Description

This training will explore how our communities can build a movement to protect and secure the rights of our immigrant neighbors, students, and families in the face of abusive and illegal immigration enforcement. We will consider the powerful constitutional rights that we all share, and how we can build Community Power when those rights are violated. Our goal is to educate and empower with practical action steps to enhance the effectiveness of our legal rights, and to inspire participants to educate their own communities about these issues.

About the speakers:

Dori Cahn (she/her) has worked with immigrants and refugees for many years: as an educator, teaching adult ESL and ABE classes and advising first-generation college students; as a storyteller, crafting museum exhibits, articles, and websites exploring the experiences of refugees and immigrants; and as a community activist. Dori has served on the boards of various immigrant-led organizations, as well as the City of Seattle Immigrant and Refugee Commission. She has also worked internationally in student support programs at the Royal University of Phnom Penh in Cambodia, and at the JSW School of Law in Bhutan. She continues to be committed to supporting the rights of all people to live free of fear.

Karen Gilbert is an immigration lawyer with many years’ experience representing families and employers in all areas of immigration law, as well as engaging in deportation defense and federal litigation. She also taught a criminal defense clinic at the American University School of Law. She was a founding board member of the Northwest Immigrant Rights Project. Semi‑retired, she continues to volunteer with NWIRP and other nonprofit organizations in support of immigrant communities, particularly through helping to build and strengthen humanitarian community power with steadfast assertion of Constitutional rights, through non‑violent resistance to ongoing assaults on the Rule of Law, refugees, immigrants, and US citizens.