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The Guardian - US
The Guardian - US
World
Isabeau Doucet in San Francisco, with photographs by Ximena Natera

The chaotic life of an immigration lawyer in Trump’s America: ‘Some days you break down in tears’

Donald Trump Ice Immigration San Francisco USCIS
Milli Atkinson, immigrant legal defense program director, at the Bar Association of San Francisco.
Milli Atkinson, immigrant legal defense program director, at the Bar Association of San Francisco. Photograph: Ximena Natera/The Guardian

It’s been a chaotic year in San Francisco immigration court. At least 88 asylum seekers have been arrested by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) at their court hearings. More than half of the immigration judges have been fired. A climate of fear and uncertainty pervades.

At the center of it all, immigration attorney Milli Atkinson has been holding things together. She leads the San Francisco Bar Association’s Attorney of the Day program, which provides people from all over Northern California with free legal advice when they show up to immigration court. She also leads San Francisco’s Rapid Response Network, finding legal representation for anyone in the city arrested by ICE.

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