(phone ringing loudly) - (speaker speaks in foreign language) - With immigration law, it changes constantly.

However, right now it is really an outlier.

(loud noise from paper works) - She has a removal order, I think.

- I'm more concerned about being in a district where there's bad law.

- There's a lot more risk analysis and a lot more uncertainty because I can't be sure that the way the law was enforced yesterday will be enforced tomorrow.

- (speaker speaks in foreign language) - They're just arbitrarily being apprehended whether they've been following the law or not.

It's just upside down, you know, environment right now.

- Whatever it is that you're able to see just on social media or on the news, it's not being exaggerated.

It is that bad.

It may be even worse than you think it is.

(loud intense music) (chattering loudly) The only way to really understand immigration law is to think about what's going on politically in the country at any period of time.

(intense music) You have presidents that are a little more restrictive on immigration.

You have presidents that are more pro-immigrant.

- I entered when Obama was president and when it was Trump, what we call Trump 1.0, and things became a little more challenging, but then we had Biden and we thought we knew what to expect, but I don't think we realized the magnitude of the aggressiveness and the changes that were going to come.

(phone ringing loudly) - Everybody's phone is ringing off the hook.

Our calls have doubled, and that's only my small firm.

- It can be hard to keep up with it all.

- And they're all really related to people that are detained.

(car driving loudly) - I would say about 99% of my calls for people detained are minor traffic infractions.

- I have a whole set of cases that after a traffic stop, they were put in removal proceedings, being stopped for not having a front-license plate, being able to point to the front license plate.

- The tent is too dark.

- Being stopped for speeding, but they know they were not speeding.

- Something about the license plate light.

- And these are clients who may have no criminal history, may have an application in process.

The government has authorized them to work and get a driver's license while they're waiting for a decision on their case.

So yeah, that's very scary and surprising.

(intense music) - The trend that I'm seeing is that DPS is pulling them over for these alleged offenses and ICE is usually within five minutes away from them.

So it just seems like they're working in sync.

- This isn't we're going after the bad guys.

We were pretty good at going after the bad guys before.

This is going after people that you really didn't think would be affected by this.

(dead silence) - (speaker speaks in foreign language) (laughs happily) (speaker speaks in foreign language) - So one of the things that we frequently do in our office is we take somebody who is undocumented and we find a path for them to eventually get their green card or get their citizenship.

We're applying for something that they're eligible for, but we're seeing people that are in those categories still being arrested and detained by ICE.

That is so unusual.

(closing the door loudly) (speaks in foreign language) - So the girl's like 18 now and accomplished high school graduates, started college, had to drop out because they're asking for a social security number.

But there's very little I can do for her.

There's nothing available except a petition that would take 19 years.

In other years, I would be like, "Just, just try it.

Put yourself in line."

Now, when you do that, you're saying, "Hi, immigration, here's my address.

Here's where I live and I have no status."

If you have to be willing to take that risk that they're gonna come knocking at your door.

- Now we find ourselves thinking and rethinking and thinking again about, "Wait a minute, should we tell the person this?

Should we advise them that?

Is it a good idea to file this application?"

You know, how risky it is to start the process versus how risky it is to be undocumented in the United States.

(birds chirping sweetly) - [Speaker With Deep Tone] Now represented by counsel who is appearing via WebEx.

Counsel for the respondent, can you please state your appearance?

- Griselda Ponce for respondent.

- We've had to pivot into doing habeas petitions in federal court.

- That's due to the violation of due process.

On the record.

I think that his rights were being violated, your Honor.

That's why I said that I did not wanna waive the reading of his rights after I heard that.

The constitution pretty much says if anybody's going to be detained by the government, there has to be a justification to detain that person and that's called due process.

When people, immigrants are being detained, they're being denied that due process and they're not being given a hearing to determine whether they should or should not be detained.

They're just arbitrarily being apprehended.

Whether they've been following the law or not, there's just no hearing.

We're following them on a weekly basis because this is just not normal.

(gentle music) - If we could get this in front of a federal judge, everybody loves this lady.

- Yeah.

- Like I have 20 amazing letters of support.

I have a letter of support from the chief of police.

I have letters of support from like the sheriff.

- Oh, wow.

Okay.

- Like and a signed cert.

- [Speaker With Calm Tone] Okay.

Wow, okay.

How do we get it in front of a federal court?

- When they're already in court proceedings, it's also bad news as well.

(loudly typing) How it used to be is that the final hearing, which is where you present testimony and evidence, maybe that was scheduled one-year out.

Now they say three-months, at most six months, and that doesn't always give us enough time to prepare.

- (speaker speaks in foreign language) These cases usually take, you know, anywhere from a year to at least nine months to, you know, find evidence, track down witnesses.

- Everything is just sort of being sped through.

(gentle music) - [Speaker With Soft Tone] Would they tell us if we had done it incorrectly?

- It would've been rejected.

- [Speaker With Soft Tone] Yeah.

- Yeah.

The biggest change is the sense of dread.

10 years ago, I wouldn't walk into the office dreading what could happen today, and now I do.

Okay.

(light intense music) It is profoundly-exhausting.

I honestly am concerned about the mental health of anybody who works in this field right now.

- Some days I feel like I'm just giving a lot of bad news to people, but I think people need representation.

I believe that the law should be followed and I am hopeful that change will come in the future.

- And if there's no one left to fight, then who's gonna fight for me later?

(light dramatic music)