A group of students, alumni and volunteers from the University of Southern California are banding together to help people with upcoming immigration-related court hearings.
Olu Orange, assistant professor of political science and international relations and founder of the USC Dornsife Agents of Change: Civil Rights Advocacy Initiative, files motions to have court hearings moved online, which prevents defendants from being seized by federal agents when they show up for court in person.
Calls to AoC’s hotline — 888-462-5211 — are answered by about 15 volunteers who help the defendants fill out the necessary paperwork to request to move their hearing online. Help is available for both English and Spanish speakers.
With the support of the National Immigration Project, Orange and his firm, Orange Law Office, then file the motion.
“A lot of the people who have immigration hearings coming up are not represented by counsel, so they’ve got to do all this stuff themselves, unless they have somebody helping,” Orange said, as reported by USC Annenberg Media. “We endeavor to do that with Agents of Change.”
Orange noted that there is no guarantee the motion will pass, and USC said this hotline is not affiliated with the USC Gould School of Law or its Immigration Law Clinic, but that hasn’t stopped thousands of people from all across the country from calling for assistance.
As Orange explained, those calling are trying to follow the law, and they’re being punished for it.
“The fact that [migrants] have a case in court means that they’re following the legal processes that they’re supposed to. And when they do that and they report to their court date, they’re being seized,” he said.
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