ABA ADVOCACY AND NEWS
On visit to Texas border, ABA president advocates for migrants’ legal rights
July 2, 2018 – In a two-day visit to the Rio Grande Valley, where thousands of parents and their separated children are detained as a result of the administration’s “zero-tolerance” policy, ABA President Hilarie Bass spoke out about the need for legal services to ensure they receive the due process to which they are entitled.
Want to help at the border? ABA groups offer avenues to donate time and money
June 27, 2018 – ABA Journal article highlighting what the ABA is currently doing to respond to the crisis and how ABA members and others can help.
ABA president describes weeping mothers and due process concerns at the border
June 27, 2018 – ABA Journal – ABA President Hilarie Bass traveled to the Rio Grande Valley of Texas to see how American lawyers can help families separated by federal immigration authorities. Public attention has focused on that situation over the past two weeks, as images of immigrants in chain-link holding cells and audio of children weeping for their parents found their way into the media. Bass was also looking at the due process implications of the “zero tolerance” policy—announced in early April by U.S. Attorney General Jeff Sessions—for people who cross the border without authorization.
ABA President Bass to visit southern border to assess legal needs of children and parents
June 22, 2018 – American Bar Association President Hilarie Bass will travel to the Texas Rio Grande Valley area on June 25-26 to assess the legal needs of children and parents caught up in shifting federal policy on the handling of immigrants at the southern U.S. border.
Statement of Hilarie Bass, ABA president Re: Executive Order on separation of children at the border
June 20, 2018 — The American Bar Association is pleased that the administration has decided to stop the inhumane and untenable policy of separating immigrant children from their parents. We call on the government to expeditiously and efficiently reunite families and minimize any further harm to the children. The ABA pledges its full support in working within the legal community to make this happen.
ABA asylum project attorney describes representing separated families at the border
June 20, 2018 – Attorneys representing asylum-seekers from Central America frequently have worked with traumatized clients. But since the federal government began separating families after arresting parents for illegal entry, Kimi Jackson of the ABA’s South Texas Pro Bono Asylum Representation Project says the trauma has gotten far worse.
ABA President Hilarie Bass sends letter to DOJ, Homeland Security opposing separation of children
June 12, 2018 — American Bar Association President Hilarie Bass sent a letter today to Attorney General Jeff Sessions and Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen expressing the association’s strong opposition to recent actions by the Department of Justice and DHS that have resulted in a drastic increase in the separation of children from their parents when arriving at the southern border.
Statement of Hilarie Bass, ABA president Re: Separating immigrant children from parents at the border
May 30, 2018 — The American Bar Association strongly opposes the government’s policy of forcibly separating minor children from their parents when families cross the southern border into the United States. This unnecessarily cruel action violates basic standards of human decency.