Prior to 2025, Philadelphia immigration attorney Lilah Thompson had rarely seen a case like David\u2019s.<\/p>\n
Born in Nicaragua, David \u2013 an alias used to protect his safety \u2013 was detained by U.S. Customs and Immigration Enforcement last October during a routine appointment connected to his application for asylum.<\/p>\n
For the previous three years, the 20-something David had worked as a restaurant cook in Philadelphia. His papers \u2013 a federally issued work permit and Social Security number, along with the asylum petition \u2013 were in order, and he had consistently appeared for appointments as requested.<\/p>\n
Today, David remains one of nearly 1,900 other immigrants detained at the Moshannon Valley Processing Center in Central Pennsylvania, the Northeastern U.S.\u2019s largest immigration detention facility. The Defender Association of Philadelphia \u2013 where Thompson is a Stoneleigh Fellow \u2013 has been representing David and many other immigrants who, like him, followed the rules but got detained anyway.<\/p>\n
\u201cFor the second time, I\u2019m deprived of my liberty. I feel helpless,\u201d said David, whose asylum claim centers around his politically motivated imprisonment and torture for participating in the 2018 protests against the government of controversial Nicaraguan leader Daniel Ortega. \u201cIn this country that speaks of liberty and democracy, that this happens \u2013 it\u2019s tragic.\u201d<\/p>\n
It\u2019s also unprecedented in recent history. Until President Donald Trump took office last year and made the ongoing immigration crackdown a central part of his second term, \u201cwe were never seeing individuals detained at ICE check-ins, unless they had somehow violated their release or parole by, for example, being arrested or convicted of a crime,\u201d explained Thompson.<\/p>\n
\u201cOver the last year, we have been seeing a new approach to immigration that involves reaching back into people\u2019s \u2026 individual court histories \u2013 things that had been settled matters being unearthed \u2026 Settled matters of immigration law are now being upended.\u201d<\/p>\n
Today, the resulting surge in client referrals to the Defender Association \u2013 more than double the number from the pre-Trump era \u2013 has prompted the organization to launch a new, dedicated immigration legal unit, which Thompson is currently overseeing.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The seven-person division now includes two legal fellows and three immigration attorneys; Chief Defender Keisha Hudson said the association eventually plans to dedicate 11 employees to the unit, including three more full-time attorneys to the only such entity of its kind in the commonwealth.<\/p>\n
The Defenders are required under a U.S. Supreme Court directive to advise non-citizen clients about how any contact with the criminal justice system might potentially impact their immigration status. But Thompson said that the Defenders\u2019 practice goes beyond legal requirements and is a deeply human mission.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe are seeing really atrocious things happen to our immigrant brothers and sisters \u2026 as individuals\u2019 rights are infringed upon,\u201d said Thompson. \u201cThe government is doing illegal things against immigrants; we\u2019re seeing how that affects their lives in really dramatic ways. Increasing the capacity to be able to protect individuals\u2019 rights is something that we care deeply about.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
With novel challenges such as third-country deportations and habeas petitions for lawfully present detainees, it\u2019s also an increasingly complex task. Today, cases \u201crequire much more complex thinking, much more planning \u2026 different types of creative representation that we haven\u2019t had to do in the past,\u201d Thompson noted.<\/p>\n
The Defender Association has long partnered on immigration defense cases with the Nationalities Services Center, sharing several attorneys; it also collaborates with HIAS Pennsylvania and the York-based Pennsylvania Immigration Resource Center, an arrangement that will continue.<\/p>\n
About three years ago, Hudson said, negotiations began to formally consolidate immigration defense activities within her organization. Funding comes from a variety of grants and other sources \u2013 including, this year, $950,000 from the City of Philadelphia subawarded from the National Services Center, an allocation Hudson is relying on to continue her work.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cWe would love to get foundational and\/or city and\/or state support to be able to expand the work \u2013 not just in Philadelphia, but around the entire commonwealth,\u201d she noted. \u201cUnlike other states and cities, we\u2019re not funded to the level that we need to be.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
Thompson\u2019s three-year fellowship is funded by the Stoneleigh Foundation; she was previously the supervising attorney of the NSC\u2019s detained removal defense project, which has been folded into the defenders\u2019 new immigration unit.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat\u2019s a model that you see in other public defense agencies around the country that have immigration defense as a unit within their larger organizational structure,\u201d Hudson explained. By concentrating this service at a single office, the shared attorneys can work full-time on the association\u2019s detention and removal cases in immigration court.<\/p>\n
The skyrocketing number of people seeking representation makes clear the urgent need for the organization to expand. Prior to 2025, Thompson said, \u201cwe were contacted only a few times a year for habeas petitions\u201d \u2013 the lawsuits that challenge the lawfulness of an individual’s detention by immigration authorities. But over the past six months, her office has received 50 such requests.<\/p>\n
Moreover, Thompson\u2019s immigration unit received 214 referrals during 2025, up from just 82 referrals the previous year. The increase meant that the association was only able to offer full representation to 16% of last year\u2019s referrals, versus 45% in 2024.\u00a0<\/p>\n
And in just the first three weeks of 2026, Thompson said that referrals were already triple the number from the entire month of January 2025.\u00a0<\/p>\n
That data belies the common perception that Philadelphia has not been a locus for ICE enforcement action, in contrast to the high-profile raids in cities like Minneapolis.<\/p>\n
But ICE agents \u201chave been in virtually every major community here in Philadelphia \u2013 not just the Hispanic community \u2013 we have (also) seen an uptick in the Asian community and the African community,\u201d said Hudson. Venezuelan nationals, she added, appear to be a particular target of ICE.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The fear among foreign-born residents is widespread enough that, for the second year in a row, Philadelphia canceled its annual Carnaval de Puebla \u2013 a premier cultural event for South Philadelphia\u2019s sizable Mexican community \u2013 due to concerns about potential ICE activity.<\/p>\n
This week, Philadelphia City Councilmembers unveiled a package of legislation aimed at curbing ICE activity in the city \u2013\u00a0including banning agents from using facemasks or unmarked vehicles, from collecting personal data from the city, and from using public spaces as staging grounds for enforcement action.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey have been showing up to businesses \u2026 while people are at work. They\u2019re there when people go in for the required check-ins,\u201d added Hudson. \u201cIt\u2019s not getting (the) attention that you see in other jurisdictions, but there very much is an ICE presence here.\u201d<\/p>\n
David can testify to that reality. He spoke earnestly of his quest to remain in his adopted hometown, Philadelphia \u2013 a city he admires not only for its generous people, but also for its heritage as the birthplace of American democracy. \u201cThe Liberty Bell, the Constitution, even the first flag, all were created here,\u201d he said. \u201cSo it\u2019s contradictory, what\u2019s happening right now.\u201d<\/p>\n
For her part, Hudson envisions the new immigration office not only as a way to assist clients, but also to combat widespread misinformation about the targets of ICE action. \u201cA lot of people believe, \u2018They are people who come in contact with the criminal justice system \u2026 who are designated gang members,\u2019\u201d she said. \u201cWhat people are not seeing is that the vast majority of people coming into the system are people who have \u2026 built residences here, businesses here, families here.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis is not just impacting individuals,\u201d she concluded. \u201cIt\u2019s ripping apart families \u2013 and it\u2019s destabilizing communities.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Prior to 2025, Philadelphia immigration attorney Lilah Thompson had rarely seen a case like David\u2019s. Born in Nicaragua,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":101779,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[2892,741,2156,69,71,70],"class_list":["post-101778","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-philadelphia","tag-criminal-justice","tag-immigration","tag-news-politics","tag-philadelphia","tag-philadelphia-headlines","tag-philadelphia-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/101778","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=101778"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/101778\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/101779"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=101778"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=101778"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=101778"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}