Dear friends,

ICE is again taking immigrants into custody in Pittsburgh – detaining them and deporting them leaving their families to wonder what happened and where they are. As a result, Casa has had to bring back its Attorney Rapid Response Team.

I’m asking those of you who have an active license to practice law to volunteer. I volunteered during Trump I and found it to be deeply gratifying. While at ICE, I was always treated professionally. I have retired so no longer have an active license.

I am asking those of you who don’t practice law to circulate this message to others in the hope that there will be volunteers for this important work.

The process is straightforward:

• Casa will ask you to volunteer on whatever days you can be on call in the upcoming month;
• When Casa is notified that someone has been detained by ICE, the on-call volunteer attorney for that day goes down to ICE to find out specific information. ICE is on the Southside close to the IBEW hall;
• Someone from Casa who speaks Spanish will meet you there; and
• You’ll get the information – mainly the Alien Number.

A draft of the Attorney Checklist is attached. This is not high-powered immigration attorney stuff. Anyone could get the information about the detained person, but ICE will only deal with an attorney.

There is a short training session planned for this Sunday, February 16 at noon in Brookline. Location specifics will be given to those who plan to attend. Contact Jarrod at: jarrod@casasanjose.org

This is a critical role.

So many thanks for doing what you can do,

Jane (Louik)