Curran, Berger & Kludt believes in giving back to the community that supports us and improving the situation for immigrants who do not have the financial resources to pay for representation. We have been involved in a number of pro bono activities.
Remote Immigrant Assistance Project
Attorney Megan Kludt and CBK are the facilitators of the Remote Immigrant Assistance Project. With the help of other MA organizations, students and faculty at Western New England School of Law, and a growing group of volunteers, mostly based in Massachusetts, we are preparing applications to request the release for detained asylum-seekers. None of the volunteers engage in representation of the detained individuals; instead we do the legwork for the small number of attorneys that are working around the clock to try to represent hundreds of individuals under terrible circumstances.
Megan Kludt co-presented a training at Chin & Curtis, LLP in Boston on remote work on September 11, 2019, and a training at Western New England School of Law on September 21, 2019.
To see how we did in 2019, and our 2020 outlook, see our beginning of the year update.
For Volunteer Opportunities, please see here.
El Paso Immigration Collaborative (EPIC)
In response to the human rights crisis unfolding in the detention centers and courts at the U.S.-Mexican border, multiple local and national legal organizations have formed the El Paso Immigration Collaborative (EPIC). The collective’s goals are to advance the right to legal representation for detained immigrants and to provide sorely needed, increased oversight of the immigration courts and detention centers in and around El Paso. EPIC is an initiative between multiple national and local organizations which aims to increase access to counsel for detained immigrants in El Paso, Texas, and transform the ecosystem of courts and detention centers in the region.
Curran, Berger & Kludt is proud to announce that we are a formal partner with the El Paso Immigrant Collaborative (EPIC).
ACLUM’s Immigrant Protection Project of Western Massachusetts
Attorney Megan Kludt is a founding member and participant on the coordinating committee for IPP, an ACLUM project in Western MA established in 2017 and committed to helping all immigrants in the community through agency referrals, family assistance, and facilitation of direct representation of indigent detained immigrants in bond proceedings.
Attorney Kludt also served as mentor and trainer for attorneys taking on immigration cases on a pro bono basis, especially in the area of asylum and bond hearings.
http://www.ippwma.com/
La Posada Providencia
In August 2017, Attorney Dan Berger spent a week volunteering at La Posada Providencia shelter on the Mexican border. The shelter provides food, transportation, English classes, legal aid, health care, social services, and emotional support for poor immigrants, asylees, and asylum seekers in the Rio Grande Valley of Texas. Attorney Berger assisted with legal aid to asylum seekers and welcoming new immigrants to the shelter.
https://lppshelter.org/what-we-do/
Assistance to Service Providers
Attorney Dan Berger is active on multiple community listservs and regularly provides immigration advice to advocates at local non-profits that work with indigent immigrant populations.
AILA and CARA Pro Bono Project
Attorney Kludt traveled to the southern border in 2014 and 2015 to provide direct representation to immigrant children that were detained by the U.S. government with their mothers. She also managed remote volunteers assisting the attorneys on the ground through 2015 and 2016. She won the AILA New England Pro Bono Champions Award for her work with family detention.
http://www.gazettenet.com/Archives/2014/08/nohoimmigration-hg-081814
Read Attorney Kludt’s blog here: http://immigrationartesia.blogspot.com/
Post-Election Events, Presentations and Assistance to Students
In December of 2016, Curran, Berger & Kludt hosted a forum on the state of immigration law and potential changes under the new administration at the Academy of Music in Northampton, MA. The event included the Mayor of Northampton, Northampton Chief of Police, city counsel members, and leaders of prominent social service providers throughout the region.
http://www.aomtheatre.com/event/post-election-discussion-on-immigrants-in-our-community/
http://www.masslive.com/news/index.ssf/2016/12/immigration_law_discussed_at_n.html
Attorney Berger and Attorney Kludt have also spoken at numerous community and campus events in 2017, including events at UMass Amherst, UMass medical school, Smith College, Mt. Holyoke College, Amherst College, the Holyoke Cultural Heritage Center, Western New England School of Law, Northeastern University, Columbia University, the College of the Holy Cross and the National Association of College and University Attorneys meeting in Chicago.
Attorney Berger co-authored an article “Sanctuary Campuses” And Other Immigration Questions and Answers For Campus Leaders Post-Election for DACA students after the election.
Attorney Berger also wrote a blog piece on international student advising under the new Administration: Advising in the Face of Uncertainty
Links to additional Curran, Berger & Kludt presentations and workshops in the community
11/10/2016: Attorney Megan Kludt led an “Immigration Teach-In” at Smith College:
http://dailycollegian.com/2017/01/31/immigration-lawyer-megan-kludt-gives-teach-in-at-smith-college/
http://www.thesmithsophian.com/smith-community-gathers-for-an-immigration-policy-teach-in/
11/30/2016 and 04/27/2017: Attorney Megan Kludt led multiple Information Session and Know Your Rights Workshop for Immigrant Students and Their Allies with Local Immigration
https://www.umass.edu/gateway/federal-actions/know-your-rights
12/02/2016: Attorney Megan Kludt spoke at the Immigration Law Teach-In at Amherst College
http://amherststudent.amherst.edu/?q=article/2016/12/07/immigration-experts-speak-teach
02/03/2017: Attorneys Joseph Curran and Megan Kludt presented at the Immigration Policy Forum at Western New England University
http://www1.wne.edu/news/2017/01/law-immigration-forum.cfm
http://www.masslive.com/news/index.ssf/2017/02/imigration_law_focus_of_wester.html
02/03/2017: Attorney Megan Kludt is quoted in an article regarding a Massachusetts family struggling to stay in the U.S.
http://wwlp.com/2017/02/02/family-living-in-massachusetts-is-fighting-to-stay-in-the-u-s/
02/27/2017: Attorney Megan Kludt presented “Immigration Executive Orders: Your Rights & the Current Climate” at Northeastern University
06/07/2017: Attorney Megan Kludt presented at “Journeys Home: Perspectives on Immigration” at the Holyoke City Hall Auditorium
http://www.holyoke.org/events/journeys-home-perspectives-on-immigration/?lightbox=1
09/05/2017: Attorney Dan Berger was interviewed on Knowledge@Wharton regarding President Trump’s announcement to end DACA
09/05/2017: Attorney Megan Kludt was interviewed by several news outlets regarding President Trump’s DACA announcement
Pro Bono cases
Curran, Berger & Kludt has always set aside a certain amount of cases per year for pro bono or low bono representation.
In 2016, we secured political asylum in the Hartford Immigration Court for a Guatemalan woman who had been brutally abused her entire life before coming to the United States. Immediately prior to leaving her country, she barely escaped being burned alive with her teenage daughter in a small village. In 2015, we secured asylum for another victim of domestic violence in the Boston Immigration Court.