Lizbeth Mateo, an immigration attorney in Los Angeles who is undocumented, will speak at a New Jersey Institute for Continuing Legal Education (NJICLE) seminar titled “The Undocumented Lawyer: An Insider’s Perspective to Immigration, Asylum and Civil Rights” on Jan. 27.
Mateo is the subject of a forthcoming HBO documentary, “The Undocumented Lawyer,” which will be shown at the seminar. At 14, she crossed the border into the United States with her parents and two brothers. In the documentary, the filmmakers follow Mateo as she represents undocumented immigrants in California courts, including Edith Espinal, a woman who takes sanctuary in a church to avoid deportation.
Panelists for the NJICLE seminar include some of the leading immigration attorneys in New Jersey: Michael Noriega, of Bramnick, Rodriguez, Grabas, Arnold & Mangan in Scotch Plains; Alan Pollack, chair of the New Jersey State Bar Association (NJSBA) Immigration Law Section; and Susan G. Roy, immediate past chair of the NJSBA Immigration Law Section, an attorney in Princeton Junction and a former U.S. immigration judge.
Mateo will discuss her life. The panelists will address some of the issues raised in the documentary and immigration issues facing people living in New Jersey. Attendees will learn about the latest developments in asylum, sanctuary, perceptions of immigrants and the interplay of law and status.