Immigration 101

POSTPONED: This webinar has been postponed until October 10.

Immigration in the U.S. is a complex, opaque, slow-changing system with massive ripple effects in our local community. It can feel too overwhelming to engage, but an excellent first step is to educate yourself on what’s happening. Hear from Alyssa Kane and Ryan Brunsink, attorneys who work in immigration law for respected, local nonprofits. They will discuss the current immigration crisis, its history and concrete steps that can make a difference.

The system may seem broken, but there are still ways to bring hope to individuals. Hear about PRC’s current work and ways that you can get involved. Due to requests from the community, PRC began, and continues to expand, its work in immigration, often responding to immediate needs to fill gaps in the current system.

PRC is helping to post bonds so individuals can be reunited with their loved ones and responding to the needs of those leaving detention, including requests from the broader Central Pennsylvania community. This includes providing rides and travel kits for individuals as they leave detention, plus long-term resettlement for asylees who are released without sponsorship and could be homeless otherwise.

Many persons leave the York Detention Center to a community of loved ones. But sometimes an individual is released, but has no community to go to and so is released into immediate homelessness. Occasionally a sponsor is no longer able to host someone who has been bonded out or has received asylum. In these cases, PRC is working with national partners to resettle immigrants into supportive communities who will welcome these individuals to their new lives.

Alyssa Kane is the Managing Attorney for Aldea – The People’s Justice Center. Aldea was formed, in part, as a response to the continued detention of mothers, fathers, and children at the Berks County Residential Center, an immigrant detention center in Leesport, Pennsylvania that holds asylum-seeking families. It is Aldea’s mission to ensure that no parent and child detained at Berks, or elsewhere, is forced to navigate the complex immigration process alone.

Ryan Brunsink is the Managing Attorney for the Detained Program at Pennsylvania Immigration Resource Center (PIRC). PIRC provides access to justice for vulnerable immigrants in detention and in the community through legal services, education, and advocacy. The detention program helps educate detained immigrants about their rights in a complex legal system and provide legal representation for the most vulnerable.