14 July 11 • 2019
jn
ALLISON JACOBS JN DIGITAL EDITOR
Schmoozing
with Ryan Israel
Attorney talks about immigration law —
challenges and rewards.
Q.
What inspired you to become an
immigration attorney?
Before I applied to law school, I thought
this was the type of law I wanted to
practice because I wanted to help people
from different countries — and I spoke
different languages. I thought it was a
good way to merge those two concepts.
Q.
How did you become multilingual
and which languages do you speak
fluently?
Initially, it was from reading books in
Spanish and English, and French and
English, and then I wound up taking
courses in high school and college. In
undergrad, I studied Italian and Spanish
as my majors and I also did one class
in Portuguese, one class in French and
a semester of Russian. I am fluent in
Spanish, Italian, French, Portuguese —
and English! I use Spanish almost every
day.
Q.
Tell us about your current job and
your role there.
At George P
. Mann and Associates, I
mainly do the litigation of immigration
or removal proceedings, which is when
the government tries to deport immi-
grants. I mainly do individual hearings
and bond hearings. Bond hearings are
when you try to get someone released
from detentions, and individual hearings
are when you’
re arguing why someone
shouldn’
t be deported.
I’
d say the most common cases I
do are asylum cases and cancellation
of removal, which are two forms of
relief available for immigrants who
meet certain eligibility requirements.
Most of the clients I represent are from
Central America, but I also represent a
decent amount from the Middle East.
Q.
How do recent immigration law
changes impact your work?
The laws have been constantly changing.
With a lot of these cases, people don’
t
know what the law is, if that makes
sense. There’
s a lot of new litigation over
changes being made. Unfortunately,
most of the laws are anti-immigrant.
For example, a few a months ago,
there was a case called Matter of Castro-
Tum: Prosecutors used to be able to
put a case on hold for as long as they
wanted, and the government could
decide not to prosecute cases; recently,
the attorney general made it so judges
couldn’
t shelf the cases except in very
particular circumstances. Tons of cases
across the county had to be re-dock-
eted, and that impacted a lot of people
because when their cases were put on
hold, they could pursue another form of
relief — all of a sudden, they had to go
through their deportation proceedings.
Another big change was called Matter
of A-B, which had to do with Attorney
General Jeff Sessions limiting the scope
of asylum proceedings … for women
in domestic violence situations or asy-
lum-seekers being persecuted by gangs.
That decision has been up in litigation
and many immigration practitioners are
arguing against it. It appears now courts
are finding that decision doesn’
t apply,
which is good for immigrants, but that
decision caused a lot of chaos because
many judges believed people who were
domestically abused wouldn’
t qualify for
asylum. That is still being argued over
right now.
Q.
What do you like most about
your job?
Every day I go to court, I’
m on
the front line arguing for people
who are just trying to survive. Often, I
am the only voice for families who are
living in constant fear of being ripped
apart. It can be stressful carrying the
weight of this information on your
shoulders and knowing that you’
re
this family’
s only defense. Many times,
you need to hold your ground, even
when the system pushes against you. I
find this line of work very rewarding
because each win or argument that you
make may be something that keeps a
family together or that keeps someone
from being killed or tortured.
I also enjoy meeting people from all
over the world and just hearing their
stories and having the opportunity to
fight for them.
Q.
If you could change one thing
about immigration laws, what
would it be?
I would have Congress re-address
all laws and come up with a new set
of laws that would better address
the issues that have been arising. I
think there should be a review of
what the laws are in the Immigration
and Nationality Act — it has pretty
much been stagnant since 1996, and
Congress should review everything
and perhaps decide what laws they
maybe want to add on or change. I feel
a lot of issues remain unaddressed.
Q.
You’
ve always made time for
Jewish community involvement.
What have you been doing lately?
I created Let’
s Say Chai last year, which
is a social Jewish outlet focusing on
outdoor activities for young adults. I
also went to quite a few of The Well’
s
events — those are good. ■
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yan Israel, 29, lives in Farmington Hills. He attended the University of
Michigan followed by law school at Michigan State University. He is an
associate immigration attorney specializing in litigation and removal pro-
ceedings for immigrants at George P. Mann and Associates. In his free time, he
enjoys skiing, traveling and working out.
COURTESY RYAN ISRAEL
Ryan
Israel