Hassan Ahmad Profile picture
Sep 12, 2018 5 tweets 2 min read Twitter logo Read on Twitter
As an immigration lawyer, I believe in due process. Access to counsel is the heart of it. Without lawyers, the immigration system becomes a deportation system.

Today I attended a press conference in San Diego with my friend @Alyssa_Milano and advocates at the @verainstitute.
Vera is announcing the #SafeFamiliesFund, a new fund to provide legal representation for immigrants facing deportation.

Deportation isn't guaranteed. The law allows many of these people the right to stay...if they get the right advice at the right time.

That's the law.
Criminals get lawyers.

Immigrants don't. While hat has to change, we can no longer be the country that deports people to their death, rips their family apart, and denies them a fair shot at telling their story.

Our compassion is our strength.
Let me be clear:

My clients are not criminals. But if they were, they'd be better off. Instead they have to face a court system that runs like traffic court, except the penalty may be death.

No one's asking for handouts. Just a fair chance.
Donate here:

vera.org/supportsafe

I've been doing this work for 15 years and it's high time we bring fundamental fairness back.

Do your part.

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More from @HMAesq

Oct 4, 2018
@FAIRImmigration, founded by Dr. John Tanton, is a mouthpiece of white nationalist rhetoric. But it's more than that: it injects its foul ideology into actual policy.

One (latest) example: Temporary Protected Status, or TPS. Read what a federal judge found:

#SaveTPS
On p29 of the decision, the Court gives yet another example of Acting Secy Elaine Duke, who is supposed to make a dispassionate assessment of conditions on the ground in determining TPS eligibility, said "this conclusion [to end TPS] is the result of an America first view..."
Curious, because America was founded on ideals of welcoming the forcibly displaced. I'm not sure what "American first" has to do with terminating TPS.

If the White House is influencing the decision, we have a problem, because the White House has made A LOT of racist statements.
Read 13 tweets
Sep 28, 2018
Feeling drained after the #KavanaughHearings? I've been thinking about why. Objectively, there are far worse injustices going on even as Kavanaugh spoke.

Sure, there's the out of sight out of mind factor. Most injustice goes unreported; yesterday's hearing was not that.
But there was something distinctive about the hearing. It was a rare exposure of several different vectors of underreported injustice, concentrated into one episode.
We hear stories of sexual assault all the time. Or oppression. Abuser protection. Entitlement. Privilege. Character assassination. Lip service to the oppressed. Trauma. Legalized discrimination.

Rarely do we get to see it all in one day, before hundreds of millions of people
Read 10 tweets
Sep 25, 2018
This administration continues to target aspiring American communities, one by one. DACA revocation, TPS de-designation, changing asylum laws, the Muslim Ban...

What about Indians?... qz.com/india/1400398/…
Once again, the administration regurgitates rhetoric spewed by nativists, and with H-4 work permit revocation, they get an added "bonus" - getting to undo something Obama put in place. Yes, this is what they base their policies on.
But I also wanted to say something about the new public charge rule that greatly expands ineligibility grounds for green cards, which will also play into this attack on the Indian-American community.

This is an attempt to backdoor the RAISE Act into law.
Read 6 tweets
Sep 24, 2018
Well this is curious. Apparently @FAIRImmigration believes I am a paid operative of "state-owned propaganda outlet" @ajplus to meddle in 2018 midterm elections.

Why? For this video I did calling FAIR out as driven by white nationalism:

I'm paid? News to my wallet; I thought I was just doing a public service.

Here's FAIR's press release:

prnewswire.com/news-releases/…
They accuse me of "spreading malicious disinformation in what is a clear attempt to influence the upcoming midterm election." I'm flattered they think so highly of me.

Entirely different, of course, from FAIR's statements influencing lawmakers here:

fairus.org/press-releases…
Read 11 tweets
Sep 24, 2018
There already is a wall, folks.

More effective than any physical barrier on the southern border. Keeps people out before they can even begin their journey.

You can't fly over it or tunnel underneath it. You can't sneak around it, either. And it's much, much harder to tear down.
It's the combined bureaucracy of several different agencies that keeps people out. Physical barriers are a small slice of the pie of exclusion.

But with due process, there is sometimes a way through. Perfectly legal, not unlike carving out a nice little door for yourself.
Today, a green card for our North African client was approved after a 4 year delay. He had been apart from his US citizen wife since 2013, and even though they followed the law to the T, repeatedly told they just needed "one more thing," the visa remained stuck.
Read 6 tweets
Sep 22, 2018
It's Saturday, but there's no day off of this administration's oppression of aspiring Americans... especially the poor.

Most immigrants have always had to prove they're not a public charge: it's been the law for over 100 years.
But the administration now wants to greatly expand what a public charge is...meaning the types of public funds an aspiring American can lawfully use.

And also be able to deny green cards based on an officer's belief of an immigrant's likelihood at becoming a public charge.
I gave this example in a piece I wrote for @qz:
Read 11 tweets

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