Kamal Essaheb joined the National Immigration Law Center in 2012 as an immigration policy attorney, focusing on administrative relief efforts and fighting back against excessive immigration enforcement policies. A former DREAMer, he was one of the DACA recipients named a Champion of Change by the White House in 2014. Prior to working at NILC, Essaheb was a practicing immigration attorney at CUNY Citizenship Now, a nonprofit immigration legal services provider in New York City. He holds a juris doctor from Fordham Law School, where he was a Stein Scholar in Public Interest Law and Ethics. Essaheb is an immigrant from Morocco.
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Immigration Relief Will Come Through the Courts Or the Ballot Box
We are living in historic times. The Confederate flag that was placed on the South Carolina Capitol dome 54 years ago to protest the civil rights movement has finally come down. The U.S. Supreme Court ruled last month that victims of housing discrimination do not have to show intentional bias, and the court struck down state bans on same-sex marriage because they violated fundamental constitutional rights.
Victories in the battles against discrimination do not come easily or quickly, and they test our resolve to keep the faith during the lowest points of our struggles. While we celebrate the dismantling of institutional discrimination, we remain keenly aware of important challenges ahead with regard to discrimination — even hatred — against immigrants.
Many of us engaged in the long fight for immigration reform may be questioning whether we are at one of our lowest points, whether we can influence the negative political and legal trajectories of the recent immigration debates. The answer to both is “yes.”