Because most immigration lawyers work in small practices or nonprofits, and because almost all immigration lawyers represent clients before a single “adversary,” we usually heavily on our networks of other immigration lawyers to stay current.

These email lists, Facebook groups, and group texts form a neural network for transmitting essential information through a fast-evolving legal and regulatory body.

Today, an attorney in New England posted on one of those lists that he heard about a possible bus full of migrants heading toward his state, possibly already en route. He didn’t know where they started or who sent them; he had heard rumors of a possible destination — a small city in a rural part of the state. He sought any information so that his organization could support a relief effort. I had no information to offer; no one else responded globally either.

Constellations and Supernovas

When I’m not practicing law, I read about immigration history. I’m looking for patterns, connections, things that may help explain how we ended up with the laws we have. The big events — wars, riots — get covered by most historians, as they should. The constellation of small events — the ordinary people, the humdrum of everyday decisions — make up the sky in which those supernova events appear. In my research, I’m mostly looking for the small events. I want to see the sky in which the supernovae appear.

Every time I read about another busload of migrants, another state of emergency, another group of intrepid community organizers and public interest attorneys gearing up, I can’t avoid thinking we’re living through another immigration supernova.

They’re coming often, each rapidly on the heels of the last. Since I began to specialize in immigration law in 2017, we’ve seen the Muslim Travel Ban … the Afghan evacuation … the busing. That doesn’t even include the myriad dramatic and destabilizing immigration policies at the border.

From reading history, I know that all things come in cycles. Even deep crises end, or at least evolve into something different.

In the midst of the night sky illuminated by a burning supernova, though, it’s hard to make out the constellations.