The Honest Truth
Anne Jang, RILA Supervising Attorney
The past few weeks have been extraordinarily challenging for us at RILA and for everyone else who practices immigration law. Between escalated monitoring procedures at ICE check-ins, new and dramatically increased filing fees for immigration applications, reports of courthouse arrests, immigration judge firings, and expanded mandatory detention, we have just had SO MUCH to keep up with. It's been exhausting and demoralizing.
In this new era, we have found ourselves praying and hoping our clients simply get to go home to their kids after a routine ICE check-in or court hearing. This sobering reality, only six months into this administration, is forcing us to dig deep and look for silver linings wherever we can. It's been helpful for me to remember that the little things still matter. Whether it's successfully helping someone renew their work permit, or completing the first step in obtaining Special Immigrant Juvenile status, or just ensuring another day safe in the U.S., these small victories make a huge difference to our individual clients and their families.
In the early years of our organization, one of our co-founders and previous legal director used to say that RILA’s mission was not only about the “wins,” but about walking with people. This is truer now than ever before. We are in the midst of a grossly uneven war, and we are going to lose many more battles in the next three-and-a-half years than we will win. But I hope our clients feel that they are not alone and that our staff, volunteers, supporters, and churches are with them, even if the outcome is not always what we'd hoped for.
I think often these days about God’s justice and how it is not always apparent in the present. It is so tough to sit in a place of helplessness and frustration watching injustice seemingly prevail. But I believe that God sees and will one day make all things right. Maybe not when we want, or in ways that we expect, but ultimately He will. And that gives me some measure of hope and solace even as this work continues to get harder and the future for our clients looks uncertain.
The Lord works righteousness and justice for all who are oppressed.
Psalm 103:6