“They’ve laid off the only 36 people at the organization that do immigrant justice work.”

A senior attorney for the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC), one of the nation’s largest legal and advocacy groups, has told 285 South that SPLC’s leadership has fired the entire team that was working to support detained immigrants at Georgia’s largest immigration detention centers. 

They weren’t the only ones who lost their jobs – over 60 people were laid off in the last week, according to Gracie Willis, who was speaking on behalf of the SPLC Union, and is a senior attorney for the SPLC’s Southeast Immigrant Freedom Initiative (SIFI).

“The impact is massive,” she said.

285 South reached out to the SPLC for a comment on recent reports of mass layoffs at the organization, and specifically, the firing of staff on the immigrant justice team. An SPLC spokesperson responded in an email, saying, “We do not believe that this work requires a separate litigation team. Instead, we believe it strengthens our work to align those efforts with other legal areas of expertise within the SPLC.”

Willis says she’s found explanations from SPLC leadership about its priorities “confusing.” When she and others working on immigrants rights asked for clarification on the organization’s commitment to support migrants in the South, they “never really got a good answer.”

“They’ve laid off the only 36 people at the organization that do immigrant justice work. And we’re not sure how they intend to continue doing that work.” 

The SPLC launched the Southeast Immigrant Freedom Initiative (SIFI) in 2017. It is currently (until September 10, which will be SIFI staff’s last day) the only pro bono direct services provider listed by the immigration court for people detained at the Stewart Detention Center in Lumpkin and Folkston ICE Processing Center in Folkston, said Willis.  Both facilities, which together can hold up to 3,000 people, have been under federal investigation after a number of incidents over the last seven years. 

At one point, more than 30 people worked on the SIFI team. They mostly focused on getting people out of detention (“what we call release cases,” said Willis), but they also worked on more extensive cases involving visa or asylum requests. That team had already been reduced to 14 – all of whom received notices in the last week that they were losing their jobs.

“I have no other alternatives for people. I have to tell them there are no more numbers to call for representation,” Amilcar Valencia told 285 South. He’s the executive director of El Refugio, a community organization that supports immigrants at Stewart, as well as their loved ones, by arranging visitation and providing a home for families to stay when visiting.

“I have no other alternatives for people. I have to tell them there are no more numbers to call for representation.”

Amilcar Valencia, Executive Director, El Refugio

Willis said at the time of the layoffs, the SPLC’s immigrant justice team was handling over 50 open cases at the Stewart and Folkston detention centers. She helped open the SPLC’s office in Lumpkin in 2017, to support people detained at the Stewart facility, and said since then, her team has represented 199 people there.

Sopheak Pal, originally from Cambodia, is one of them. He has been detained at Stewart for over 11 months, and isn’t even sure why ICE originally detained him. After learning about the layoffs, he wrote a letter to SPLC’s CEO Margaret Huang, pleading with her to keep SIFI open. “My case is very complicated…it’s going to be a long and ongoing struggle. Because of SIFI, I can see a light at the end of the tunnel,” it read. “I spoke with a few private attorneys and they couldn’t help…Please don’t close down SIFI.”

285 South reached out to Margaret Huang for comment, but did not receive a response.

Immigrants with legal representation are 3.5 times more likely to be released from detention and ten times more likely to be granted legal status, than those without an attorney, according to a 2020 study from the Vera Institute of Justice.

That’s mostly, says Willis, because “immigration law… is so complex.” Even for lawyers who have been practicing for years, “there is such a world of contradictions and, and complicated interactions between statutes and regulations… it’s a puzzle.” 

“Immigration law… is so complex…there is such a world of contradictions and, and complicated interactions between statutes and regulations… it’s a puzzle.”

Gracie Willis, Senior Attorney, Southeast Immigrant Freedom Initiative – Southern Poverty Law Center

Without lawyers, Willis says, folks in detention will mostly be on their own, and have to research and argue their cases without professional legal support. They could try to go “those law libraries of the detention centers [that] are tiny and get access to enough time in the legal library…and be wading through this body of law that is incredibly complicated,” and then represent themselves.  Which, she said, is nearly impossible, though some people do it. “It’s just an incredibly difficult thing to take on.” 

Or, try to access a private lawyer, though the costs are usually prohibitive.  Without SIFI, there are a few local nonprofits who might be able to support them like Asian Americans Advancing Justice – Atlanta or the Capital Area Immigrant Rights (CAIR) Coalition – but their capacities are limited.  “And that’s kind of it,” said Willis.

“It is a very unfortunate and very dark time that this organization has made this move without considering the impact this will have on the cases and people working there,” said Valencia, over the phone. “It seems they are moving away from everything that has to do with fighting for freedom and fighting for liberation.