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About the Episode

E1 | Social Justice Lawyering: Strategies to Confront the New Administration: Immigrant Justice | 12/04/2024

This episode is a panel recorded on December 4, 2024, the first of CUNY Law’s series Social Justice Lawyering: Strategies to Confront the New Administration, which brings together expert faculty and alumni to examine the legal landscape, anticipated challenges, and strategic responses for social justice lawyers in the current moment.

This was recorded before the inauguration and the sweeping executive orders that now define the new administration’s approach to immigration, designed to expand mass detention, criminalize migration, and erode basic constitutional protections—orders that don’t just threaten immigrants—they weaponize immigration law as a tool of political repression.

In this conversation you’ll hear clear-eyed analysis, lived expertise, and strategies for organizing, resisting, and defending our communities in this moment and beyond.

Panel

  • Professor Nermeen Arastu – Co-Director, Immigrant and Non-Citizen Rights Clinic, CUNY Law
  • Professor Talia Peleg ’10– Co-Director, Immigrant and Non-Citizen Rights Clinic, CUNY Law
  • Yasmeen Farhang ’13 – Director of Advocacy, Immigrant Defense Project
  • Karem Herrera ’24 – Immigrant Justice Fellow, Lutheran Social Services

moderated by David C. Baluarte, Senior Associate Dean for Academic Affairs and Professor, CUNY Law

Key Takeaways

  • The Evolution of the Immigration Crisis – From the first Trump administration to today
  • Legal & Advocacy Strategies – How state and local efforts can protect immigrant communities
  • Community Lawyering – The role of legal education and grassroots movements in fighting for justice
  • Federal Immigration Policy – What changes we anticipate and how to respond

Additional Resources

CUNY Immigrant and Non-Citizen Rights Clinic: Inside the Clinic and its resources
Immigrant Defense Project: Get Involved
NYC Rapid Response Legal Collaborative
Make the Road
CUNY Law Events: Stay Updated

SUSTAINED: Conversations & Advocacy at CUNY Law

Go inside the conversations, classrooms, and collective efforts happening at CUNY Law with Sustained, a series about how lawyers, organizers, and communities are carrying social justice advocacy forward—not for a moment, but with the movements.