2018 ILCM Award Winners

2018 Gala

Congratulations to our 2018 award winners! At the 2018 Gala, we recognize and honor:

2018 National Advocate of the Year: The Anti-Refugee/Muslim Ban Emergency Collaboration
2018 State Advocate of the Year: Bill Blazar
2018 Volunteer of the Year: Lourdes Moore
2018 Pro Bono Attorney of the Year: Meghan Elliott
2018 Pro Bono Partner of the Year: Cancellation of Removal Project Pilot Participants

2018 National Advocate of the Year

The Anti-Refugee/Muslim Ban Emergency Collaboration

The Immigrant Law Center of Minnesota is pleased to honor all of those who joined us in challenging the first Muslim ban in January 2017. Their prompt response and support reunited a family and testified to the continuing and widespread support of refugees and to the strong opposition to discrimination against Muslims, both here in Minnesota and across the country.

A four-year-old girl made headlines around the world when President Trump’s first travel ban stopped her at an airport in Uganda, preventing her from joining her mother and two sisters in Minnesota. That’s when ILCM joined forces with some of the most experienced immigration experts and litigators in the state, marshalling legal resources to reunite the child with her mother and sisters. Their efforts paid off on February 2 when, finally cleared for travel, the four-year-old girl arrived at the Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport.

The Anti-Refugee/Muslim Ban Emergency Collaboration, which made it possible for Mushkaad to rejoin her mother and sisters, is honored as ILCM’s National Advocate for 2018. Working together, under extreme time and political pressure, this coalition brought Mushkaad home to Minnesota. We honor coalition members:

Advocates for Human Rights
Mid-Minnesota Legal Aid
University of St. Thomas Law School
University of Minnesota Law School’s James H. Binger Center for New Americans
Dorsey & Whitney, LLP
American Civil Liberties Union of Minnesota
CAIR Minnesota
Lutheran Social Services
Senator Amy Klobuchar
Senator Al Franken (statement on receiving award)
Representative Keith Ellison

2018 State Advocate of the Year

Bill Blazar

The Immigrant Law Center of Minnesota is pleased to recognize Bill Blazar, Senior Vice President of Public Affairs and Business Development at the Minnesota Chamber of Commerce, as our 2018I ILCM State Advocate of the Year.

Bill has led the Minnesota Chamber of Commerce to become an advocate for immigrants and a statewide force for better understanding of the contributions that immigrants make to Minnesota’s economy. He directs Grow Minnesota!, the Chamber’s statewide business retention and expansion program. He also represents the Minnesota business community on several task forces and study groups, such as the United States Chamber of Commerce’s Labor Relations Policy Committee. As a leader in the Minnesota Business Immigration Coalition, he speaks out often and forcefully about Minnesota’s economic need for immigrants, and about the need for immigration reform.

Among the many attacks leveled at immigrants are charges that they cost the state money, and that they are a burden on taxpayers. Bill refutes those claims, in articles, in speaking engagements, in panels across the state. Using evidence and data, he responds to fear and misinformation, pointing out the contributions that immigrants make and the ways in which Minnesota needs their talents and contributions. He explains that Minnesota needs immigrants not only as workers, but also as entrepreneurs, consumers and connectors to the world economy.

Bill’s leadership is trusted in the business community and his advocacy for immigrants makes a clear and convincing economic case for their importance to Minnesota. In a time when myths and untruths abound, Bill Blazar provides factual information and a reasoned case for the role of immigrants in growing Minnesota’s economy.

2018 Volunteer of the Year

Lourdes Moore

The Immigrant Law Center of Minnesota is pleased to honor Lourdes Moore as its 2018 ILCM Volunteer of the Year. Lourdes began volunteering in February 2017, feeling the need to “do something after the election.” She connected to ILCM through her sons, one of whom is a lawyer who had worked with the Center for New Americans at the University of Minnesota Law School, while another had interned at ILCM. Besides her sons’ recommendations, she said, “I was born in Cuba and was a refugee myself at the age of four,” so she felt a connection to ILCM’s work with immigrants and refugees.

Lourdes works with the Detention Project, answering phone calls from detainees and their families one morning a week. Besides explaining the program, answering questions, reassuring them about the process, and sending out information, she checks hearing dates weekly, sometimes does country research for asylum cases, and assists with paperwork and keeping the list of pro bono and private attorneys up to date.

ILCM attorney Robyn Meyer-Thompson says Lourdes exercises tremendous patience in working with detained clients and their loved ones. She has a calm demeanor and genuine empathy that is evident to anyone who interacts with her. Since our Detention Line may be the first resource that a detainee or their loved one contacts, this initial interaction should be as positive and informative as possible. Lourdes takes time with each caller to make sure any questions are answered as fully as possible while helping the individual to feel reassured. On top of humbly and compassionately completing her tasks, Lourdes asks for additional ways she can help. She deserves this recognition for her continual service to some of the most vulnerable members of our community. Though the work can be very emotionally taxing and disheartening at times, Lourdes always comes in with a smile on her face, ready to help.

2018 Pro Bono Attorney of the Year

Meghan Elliott

The Immigrant Law Center of Minnesota is pleased to recognize Megan Elliot as our Pro Bono Attorney of the Year for 2018.

Meghan has volunteered with the ILCM Pro Bono Project since 2012, and assisted on 20 pro bono matters at ILCM during that time. She began her pro bono work with ILCM while an attorney at Ballard Spahr, providing pro bono representation to U Visa applicants through ILCM’s Crime Victim Relief Project. Now in-house counsel at Viracon, Inc., Meghan has continued her pro bono work with ILCM, assisting clients with a wide array of immigration law needs. Through various ILCM Pro Bono Projects, Meghan has provided full representation to clients seeking citizenship, U Visas, U Visa extensions, U Visa Adjustments, Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals, and DACA Renewals, as well as brief services to immigrant detainees facing removal proceedings. She has handled several complex matters, guiding clients through crisis situations and serious challenges in their cases.

Through her years of volunteering and extensive pro bono case work Meghan has provided invaluable services to the community. Meghan has also continuously shown herself to be a leader in her pro bono work. She has volunteered to participate in two pilot projects for ILCM. In 2014, when ILCM launched a new project assisting U Visa holders applying for permanent resident status, Meghan was part of the first group of volunteers to take on cases through the project. This year Meghan helped ILCM launch our Community Defense Pro Bono Project Pilot; a project through which volunteers travel to local immigration detention facilities to provide legal screenings, advice, and brief services to immigrant detainees in removal proceedings. She responds to every call for volunteer assistance, and provides the highest level of representation, showing her deep dedication to pro bono work and immigrant rights. We are honored to work with her as a volunteer, and deeply grateful for her service to immigrants and refugees in Minnesota.

2018 Pro Bono Partner of the Year

Cancellation of Removal Project Pilot Participants

(Faegre Baker Daniels LLP, Robins Kaplan LLP, Ballard Spahr LLP, Maslon LLP)

The Immigrant Law Center of Minnesota is pleased to recognize the Cancellation of Removal Project Pilot participants, Faegre Baker Daniels LLP, Robins Kaplan LLP, Ballard Spahr LLP, and Maslon LLP, as the 2018 Pro Bono Partners of the Year.

With 2017’s massive increase in enforcement actions against immigrants and refugees by the Department of Homeland Security, hundreds of immigrants in detention in Minnesota face possible deportation every day. Isolated from family and resources, and caught in a system where their due process rights are under attack, these individuals face an often-insurmountable battle in accessing services and defending themselves against removal. As part of the response to this crisis, ILCM expanded our Pro Bono Project to include removal defense work in 2017, beginning with the launch of the Cancellation of Removal Project Pilot. Four law firms, Faegre Baker Daniels LLP, Robins Kaplan LLP, Ballard Spahr LLP, and Maslon LLP, responded to ILCM’s call for assistance and provided pro bono support to help launch and develop the project. To date volunteers from the partner firms have taken on representation for five detained clients through the pilot.

Removal defense casework in the current environment is extremely challenging. Volunteer attorneys are not simply accepting a pro bono case; they are taking on a fight for a client’s freedom, family, and basic safety. Cases for detained clients can be time consuming, emotionally challenging, and complex, involving both legal and serious logistical hurdles. Attorneys participating in the Cancellation of Removal pilot have taken on these challenges, and made sacrifices to provide zealous representation to their pro bono clients. They are not only providing an irreplaceable service to each client, but are also pushing back on the silencing of detainees everywhere, and helping ILCM to build legal service programming for many others facing detention. With this award we honor their immense dedication and incredible work.