BROOKHAVEN, Ga. — As the Biden administration draws to a close, immigration advocates are ramping up.
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They’re working to educate immigrants about deportation and, in other cases, working to get their cases resolved.
“The fact that there could be deportations, mass deportations and workforce raids are things we are telling the community to get ready for,” CEO of the Latin American Association Santiago Marquez told Channel 2′s Candace McCowan.
Marquez said they want their clients to be ready for the Trump Administration and the deportations he’s promised.
“What would happen if one of the parents gets deported? Who would take care of your children? Who would have custody of your kids? If your kids are going to stay who would have guardianship, bank accounts, finances things like that,” said Marquez about questions they’re asking clients to consider.
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Immigration attorneys, like Marshall Cohen at Antonini and Cohen, are also busy.
“A lot of what we are doing is trying to get in a request for what is called prosecutorial discretion,” said Cohen. “Under the Biden administration, ICE which is the prosecutor, was allowed to exercise discretion to join in a joint motion to dismiss the case.”
This is for immigrants in removal proceedings. Their cases could be dismissed if they meet requirements like, they’ve been in the US a certain amount of time and haven’t committed crimes.
“We’re trying to get those in as quickly as we can because we expect during the new administration that policy will be terminated and we’re going to have to go to court for everything,” said Cohen.
Cohen says they’ve ramped up their filings, even though it could be futile.
“I know they’re flooded and I know they’re trying to get as many done as possible but it’s just going to be impossible. I’ve heard that there’s a backlog of several thousand here in Atlanta,” Cohen said.
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