Support RMIAN on Colorado Gives Day!
For 25 years, RMIAN has stood alongside immigrants and their families in Colorado—defending due process, protecting human rights, and ensuring that all people have access to justice. Because of supporters like you, RMIAN has provided free legal representation and social service support to tens of thousands of people over the past 25 years. Please donate today to ensure this impact continues! Your generosity ensures that no one faces this system alone—that loved ones have someone to represent them and to protect their rights.
For 25 years, RMIAN has stood alongside immigrants and their families in Colorado—defending due process, protecting human rights, and ensuring that all people have access to justice. Because of supporters like you, RMIAN has provided free legal representation and social service support to tens of thousands of people over the past 25 years. Please donate today to ensure this impact continues! Your generosity ensures that no one faces this system alone—that loved ones have someone to represent them and to protect their rights.
RMIAN 25th Anniversary Celebration & Volunteer Appreciation!
This year, RMIAN proudly celebrates 25 years of providing life-changing legal representation and advocacy for immigrants in Colorado. Join us on December 3rd to commemorate this milestone and to show appreciation for our volunteers and supporters that helped make it possible!
Every day, RMIAN fights for justice and stands alongside individuals who face unimaginable odds: children alone in immigration court, parents separated from their families, and individuals detained without access to legal counsel. Over the past 25 years, RMIAN has provided free legal representation and advocacy to tens of thousands of people in immigration proceedings in Colorado, working alongside our clients and partners to fight for justice. Join us to celebrate this incredible milestone, and to honor the volunteers and supporters who have made this work possible!
RMIAN 25th Anniversary Celebration & Volunteer Appreciation
Wednesday, December 3, 2025, 5:30pm - 7:30pm
Program begins at 6pm and will include inspiring client stories, and reflections from Hiroshi Motomura, RMIAN Founding Board Member, UCLA Professor of Law, and author of recently published Borders and Belonging: Toward a Fair Immigration Policy.
Schoolyard Beer Garden, Auditorium Event Space
1115 Acoma St
Denver, CO 80204
RSVPs are required to attend this event. Space is limited--please RSVP here today! Please note: this will not be a plated dinner. Guests will enjoy street tacos and drinks. The event space is on the 2nd floor—there is an elevator available for accessibility.
A very special THANK YOU to our incredible event sponsors for making this celebration possible!
The Colorado Health Foundation
Brownstein Hyatt Farber Schreck, LLP
Colorado Lawyers Trust Account Foundation (COLTAF)
Cooley LLP
Jerry Glick, Columbia Group LLLP
Kilpatrick Townsend & Stockton LLP
Palmer Polaski PC
Rathod Mohamedbhai LLC
If you are interested in being an event sponsor, please reach out to RMIAN's Director of Development & Communications, Jodi Vongsakoun at development@rmian.org.
Join us for the CBA CLE Immigration Law Training!
This Friday, November 14th - Please join the Rocky Mountain Immigrant Advocacy Network and the Colorado Bar Association Continuing Legal Education for our annual Immigration Law CLE training! CLE Credits: General Credits - 5.00
This training is only $75 for attorneys who agree to take a pro bono case through RMIAN.
Please join the Rocky Mountain Immigrant Advocacy Network and CBA-CLE for our annual Immigration Law CLE training on November 14, 2025! This event will include a substantive review of the requirements for cancellation of removal followed by interactive trial advocacy sessions that are sure to improve your litigation skills (and confidence) in immigration court. Attorneys who agree to take a pro bono case through RMIAN attend for only $75! CLE Credits: General Credits - 5.00
The need for legal representation in immigration proceedings is greater than ever. Build your skills for defending and advancing the rights of non-citizens during this half-day training offered both in-person and virtually. This training is great for immigration and non-immigration attorneys who have one or fewer years of immigration law experience, and for attorneys who have experience in one area of immigration law and are interested in learning about a new case type.
This year, we will start by reviewing requirements for cancellation of removal, a relief option for some long-term members of our communities and survivors of domestic violence. This substantive training will be followed by a two-hour interactive trial advocacy session focusing on conducting direct examination and responding to objections.
Continental breakfast and lunch will be provided. There will also be opportunities to sign up for a case that day, if you are inspired and ready to get started!
Colorado Politics: Federal judge orders release hearing for torture victim in 'abhorrent' immigration custody
A federal judge on Friday found a "real risk" that the government would try to unlawfully deport a man who was tortured in his home country, and ordered a hearing to determine if he should be released from immigration custody while his case proceeds.
Per his attorney, RMIAN’s Laura Lunn: “Mr. Maldonado's case is emblematic of everything that's wrong with the immigration system. He survived past torture in El Salvador and Costa Rica and the Department of Homeland Security locked him up without a key," she said. "Today he can breathe a little easier, and I hope that very soon, he will regain his liberty, reunite with his family, and finally live a protected life here in the United States."
Read full article here.
MSN: U.S. citizens, asylum seekers and more: The real people affected by Trump's latest immigration raids
With workplace raids and “roving patrols,” U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) has dramatically ramped up its efforts to apprehend and deport undocumented immigrants in recent weeks throughout major U.S. cities.
“We are setting people up,” RMIAN’s Emily Brock said of the government’s new strategy. “We’re giving people a set of rules they’re told to follow, and then halfway through the game, we’re changing the rules with no notice. And it includes a loss of liberty. … That is an intentional incitement of fear in the community, and it is not what I believe this country stands for.” Full article here.
Image: Damian Dovarganes/AP
Mother Jones: Trump Disappeared Them to El Salvador. Now, They’re Being Erased by Immigration Courts.
On May 30, Frizgeralth de Jesús Cornejo Pulgar was scheduled for a hearing in a United States immigration court. But Cornejo Pulgar—an asylum seeker from Venezuela fleeing potential persecution from paramilitary groups aligned with the government of Nicolás Maduro—was not able to attend the proceeding. The 26-year-old is stuck in El Salvador. He is one of some 230 Venezuelans the Trump administration disappeared, without due process, to the Central American country’s Terrorism Confinement Center (CECOT). More here.
Mitú: The Trump Administration Just Cut a Program That Supported Immigrants with Mental Illnesses — And Immigrant Rights Groups are Suing
The Trump administration dismantled a program that offers legal representation to detained migrants with mental illness or cognitive disabilities. The program, known as the National Qualified Representative Program (NQRP), offered qualified representation to those deemed mentally incompetent to stand trial. Without the program, vulnerable people will face deportation proceedings without legal representation.
Fox31: Immigrant detained by ICE after hearing in federal courthouse in Denver
U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents detained an immigrant who showed up for a hearing at the Federal Immigration Courthouse Friday morning after leaving the courtroom. Article here.
Denver Post: Feds detain immigrant family at Denver courthouse amid new Trump strategy
Federal agents detained a family of three after they attended a hearing at Denver Immigration Court on Thursday, part of a spate of courthouse arrests nationwide over the last two weeks as the Trump administration pursues a new strategy aimed at mass detentions. More here.
ICE Arrests Families at Denver Court
On May 29, 2025, ICE arrested a family at the Denver Immigration Court family docket. RMIAN has a daily presence at the court, providing information, Know Your Rights presentations, and legal representation to children and families before the court. At the court this morning, a group of ICE Enforcement and Removal Operations (ERO) officers surrounded a family of three--their toddler was truly terrified.
Denver, Colorado, May 29, 2025—This morning, ICE arrested a family at the Denver Immigration Court family docket. RMIAN has a daily presence at the court, providing information, Know Your Rights presentations, and legal representation to children and families before the court. At the court this morning, a group of ICE Enforcement and Removal Operations (ERO) officers surrounded a family of three--their toddler was truly terrified.
Emily Brock, RMIAN Children's Program Deputy Managing Attorney, was present during the incident. ERO officers refused to allow her to speak to the family before taking them away. This unconscionable act follows a trend playing out in other cities around the U.S. of individuals being arrested while they diligently try to comply with their immigration court hearing dates. This is an absolutely horrifying and traumatic situation for our Colorado community.
Emily Brock stated: "As a parent, I cannot imagine the terror these parents experienced as the officers surrounded them with their child in their arms and told them they were to go with them. As the officers got closer, the little boy's arms clung tighter around his father's neck. To take enforcement action against a family following the rules, attending their proceedings, is an attack on due process and serves only to instigate increased levels of fear in the community."
Read CPR News coverage of the incident here: https://www.cpr.org/2025/05/29/ice-detains-family-denver-immigration-court/
Rocky Mountain Immigrant Advocacy Network Condemns Use of “Wellness Checks” Because They Threaten Community Safety in Colorado
RMIAN rejects the idea that Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) “wellness checks” have the intention of protecting children; they have the opposite effect.
The "wellness checks" being conducted by various federal law enforcement agencies claim to be about ensuring the safety of children. In reality, these visits are part of an ICE directive to locate and investigate unaccompanied children and their sponsors, threatening family unity for kids, many of whom have experienced abuse, abandonment, and neglect.
Westminster, Colorado, June 5, 2025—Rocky Mountain Immigrant Advocacy Network (RMIAN) rejects the idea that Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) “wellness checks” have the intention of protecting children; they have the opposite effect.
The "wellness checks" being conducted by various federal law enforcement agencies claim to be about ensuring the safety of children. In reality, these visits are part of an ICE directive to locate and investigate unaccompanied children and their sponsors, threatening family unity for kids, many of whom have experienced abuse, abandonment, and neglect.
Dozens of families across the state have reached out to their attorneys at RMIAN detailing disturbing events where federal officers showed up at their homes unannounced, banged on their doors, and demanded information about children living in the home. Far from fostering trust and ensuring the safety of vulnerable children, these visits promote intimidation and terror that families will be separated, detained, and deported. This policy is damaging to vulnerable children, the families who care for them, and creates a deep distrust of law enforcement officials, which deters people from reporting crimes and makes our Colorado community less safe. RMIAN calls on ICE to immediately stop these harmful practices.
Nonprofits Sue to Stop Trump Termination of Program That Provided Attorneys for People in ICE Detention Deemed Mentally Incompetent
Nonprofit legal services organizations are suing the Trump administration to restore a critical national program that provided federal funding for legal representation for people deemed mentally incompetent who are detained by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE).
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Media Contacts:
Tara Tidwell Cullen, (312) 833-2967, ttidwellcullen@immigrantjustice.org
Erin Barnaby, 202-360-4248, media@amicacenter.org
ILCM Communications Department, communications@ilcm.org
Oliver Bernstein, American Gateways, Oliver@SteadyHandPR.com
WASHINGTON, D.C. (May 5, 2025) — Nonprofit legal services organizations are suing the Trump administration to restore a critical national program that provided federal funding for legal representation for people deemed mentally incompetent who are detained by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE).
On April 25, the administration suddenly, and without explanation, terminated the nationwide provision of the National Qualified Representative Program (NQRP) in all but three states where it remains required by court order. The program, launched in 2013 by the Department of Justice and Department of Homeland Security in response to class action litigation, provided counsel to people in immigration detention who had been found by an immigration judge or the Board of Immigration Appeals to be mentally incompetent and therefore unable to represent themselves in deportation proceedings. The cancellation came amid a slew of other Trump administration actions ending federal programs that provided access to counsel and due process for immigrants facing deportation.
About 200 people were receiving legal representation under the program when it was terminated.
Immigrants and asylum seekers who are deemed mentally incompetent to represent themselves, often on account of severe mental illness or cognitive disability, face extraordinary obstacles in navigating the immigration system, even more so when they are locked in isolated ICE detention centers with limited or no access to mental health care or the outside world. Access to qualified counsel gives individuals a fighting chance to exercise their due process rights under U.S. immigration law and to present evidence, cross-examine witnesses, and participate in a fair hearing.
The National Immigrant Justice Center (NIJC), Amica Center for Immigrant Rights, and Zuckerman Spaeder LLP are co-counsel in the case representing 9 organizations that provided legal representation under the program: American Gateways, Amica Center for Immigrant Rights, Estrella del Paso, Galveston-Houston Immigrant Representation Project, NIJC, Pennsylvania Immigration Resource Center, Rocky Mountain Immigrant Advocacy Network, Immigration Services & Legal Advocacy, and the Immigrant Law Center of Minnesota. The lawsuit, filed in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia, argues that the termination of the nationwide NQRP unduly interferes with plaintiffs’ existing attorney-client relationships and violates the Administrative Procedure Act.
Co-counsel and organizational plaintiffs provided the following statements:
Keren Zwick, director of litigation, National Immigrant Justice Center:
“Without NQRP, some of the most vulnerable people in our country have been left to fend for themselves in ICE detention and are at grave risk of removal without a court ever considering, or even knowing about, their circumstances or the harms that await them. This lawsuit joins a growing list of legal challenges seeking to stop the Trump administration from eliminating the right to due process for immigrants in our country.”
Laura Lunn, director of advocacy & litigation, Rocky Mountain Immigrant Advocacy Network:
“The government’s action in cutting funding for court-appointed counsel for people not competent to represent themselves in immigration court is not just heartless and cruel, but also discriminatory against people with disabilities. Without the assistance of attorneys, people will suffer in detention while their cases languish in legal limbo.”
Evan Benz, senior attorney, Amica Center for Immigrant Rights:
"The unlawful termination of NQRP is the latest attack from this administration against vulnerable immigrants. They have cut lawyers for unaccompanied children and legal orientation programs for adults in detention, and now they're trying to take away lawyers for detained immigrants with mental disabilities. These attempts to prevent immigrants at risk of deportation from exercising their rights can not stand. We demand that NQRP be restored nationwide so that we can continue serving clients with mental health conditions or developmental disabilities in immigration court, because no one else can or will."
Edna Yang, co-executive director, American Gateways:
“The sudden end of the NQRP leaves some of the most vulnerable people in our immigration system without any legal support. These individuals, often facing serious mental health challenges, are now left to navigate a complex system alone. At American Gateways, we know how crucial legal representation is for ensuring that everyone has a fair chance in court, especially when their futures are on the line.”
Robyn Meyer-Thompson, supervising attorney, Immigrant Law Center of Minnesota:
“Noncitizens in detention with mental health challenges and cognitive disabilities are among the most vulnerable in need of our assistance. The decision to end this program is devastating not only for our clients but also for due process.”
Ryan Brunsink, managing attorney for removal defense, Pennsylvania Immigration Resource Center:
“The assault on due process for all persons in the United States remains front and center with the cut to the NQRP. Some of our most vulnerable clients are represented under this program — individuals with intellectual disabilities, severe brain injuries, mental illness, and other disabilities that impact their ability to meaningfully participate in their immigration hearings. Everyone deserves a fair shot to exercise their rights and to seek justice. Without appointed counsel, our NQRP clients cannot do so. It’s our belief in fundamental fairness that compels us to continue our fight through this litigation.”
Liz Hoefer, Galveston-Houston Immigrant Representation Project (GHIRP):
“The NQRP termination is another devastating blow to due process for vulnerable immigrants. For most individuals who are mentally incompetent, the task of presenting a claim for relief from removal on their own is insurmountable. Without NQRP, detained immigrants with significant mental health concerns will go unidentified and unrepresented. They will be deported without even understanding the proceedings happening around them, and without the due process they deserve. As recently as November, GHIRP obtained a grant of asylum for a man from West Africa who would have been subjected to torture in a so-called prayer camp because of his disability had he been returned to his home country. Termination of this program means people like our client will be deported without any meaningful opportunity to fight their case, and with no attorney by their side.”
Homero López, Jr., Legal Director, Immigration Services & Legal Advocacy:
“Our legal system is founded on the principle of due process, and NQRP embodied that value. The termination of NQRP effectively denies the most vulnerable individuals in immigration proceedings — those unable to represent themselves due to mental competency concerns — their opportunity at navigating our complex immigration system.”
Colorado Sun: Denver judge to decide fate of accused Venezuelan gang members facing deportation to prison in El Salvador
RMIAN and ACLU Colorado want a federal judge to order class-action status, which would protect hundreds of detainees from deportation without due process
RMIAN and ACLU Colorado want a federal judge to order class-action status, which would protect hundreds of detainees from deportation without due process. Full article here.
Ira C. Rothgerber Jr. Conference: Keynote by RMIAN Founder Hiroshi Motomura
The Ira C. Rothgerber Jr. Conference on Constitutional Law is an annual Byron R. White Center event that brings scholars, lawyers, and leaders from across the nation to the University of Colorado Law School to discuss current Constitutional law issue. Topics have included the future of national injunctions, listeners’ First Amendment rights and litigation strategies that promote Constitutional change.
RMIAN Founding Board Member and UCLA Law Professor, Hiroshi Motomura, will provide the keynote address at the conference.
The Ira C. Rothgerber Jr. Conference on Constitutional Law is an annual Byron R. White Center event that brings scholars, lawyers, and leaders from across the nation to the University of Colorado Law School to discuss current Constitutional law issue. Topics have included the future of national injunctions, listeners’ First Amendment rights and litigation strategies that promote Constitutional change.
RMIAN Founding Board Member and UCLA Law Professor, Hiroshi Motomura, will provide the keynote address at the conference.
Nonprofits File Temporary Restraining Order to Block Trump Administration’s Termination of Critical Legal Access Programs
Nine immigrants’ rights organizations, including RMIAN, filed a renewed Temporary Restraining Order (TRO) to block the Trump administration’s termination of critical legal orientation programs for immigrants, including the Family Group Legal Orientation Program, Counsel for Children Initiative, Immigration Court Helpdesk, Legal Orientation Program, and Legal Orientation Program for Custodians.
For Immediate Release
MEDIA INQUIRIES
Contacts:
Jodi Vongsakoun, RMIAN Director of Development & Communications, jvongsakoun@rmian.org
Erin Barnaby, Amica Center, media@amicacenter.org
Greer Millard, Florence Project, gmillard@firrp.org, (602) 795-7407
Tara Tidwell Cullen, National Immigrant Justice Center, ttidwellcullen@immigrantjustice.org, (312) 833-2967
Westminster, Colorado, April 15, 2025—Nine immigrants’ rights organizations filed a renewed Temporary Restraining Order (TRO) to block the Trump administration’s termination of critical legal orientation programs for immigrants, including the Family Group Legal Orientation Program, Counsel for Children Initiative, Immigration Court Helpdesk, Legal Orientation Program, and Legal Orientation Program for Custodians.
An in-person hearing for the renewed TRO will take place Tuesday, April 15th, at 2:30 PM ET at the United States District Court for the District of Columbia. The renewed TRO is part of the lawsuit against the Department of Justice (DOJ), Secretary of Homeland Security Kristi Noem, and other defendants filed by the same organizations in January 2025, challenging a stop work order impacting the same legal access programs. These programs are the minimum safeguard of due process for immigrants facing removal from the United States, and the stop work order and subsequent termination of these programs obliterate even the semblance of fundamental fairness in our immigration system.
Organizational plaintiffs in the suit include American Gateways, Amica Center for Immigrant Rights, Estrella del Paso, Florence Immigrant & Refugee Rights Project, Immigration Services & Legal Advocacy, National Immigrant Justice Center, Northwest Immigrant Rights Project, Pennsylvania Immigration Resource Center, and Rocky Mountain Immigrant Advocacy Network (RMIAN).
The DOJ’s decision to terminate these national legal access programs poses a significant threat to the rights of immigrant children, adults, and families, especially those detained by the government. These legal orientation programs are crucial, as they provide immigrants—the vast majority of whom are unrepresented, and many of whom are confused and traumatized, do not speak English, and lack any legal education—with essential information about their rights throughout the immigration process and deportation proceedings. Such programs have bipartisan support, and the oldest has been in place for over two decades.
The TRO aims to keep these essential programs in place as the litigation challenging the legality of their termination progresses through the courts, which is the bare minimum needed to ensure that people facing immigration proceedings have the basic information necessary to understand and exercise their legal rights.
Mekela Goehring, Executive Director, RMIAN, said:
“Terminating these programs is devastating for individuals in immigration court proceedings in Colorado and beyond. For the last 22 years, RMIAN has been providing legal orientation services to individuals at the immigration detention center in Aurora, Colorado. Through this work, as well as orientation programs at the Denver Immigration court, RMIAN has helped tens of thousands of community members understand their rights under U.S. immigration law. These programs are a cornerstone in ensuring basic protection for individuals in removal proceedings, where there is no right to court-appointed counsel, even for children, or for those in civil immigration detention. Eliminating these essential and life-saving immigration legal service programs is unconscionable.”
Edna Yang, Co-Executive Director at American Gateways, said:
"American Gateways proudly stands with our partners in seeking an immediate halt to the proposed reckless cuts to the Legal Orientation Program and the Immigration Court Helpdesk. These cuts would strip thousands of vulnerable immigrants from understanding and accessing their basic rights. These programs are often the only lifeline for people navigating an incredibly complex legal process without representation. We need to protect the integrity of our courts and ensure that everyone, regardless of status, has a fair chance to be heard."
Sam Hsieh, Deputy Program Director of the Immigration Impact Lab at the Amica Center for Immigrant Rights, said:
"The government has yet to offer any legitimate reason for terminating these programs that safeguard the most basic due process rights for noncitizens on top of promoting efficiency. These legal orientation programs are as important as ever, given the Administration’s indiscriminate subjection of so many noncitizens to detention and removal. We look forward to the Court hearing our claims for the immediate reinstatement of the programs.”
Laura St. John, Legal Director at Florence Immigrant & Refugee Rights Project, said:
"Without the LOP, hundreds of thousands of migrants will face the full force of the U.S. legal system without any sort of legal education or support, leading to disastrous and potentially deadly outcomes. The LOP is the bare minimum necessary to protect due process rights, and now the administration is slashing it at the same time it is massively expanding detention and deportation operations. To do both is cruel and a blatant violation of people’s due process rights, which is the bedrock of a just legal system and central to our core values. We joined our partners in filing for this Temporary Restraining Order to ensure that people in immigration detention in Arizona receive the legal education and support that is their right under the law."
Lisa Koop, National Director of Legal Services at the National Immigrant Justice Center, said:
“This administration's renewed efforts to shut down the Immigration Court Helpdesk — after the previous attempt was stopped by a federal court just months ago — is one of the many ways this increasingly authoritarian administration is ignoring the courts and flouting the rule of law. It is no coincidence that this second attempt to shut down access to basic legal services for unrepresented individuals inside immigration courts happened just as local immigration courts have posted signs in their waiting rooms pressuring people to ‘self-deport.’ We will not stand by as this administration eviscerates due process and tramples on people's access to their fair day in court.”
To donate to RMIAN’s work to ensure legal representation for individuals in immigration proceedings in Colorado, please visit www.rmian.org/donate.
Venezuelan man from Colorado sent to Salvadoran prison without removal order or apparent criminal history
A 22-year-old Venezuelan man was transferred to El Salvador despite having no final order of removal from the United States, according to an attorney who appeared in immigration court on his behalf this week.
"I think it is really a miscarriage of justice when individuals are removed from the country when there has been no removal order in their case and the government won't even say where they are," said Monique Sherman, Managing Attorney of the Detention Program at RMIAN.
“They Don’t Care About Civil Rights”: Trump’s Shuttering of DHS Oversight Arm Freezes 600 Cases, Imperils Human Rights
The closure of the 150-person office, which protected the civil rights of both immigrants and U.S. citizens, strips Homeland Security of its internal guardrails as the Trump administration turns DHS into a mass-deportation machine, analysts say.
“Who do I even go to when there are illegal things happening?” said Laura Lunn, RMIAN’s Director of Advocacy & Litigation.
Denver7: Trump administration cuts legal funding for unaccompanied immigrant children
Denver7: Trump administration cuts legal funding for unaccompanied immigrant children. Full video here.
New York Times: Trump Administration Halts Funding for Legal Representation of Migrant Children
The Trump administration notified aid organizations across the country on Friday that it would cancel a contract that funds the legal representation of more than 25,000 children who entered the United States alone, a decision that leaves them vulnerable to swift deportation.
USA Today: Migrant kids may have to face court alone, as Trump admin cancels legal contract
The Trump administration has canceled a $200 million legal representation contract for 26,000 children who crossed the U.S. border as unaccompanied minors, potentially leaving the kids to face deportation judges alone.
The administration had briefly halted the program in February but formally canceled it Friday. The national Acacia Center for Justice administered the contract, working with more than 100 local providers, including the Chicago-based National Immigrant Justice Center and the Denver-based Rocky Mountain Immigrant Advocacy Network. More here.