Tag: rapid response

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AABANY Members Attend Federal Habeas Training Hosted by Coalition of Immigrant Justice Groups

On Saturday, November 22, 2025, AABANY members attended the 2025 Immigration Justice Conference, a full-day convening dedicated to strengthening legal and community responses to immigration enforcement. The conference was held at the Alianza Dominicana Cultural Center in Washington Heights and organized by a coalition of immigrant justice organizations alongside the Dominican Bar Association.

This year’s conference offered two parallel tracks:

(1) an Attorney Training Track focused on federal habeas corpus litigation, and

(2) a Community & Advocacy Track designed for nonprofits, CBOs, unions, and service providers preparing for rapid-response coordination.

AABANY members participated in the attorney track, which provided in-depth instruction on filing and litigating federal habeas petitions on behalf of non-citizens in immigration custody. Trainers included former Department of Justice officials, offering practitioners firsthand insight into federal court practice, litigation strategy, and recent developments in habeas jurisprudence.

From left to right: Conference organizers Yesenia Mata (Executive Director, La Colmena) and David Satnarine with Vishal Chander (AABANY Board Member and Issues Committee Co-Chair).
From left to right: AABANY members Jack Hsia (Staff Attorney, Chinese-American Planning Council, Inc.) and Vishal Chander (The Chander Law Firm, PC).

Strengthening Immigrant Defense Through Collaboration

The Immigration Justice Conference emphasized collaborative preparedness across legal and community sectors during a time of evolving federal immigration enforcement. AABANY extends its thanks to the organizers—including La Colmena, Afrikana, Mixteca, and partner organizations—for hosting this vital training and for their continued leadership in expanding access to justice for immigrant communities.

For more information about future trainings, the organizing committee can be reached at immjusticeconf2025@gmail.com.

—Written by Vishal Chander, AABANY Board Member and Issues Committee Co-Chair

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POV: Call for Projects to Combat Hateful Rhetoric Locally

From POV:

As POV’s Community Engagement and Education team, we know that so many of our partners are experts at engaging their communities around issues of local and national importance. With that in mind, we wanted to share this exciting new initiative with you. Open Society Foundations has announced a new rapid-response initiative to support community organizations combatting hateful rhetoric. Since November 8, the Southern Poverty Law Center has received over 700 reports of “hateful harassment and intimidation.” The Open Society Foundations initiative is an effort to move swiftly to address this urgent problem, providing support designed to encourage and empower communities to resist the spread of hate and strengthen services and protections for their most vulnerable neighbors.

Projects must be:

  • Responsive to a specific incident, threat or risk and benefit frequently persecuted populations;
  • Timely, urgent, and concrete—the event or situation you are responding to requires immediate action that is well thought out with a clear set of goals and outcomes that can be achieved within six months.

Applicants’ organizational strengths must include the following:

  • Positioning in their community as a trusted resource, led by the communities they serve and responsive and accountable to those communities;
  • Commitment to serving persecuted populations and the values of inclusion, diversity, fairness, and equal protection;
  • Longstanding track record of serving persecuted populations, protecting civil rights, and/or fighting against racism and discrimination.

The Open Society Foundations initiative aims to serve direct resources quickly to organizations that are well positioned to provide support, services, technical assistance, and outreach to individuals and organizations dealing with acts of hate.

We encourage our partners to apply to this unique opportunity and stay in touch with the Community Engagement and Education team as your work progresses.

Learn More HERE.

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