Colectiva Legal del Pueblo

Let us tell you about our client:

Brian is a father of four U.S. citizen children who came to the US over 20 years ago. He had to convince a judge not to deport him, allowing him to stay here with his family, where he works, and plays soccer with his children on the weekends. Even though the Biden Administration has promised not to deport families or individuals who are not priorities, Brian needed our help.

In January, we went to court requesting that Brian’s case be dismissed. Our request was denied! We were undeterred, and prepared to present a full asylum trial.The morning of the hearing the ICE attorney had a "change of heart" (her words!) and dismissed the case minutes before we started.

This is what we do - we stand with our families and fight to keep them together.

Brian es padre de cuatro niños ciudadanos estadounidenses que llegaron a los EE. UU. hace más de 20 años. Tuvo que convencer a un juez para que no lo deportara, permitiéndole quedarse aquí con su familia, donde trabaja y juega fútbol con sus hijos los fines de semana. Aunque la Administración Biden prometió no deportar a familias o personas que no sean prioritarias, Brian necesitaba nuestra ayuda.

En enero, acudimos a los tribunales solicitando que se desestimara el caso de Brian. ¡Nuestra solicitud fue denegada! No nos inmutamos y nos preparamos para presentar un juicio de asilo completo. La mañana de la audiencia, el abogado de ICE "cambió de opinión" (¡sus palabras!) Y desestimó el caso minutos antes de que comenzáramos.

Esto es lo que hacemos: apoyamos a nuestras familias y luchamos para mantenerlas unidas.

Who We Are:

Colectiva Legal del Pueblo is a non-hierarchical collective that works to build community leadership and power for migrant justice through legal advocacy and education. Undocumented community organizers, activists, and attorneys brought Colectiva to life to combat the immigration detention and deportation machine through legal representation, and creating support networks for families.

Colectiva Legal del Pueblo es un colectivo no jerárquico que trabaja para la construcción de liderazgo comunitario y poder para la justicia migrante a través de orientación legal y educación. Organizadores indocumentados de la comunidad, activistas y abogados trajeron a la vida a Colectiva para combatir la máquina de detención migratoria y deportación a través de la representación legal y creación de redes de apoyo para las familias.

What We Do:

In recent years, the broken immigration system has become increasingly brutal and unbearable for our friends, families and neighbors. The barriers placed by our government institutions on the accessibility of quality legal services has perpetuated a systemic cycle of violence towards immigrant families. There is an all-time high demand for legal representation in the immigrant community. Unfortunately there is not enough legal expertise available in immigration law to meet the demand of the community facing changing laws. This leads to over 80% of immigrants facing their legal proceedings without adequate representation and increasing the risk of detention, deportation, and the separation of families.

En años recientes, el fracturado sistema migratorio se ha vuelto cada vez más brutal e intolerable para nuestros amigos, familias y vecinos. Las barreras colocadas por las instituciones de nuestro gobierno en la accesibilidad a servicios legales de calidad han perpetuado un sistema cíclico de violencia hacia familias inmigrantes. Existe todo el tiempo una alta demanda por representación legal en la comunidad inmigrante. Desafortunadamente no hay disponible suficiente experticia legal en la ley de inmigración para satisfacer la demanda de la comunidad al afrontar las leyes cambiantes. Esto lleva a alrededor del 80% de los inmigrantes a enfrentar sus procedimientos legales sin representación adecuada y al incremento del riesgo de detención, deportación y separación de familias.

Our families are going up against an unjust system that is created for them to fail.

Nuestras familias se enfrentan a un sistema injusto que es creado para que ellos fracasen. 

Colectiva provides affordable and free legal services to community members across the state. Our holistic approach goes beyond legal services to meet the immediate, and long term needs of our clients and community. Colectiva's community advocates are able to reach out to provide clients access to our food pantry, clothing closet and additional resources. Know your Rights, and Deportation Defense workshops engage people in, and teach organizing strategies to build a powerful immigrant rights movement.

How You Can Support Our Work:

We have an ambitious goal to raise $10,000 to support our legal and advocacy work. Your investment in Colectiva and our community can allow us to do so much. 

Thank you so much for making a difference.

Muchísimas gracias por hacer la diferencia.