Quigley Visits Chicago Immigration Help Desk Following Recent Expansion
CHICAGO – Today, U.S. Representative Mike Quigley (IL-05) visited the National Immigrant Justice Center (NIJC) Immigration Court Help Desk in Chicago to observe day-to-day operations of the program, which received federal funding to expand services in August.
"The Immigration Court Help Desk in Chicago plays a critical role in providing vital legal resources to immigrants seeking security and opportunity in our country," said Rep. Quigley. "It is imperative that all individuals, including immigrants, know their legal rights and receive equal treatment under our legal system. I look forward to continuing to work with the National Immigrant Justice Center to advance our shared efforts to protect due process and improve access to counsel for these vulnerable families."
NIJC is one of five legal service providers across the country that received federal funding to operate an immigration court help desk this summer. With offices in Chicago, Washington, D.C. and Goshen, IN, the organization strives to ensure human rights protections and access to justice for immigrants, refugees and asylum seekers and provides pro-bono legal services to more than 10,000 individuals each year.
During the visit, Rep. Quigley met with Christine Epstein, Court Administrator, and Steve Lang, Director of the Office of Legal Access Programs (OLAP) within the Executive Office for Immigration Review (EOIR), to learn more about Help Desk operations and consultative services. He then visited a court room and discussed immigration case processing with Immigration Judges Fujimoto and Peyton.
In August 2016, Rep. Quigley announced that NIJC's Immigration Court Help Desk in Chicago would receive funding from the Executive Office for Immigration Review for expansion purposes. The help desk provides access to legal rights information for immigrants who lack representation. The new expansion allows immigration lawyers from NIJC to provide information sessions four days per week for any immigrant who arrives for a hearing at the Chicago Immigration Court without a lawyer. The expansion came after Rep. Quigley and Rep. José Serrano (NY-15), members of the House Appropriations Committee, announced the inclusion of $1 million in the Fiscal Year 2016 Omnibus Appropriations Act signed by President Obama for the creation of information help desks at the nation's most backlogged immigration courts. It was the first time that funding had been allocated for this initiative in an appropriations bill.
Rep. Quigley has been a strong supporter of comprehensive immigration reform throughout his time in Congress and has pushed Congress to pass a pathway to citizenship for millions of undocumented immigrants. Most recently, Rep. Quigley offered an amendment to the Fiscal Year 2016 Homeland Security appropriations bill that would prohibit the detention of immigrant children and families in our nation's immigration detention centers, saving over $345 million in taxpayer dollars from family detention and reinvesting that money into more humane and cost-effective Alternatives to Detention. He used his position on the House Appropriations Committee to highlight the need for Congress to protect undocumented immigrants from abuse in detention centers, reject unconstitutional Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) detainers, and end a mandated detention bed quota that wastes millions of dollars annually. Rep. Quigley led a letter last summer urging the president to take executive action to enact more human immigration deportation and detention policies.