Last week, the United States Court of Appeals held an Immigration Law Training at its courthouse in Pasadena, California. The training included sessions on motions practice, mediation, brief writing, and oral argument. I spoke on two panels: one called "Jurisdiction and Motions Practice" and the other called "Preparing Your Brief." I had the privilege of speaking on the same panel with Judge Jacqueline H. Nguyen of the Ninth Circuit on appellate brief writing. Immigration practice before the Ninth Circuit is a critical component of the court's work. In 2014, immigration matters and appeals brought by inmates in state or federal prisons within the circuit constituted two-thirds of the new filings in the Ninth Circuit.

On September 11, three UC Davis students, Aldo Martinez Gomez, Amanda Whitney, and Anita Barooni, and I went to provide a free legal orientation to refugees detained in the Mesa Verde Detention Center in Bakersfield. The students and volunteers met with over 250 refugees and immigrants from all over the world, providing pro se assistance, self-help materials, and legal support. However, we also left feeling a bit defeated because the need was so overwhelming, and the people were desperate for more meaningful legal assistance.

The students' outrage and courage inspired me to write this opinion piece for The Los Angeles Times with my friend and colleague, Jayashri Srikantiah at Stanford.

I did not want what we witnessed to remain invisible, because in the words of MLK, "In the end we will remember not the words of our enemies, but the silence of our friends."