[applause] free baba now free baba now free baba now free baba now free baba now [banging] they dont want to show us the warrant imagine youre in your pajamas and youre about to wake up for the day to begin theyre taking my husband. And they take you away from everybody you love and you know, even though youve lived here your entire life. Or imagine youre baba sillah and you go to isis headquarters, do what youre supposed to do you check in. And you go there thinking, then im going to go to work, then im going to go see my babies at night, my wife, and im going to live my life. And they end all that. No ban. No wall these are racist laws that are tearing families apart in a way thats in opposition to everything that this country is supposed to believe in. Weve been on this track of creating this aggressive, relentless challenge to isis actions to shine a light on whats wrong. [traffic sounds] what id like to do is to talk about the day when ice came to pick you up. They knocked on the door. So i opened the window. They have the police jackets, they have guns. They put me in the the thing handcuffs . Yes. Rapid Defense Network provides last minute Emergency Work for people getting detained or deported. We focus exclusively on that. Weve kind of created the model. You have the right to stay in the United States. We dont want them at any point to say, ok, you have to go back to nepal before the process is done. I mean, the problem in all these cases is that these individuals who lived here, have been part of the community, are just taken. Its like a dictatorship, disappearing people. And it makes trying to defend against it extremely challenging. Because youre not only racing against the clock, but youre like racing against complete invisibility about whats going on. By the way, not to be a debbie downer, but i dont want to be the only one with this information in my head because it makes me sad. But the [bleep] was deported. Was he really . Yeah, from april. The uscis submitted a notice that he was deported, which just means he lost his appeal, i guess. Yeah, his motion to reopen was denied. Wow. [mournful music] there are so many insane things about Immigration Law. It flips inside out everything that we learned in fifth grade about our government and our country and how it works. [water rushing] Immigration Law as we know it was not in existence when most peoples grandparents arrived at ellis island. So when people say, why dont they do it the way our ancestors did, its because the rules have been drastically rewritten, and they were rewritten in racist ways. One of the first major Immigration Acts was the Chinese Exclusion Act thats what it was called. It was written to exclude Chinese People from the United States. This is where we started and it just got worse from there. The way that the Immigration Code is written, its compared to the tax code in terms of its complexity and incomprehensibility. So youre dealing already with a mess that was based in racist principles about keeping people out, all the way up to 9 11. 9 11 happens and everything shifts to national security. [applause] the Homeland Security act of 2002 takes the next critical steps. After 9 11, the ins doesnt exist anymore. Its split up into a new agency called the department of Homeland Security, and another agency, the Department Of Justice, headed by the Attorney General and the president. So everything gets sucked into the executive branch, but now its on steroids. Well have nearly 170,000 employees. You have the department of Homeland Security handling visas and immigration enforcement. But the Immigration Judges are within the Department Of Justice theyre part of the deportation mechanism. Theyre not independent. Youre trying to get in front of a real judge. Theres such control over Immigration Judges that you want to get in front of somebody with Federal Court powers, which are just much broader and independent. Federal court allows for people to exercise their rights and present their case to the court through a Writ Of Habeas Corpus. Habeas corpus, literally means bring the body to court. [gavel bangs] the Writ Of Habeas Corpus ensures the defendants will not be held in jail without due process of law. This being a violation of the constitution of the United States, he cannot be unlawfully detained without an accusation made before a judge. Generally in immigration cases, youre limited in your ability to have a judge actually hear your case. So the thread through all of our cases was this continuing effort to getting our clients cases actually heard. Hi, its sarah gillman. Were going to be asked to be heard by judge ramos again. We just spoke to mr. [bleep] wife and she said that he was moved at 2 00 in the morning to alabama. Im not really sure why we will call the court and let them know that were going to go back and request to be heard with the uptodate facts. Its really like, the game is, they dont want us to be able to bring cases anywhere rather than it makes any sense or theres any sort of legal basis for it. This is the us government, theyve got attorneys everywhere. And yet were supposed to run around like this is the Writ Of Habeas Corpus thats not supposed to be suspended, absent rebellion or civil insurrection. And this is how they deal with it, which makes no sense. All right. Everything we do is in uncharted territory. So its impossible not to be learning a lot as we go along. We didnt get a stay in new york so now were going to go to new jersey. And when we get to court, im going to go to the Clerks Office and ask that we be heard. And maybe well get judge salas so we can do mrs. [bleep] case and then well do mr. [bleep] case. Do a twofer. And i dont know whats going to happen with mr. [bleep]. Im assuming hes going to be deported tomorrow if we dont get a stay. Well do the best we can. So well see. God, i hope we win today. I mean, thatll be epic. Your honor, there are significant questions here regarding actions taken by the government and whether or not they were legal. Habeas corpus proved to be like the most effective defense against unlawful government conduct. Gregory and sarah are using it to put pressure on the government to say, you have to have a valid reason for holding this person and depriving them of their liberty. The legal writing that they do, which is brilliant and nimble, just puts a wedge in the Deportation Machine and then creates a machine to kind of reverse the gears. Baba sillah came to the United States from gambia in 1993. He had sought protection from persecution. He gets married. His wife is a us citizen. He has five us citizen children. He gets a job. He becomes a union member. Without any warning, he gets detained at a routine ice checkin. It again shows that all of your Immigration Policies are simply based in hate and bigotry. Baba should be no place except working and taking care of his family. [applause] we found out because there was a lot of news media about baba. There were some tweets about it, and i read and its like, five us citizen children, us citizen wife. Im like, ok, come on. I will give free representation to the sillah family. Gregory actually reached out and he said, let us know if you need help. This is sort of the work we do. Theyre supposed to call me back. I dont hear from them. So over that weekend, my Colleague Sarah and i, we were driving back from rochester from another hearing in another case through this crazy, wild storm. We had gone up there with a journalist that was following the case. And as we were driving down, we got a call from the lawyers who were representing baba sillah. And they said, hes getting deported today. They are taking him to jfk as we speak. Can you please help us . We looked at the gps and it said we were about three hours away from new york. The flight is going to take off at 8 05. We realized theres no way we were going to make it to the city on time. I think for a moment and we were like, what do we do . And then we were just like, ok, were going to file everything online. Its going to break the rules a little bit, then were going to call the judge and were going to demand a hearing and see what happens. So we wrote the petition. Sarah is driving down the highway. And like the winds are going crazy. Greg uses this phone as a hotspot because theres no service. I start writing this thing at 5 00. I file it at 6 10. I call the court, my phones not working. So we pulled up at a gas station. Its snowing, its the middle of nowhere. And sarah and greg just call into the chambers. Judge says, ok, were going to hold a hearing at 7 20. So now weve got 45 minutes until the plane takes off. Im talking to the lawyers. They are parking at some gas station, working on babas case. They are filing some emergency stay, so lets see whats going to happen before the flight is going to take off. That was going to be 8 20. Almost i was like im out of my mind. Sarah and greg argued the case that baba sillah had a right to stay because there were still legal avenues available to him. Your honor, i believe that the application is about pursuing the process that has been held out to him. The main point here is that at this point, hes boarding the plane with four ice agents. As soon as they lift off, theres just no coming back from that obviously. But at 7 45, the judge is like, listen. Im giving an order now that i want him taken off the plane. The order is effective as of now as im saying it, so please convey that to ice so that theres no danger of mr. Sillah being removed. I want to make sure thats all clear. It is, your honor. I have received confirmation that ice is aware of the courts order. Very good. Thank you, your honor. Gregory and i were in the front seat and we were like high fiving. I was like, oh my god, thats so amazing. They guarantee baba to stay. Everybody fall on the floor. Everybody said, oh, thank god. That day yeah, i dont know how can i explain the day. It was a very good day for us. Yeah. It was like blowing up on social media, this deportation had been stayed. And i saw gregory tweeting. And it looks to me like they had just filed a petition from the vehicle. The government had to go back on the plane and take the person off of the plane. Gregory and sarah, theyve become experts in saving people from being deported at the last second people who are about to be deported and shouldnt be. You could manufacture a whole new way of manufacturing. Disrupt Buying Habits before they disrupt your business. And fuel the search for what comes next. So. What are you waiting for . 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I think in my first 20 some cases, i found like six or seven us citizens about to be deported. It was disturbing to think that thats possible. In february last year, i went to go report as i normally do for eight years. And i was sitting there too long. Somethings not right. We worked on a case together of a client named nirna pierrepaul. She came from haiti as a young girl, and she was thrown into detention several times throughout her life before we discovered that she was actually a us citizen. And we prevented her deportation. So the judge terminated the case with prejudice, meaning that the government can never bring a case back against nirna because shes not an alien. So shes safe forever. Um, im kind of lost for words right now. Um, im free. I know america. I dont know over there. And that man in there was trying to send me back, but the judge didnt see it that way. Have fun with james on friday. All right you know, since we started this project, weve only turned away one case. We lost three cases in a week and a half, right . One in new york, one in new jersey, and one in florida and california. But you cant look at a case and say, im going to take this case because i know im going to win. Youre a lawyer. You take the case because you think theres a legal argument you can make. And why not fight it out and see . You know . The same things have always been important to me fighting when things are not fair. Growing up, i had really pretty serious learning problems. I had an amazing mother who was really dedicated. She would read all my textbooks onto tape which i then listened to because i couldnt read. And so the sense of injustice that i felt, it was sort of formative. I got a job at a big law firm. I worked there for almost eight years. I was making Tons Of Money but it was never meaningful. Donald j. Trump is calling for a total and complete shutdown of muslims entering the United States. Donald trump got elected and then the muslim ban was issued. [applause] let them in let them in so then im like, ok, im done with this. I took an 82 pay cut. President trumps Immigration Crackdown has caused chaos and confusion. I started at the Legal Aid Society, and my supervisor was sarah gillman. Weve seen Volunteer Lawyers on laptops, trying to write arguments. I still remember that night of the travel ban. A bunch of us at legal aid, sitting at the airport, pressing send after we wrote a habeas petition. Because they needed people to file habeas petitions to stop deportations. I had been doing Detention Work for 10 years and i just had never seen anything like it. Thank you. Youre doing a good job out here. Thank you. The first time i ever met gregory at legal aid, he said he was really interested in federal litigation. And i was like, oh, thats amazing. I believe strongly that we should be in Federal Court as much as we could, even more so right after trump was elected. Sarah and i kind of became a very solid team because we had a similar approach of, like, lets just figure out how to make this work. We dont need to win every case. We just need to keep fighting. I mean, its a fucking terrible decision. Yeah. I cant believe it if she allows them to deport him, the constitution, which is a guiding thing and has to apply to mr. [bleep], doesnt. I mean, thats whats so fucking frustrating about it, you know . [cars honking] i think im kind of like the scrappy street lawyer. Ugh drives me crazy. But im always willing to try. Like i want to do a good job, but im not perfect. I think everybody deals with this work differently, and i deal with it just by taking a walk sometimes. So if the only place to walk is around costco, i go and do that. And if i was actually by myself, i probably would have sat there and had my whatever drink. And then im ready to go again. You know, trump inherited this Immigration System but the system was in place long before him. Obama deported far more people than all the president s before him. He at some point, became the deporterinchief. If youre a criminal, youll be deported. But obama focused Remov