Dallas Faith Groups and Volunteer Lawyers Expand Legal Support for Detained Immigrants
In Dallas, Dallas County, Texas, congregations across faith traditions are expanding their work with volunteer lawyers to support people held in immigration detention. According to Religion News Service (RNS) on October 20, Dallas Area Interfaith (DAI), made up of clergy from various faith traditions, has spent the last two years partnering with the Industrial Areas Foundation, Texas A&M Legal Clinics and others on its Immigration Detention Project, training clergy, organizers and volunteer lawyers to challenge detentions in federal court through habeas corpus petitions. The project began in late 2024. Organizer Tim McManus said the coalition first recruited non-immigration attorneys to handle bond hearings, but changes in immigration policy sharply reduced those opportunities, prompting a shift toward habeas petitions. According to the project, several cases have resulted in releases, including a mother and young daughter from Plano detained separately while pursuing asylum claims, a 33-year-old Mauritanian man with serious medical needs, and a Mexican father who arrived in the United States at age 4 and was nearly deported away from his U.S.-citizen children. Over the past year, the coalition's Know Your Rights workshops hosted by congregations have reached more than 1,200 people, covering legal rights, immigration fraud and family preparedness, while volunteers also monitor immigration courts and accompany migrants to check-ins at Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) field offices. The Rev. Ángel Ríos, pastor of Our Lady of San Juan de los Lagos-Santa Teresita Catholic Church and a DAI leader, said the country's judicial system is completely unknown to immigrants. Organizer Silvia Juliana Manzano said churches have become places where immigrant families feel safe. In an October 9 email to RNS, a Department of Homeland Security spokesperson said people arrested by ICE receive due process and a court-approved list of free or low-cost attorneys, and that detainees have access to phones to contact their lawyers; the department disputed advocates' and faith leaders' concerns about family separation.
Published by GSM · USA (original Chinese edition)
Photo: 图：Dallas 市中心的 Cathedral Santuario de Guadalupe（资料图，非文中堂区）。Michael Barera 摄，CC BY-SA，Wikimedia Commons／Photo: Cathedral Santuario de Guadalupe in downtown Dallas (file photo, not the parish named in the story). Michael Barera, CC BY-SA, Wikimedia Commons
