
Socal's largest deportation defense nonprofit law firm. Legal services + advocacy & litigation. #NoImmigrantStandsAlone
California
Joined February 2017
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ImmDef retweeted
“I almost had a heart attack because she had always been listed there, and then she suddenly vanished. The darkest thoughts imaginable went through my mind as to what my mother could be going through.”
That is how one man described the terror of discovering that his elderly, disabled mother had disappeared from ICE’s online detainee locator. They had spoken on the phone at least three times every day, but then her phone stopped working. And when he checked the locator, she was gone.
When ICE removes someone from the detainee locator, they don’t just disappear from the database. They actually disappear themselves. And once they disappear, so does their access to their families, their attorneys, the courts, and the due process they’re entitled to.
Enforced disappearances like this violate international law. That’s why @Kennedy_HRC joined 30+ organizations in petitioning the United Nations Working Group on Enforced or Involuntary Disappearances to intervene.
Here’s everything we’re asking the UN to do: rekhrc.org/4AHQw1M
1/ On September 15, 2026, ICE quietly adopted a policy of removing the locations of thousands of individuals with final orders of removal from the Online Detainee Locator System (ODLS).
This unprecedented policy change, designed to allow the swift deportation of people without access to counsel, the courts, or due process, has resulted in the United States government’s enforced disappearance of thousands of people in its custody.
ImmDef retweeted
This weekend I received 3 requests to help ppl detained by ICE at airports. A nanny going on a family vacation. A 25 y/o with a pending green card app & work permit. An academic who appears to just be visiting.
What the hell is this meant to accomplish? Just stupid & cruel.
ImmDef retweeted
Our @ImmDef client Edwin Melendez Rojas was sent to the CECOT prison in El Salvador in March 2025. Today, despite over a year of litigation, I went to court and the immigration judge dismissed his asylum case. How we got here is truly a kafkaesque nightmare of a failing system 🧵
ImmDef retweeted
"Kids have been going to court ALONE"
The Trump admin is hand-picking who defends migrant kids in court, giving $244M to a group run by a former ICE official. They're "afraid" of the lawyers, says @L_Toczylowski.
@BridgetCambria8: This "should shock" us.
msnbc.com/connect/watch/-kid…
ImmDef retweeted
IMPORTANT to know that the vast majority of Haitians with TPS entered the country legally at ports of entry, not illegally. The majority have NEVER violated the law. The admin stripped their status by breaking the law, but today SCOTUS says courts can't do anything about that.
ImmDef retweeted
This decision could impact 1.3 million people on TPS, some who have been here since the early 90s. This is a devastating loss for millions of American families, and countless employers will soon be losing workers. This is the biggest de-legalization moment in modern history.
ImmDef retweeted
BREAKING: We just won a court order blocking the Trump-Vance admin’s attempt to haphazardly consolidate Americans’ sensitive data into a massive government database.
This protects millions from baseless investigations and unlawful voter roll purges – a critical win for voting rights.
ImmDef retweeted
“We have documented shocking level of medical negligence that have led to needless suffering and even death.” -@L_Toczylowski of @ImmDef
ImmDef retweeted
“We have seen again and again that immigration detention is being used by this administration to inflect maximum cruelty on human beings to force people to give up hope that they will ever find justice.” - @L_Toczylowski of @ImmDef
ImmDef retweeted
The latest radical example of an all out assault on legal immigration.
Adjusting status to legal permanent resident from inside the US is not a “loophole.” It’s the process for ppl who’ve followed the rules & have a legal mechanism to pursue residency.
Just horrible policy.
USCIS is applying long-standing law and prior court decisions to require certain aliens with temporary visas who decide they want to permanently reside in the U.S. to return to their home countries to apply for permanent visas through the @StateDept.
We're returning to the original intent of the law to ensure aliens navigate our nation’s immigration system properly.
Here’s what you should know: uscis.gov/newsroom/news-rele…
ImmDef retweeted
Today, I conducted an oversight visit to the Dilley Immigration Processing Center in Dilley, Texas.
What I saw and heard was alarming. ICE agents' accounts didn't match what detainees told us and that disconnect cannot be ignored.
The conditions there demand urgent attention. We need far greater congressional oversight, and we need it now. This cannot continue.
ImmDef retweeted
A new Trump-Vance admin policy puts Somali asylum seekers on an accelerated timeline for removal and makes it nearly impossible for them to access legal counsel or have a fair hearing.
This is an unlawful attempt to discriminate against a single nationality. We're fighting back in court.
ImmDef retweeted

Austin Kocher, PhD@ackocherMar 23
United States
United StatesConnected via United States App StoreAccount-level information, not a live location or per-post device.
The US government collected over $1 billion in immigration fees then refused to process the applications. No denials. No refunds. Just silence. This is the largest fee fraud in the history of the American immigration system. Here's what's happening. 🧵
ImmDef retweeted
Today, SCOTUS is hearing oral arguments in Noem v. Al Otro Lado – our case challenging the Trump-Vance admin’s unlawful “turnback” policy that denies thousands the right to seek asylum at ports of entry.
Watch our Senior Attorney, Sarah, break down the case.
ImmDef retweeted
"Last year, [BIA] decisions backed Department of Homeland Security lawyers in 97% of publicly posted cases; that's at least 30 percentage points higher than the average from the last 16 years." n.pr/4blNUw7
ImmDef retweeted
Many unaccompanied children are fleeing gang violence, human trafficking, and persecution. Now they may have to tell their harrowing stories to an attorney over a video call.
Visit treatkidslikekids.org to call your members of Congress and tell them #ScreensArentSupport!
ImmDef retweeted
The reality, though, is far more complicated as many immigrants going through the legal process in the United States have been swept up as part of Trump's immigration enforcement crackdown.
Only about five minutes into his State of the Union speech, President Trump touts the US-Mexico border, adding that the US will “always allow people to come in legally" - h/t @priscialva
ImmDef retweeted
There are more than 73k people currently imprisoned by ICE, the highest number in history. People arrested recently in LA include a man selling tacos at a church, a dad returning home from his dialysis appointment, a mom who followed the rules went to her ICE appt with her infant
ImmDef retweeted
But I couldn’t tell him that ICE is not a threat to families in our communities. I couldn’t tell him they wouldn’t be back near his school tomorrow. I didn’t tell him that over past 2 weeks @ImmDef has seen a more than 20% increase in calls to our hotline for ppl detained by ICE.
























