of the public health need for these proposals, see: https://www.humanrightsfirst.org/resource/new-asylum-ban-recycled-pretext-proposed-rule-would-illegally-unjustly-bar-many-asylum
Please share this podcast and links with members of your community or faith organizations, family members and friends. Encourage them to file comments to help ensure that our nation continues to offer shelter for refugees in need. Thank you for your consideration of this request.
Lawful Assembly Podcast – Episode 1: Portland, What Border are we Defending?
In this episode Rev. Craig B. Mousin discusses the deployment of federal officers to Portland in reaction to the ongoing protests. He discusses the problem of relying on federal immigration officers for local law enforcement and links some of Chicago’s responses to federal interference in local matters.
He references a previous podcast about DACA recipients and their families and communities. It is available here:
It-is-more-than-just-the-dreamers
For more insight into the distinction between the constitutional constraints on Customs And Border Enforcement and local law enforcement, see a blog co-authored by a former colleague at DePaul College of Law’s Asylum and Immigration Law Clinic, Linus Chan, now an Associate Clinical Professor of Law at the University of Minnesota Law School: “Trump’s Paramilitary Unites Trained at the Border for the Assaults on Portland Moms,” by Linus Chan and Carrie L. Rosenbaum. slate.com/news-and-politics/20…d-moms-attacked.html
If you would like more information about Mayor Harold Washington’s Executive Order or Chicago’s response to the Fugitive Slave Act, see my article at: https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/
Your Opportunity to Respond to Proposed Changes Restricting Asylum in the United States [Podcast]
Listen to the podcast:
This is a podcast interview with Rev. Craig B. Mousin founder and former Executive Director of the Midwest Immigrant Rights Center and an Adjunct Faculty member at DePaul University’s College of Law and The Grace School of Applied Diplomacy. He talks about responding to the federal government’s proposed regulations entitled “Procedures for Asylum and Withholding of Removal; Credible Fear and Reasonable Fear Review.”
We encourage you to file your own comments opposing part or all of the proposed procedures and asking the government to withdraw the entire proposed rule. To assist you in obtaining a link to the proposed procedures or in filing your comment, you may incorporate your remarks into one of the templates provided by the following:
The National Immigrant Justice Center offers this template for any community member concerned about access to asylum:
If you are concerned about unaccompanied minors or children refugee issues, you might find the template of the Young Center helpful:
Both websites provide additional information on how the proposed regulations restrict access to the courts and prevent bona fide applicants from presenting their cases for asylum. Please make sure your comments are filed on or before 11:59 p.m. EDT, Wednesday, July 15, 2020.
Please share this podcast and links with members of your community or faith organizations, family members and friends. Encourage them to file comments to help ensure that our nation continues to offer shelter for refugees in need. Thank you for your consideration of this request.
If you would like more information about the documentary, “Brightness of Noon, the Intersect of Faith, Refugees and Immigrants, Part II,”
Supreme Court DACA Ruling and the Vincentian Mission
This is a podcast interview with Rev. Craig B. Mousin founder and former Executive Director of the Midwest Immigrant Rights Center and an Adjunct Faculty member at DePaul University’s College of Law. He talks about the June, 2020 18, DACA ruling by the United States Supreme Court and what DACA means for the Vincentian Community and DePaul Students.
For more information visit: National Immigrant Justice Center: immigrantjustice.org/issues/daca-and-dreamers
We reference this previous episode in this podcast: “It is more than just the dreamers”
Faith Resisting Authority in the Name of Justice and Love: Immigration Law and the Bible
Certain sections of the Bible have historically been used by governments and others in authority to justify policies that result in increased suffering among the poor. Rev. Craig Mousin cites a verse from the Letter to the Romans that has recently been used by the United States Federal Government with that very result.
He points out that a fuller reading of that letter and of the Bible as a whole clearly shows examples of people of faith who have resisted authority in the name of justice and love.
Ask yourself: when making an important decision and seeking guidance from Scripture, do I verse-shop for a passage that will justify my previously held position, or do I look for that Spirit of Justice and Love, Wisdom and Compassion that hides within its pages?
!t is More than Just the Dreamers
In “It is More Than Just the Dreamers,” Rev. Craig Mousin, J.D., discusses the disruptive impacts that changes to the enforcement priority policies established by the Obama Administration are having in communities across the board. Our country was founded on the promise of Equality that is a necessary component of democracy. That promise is compromised by the fractures created in our communities by the fears created among immigrant populations, whether citizen or unauthorized, that ultimately impact public health, safety, and economics. The impact, then, is felt in more than the immigrant population. It is evidenced in work communities, academic communities, worshiping communities, and neighborhoods. The broken immigration system in the United States leaves courts unable to provide legal redress in a timely manner and the chaos that ensues leaves a trail of broken families and broken dreams. What must be done?