Wednesday, August 7, 2013

The Fate Of The Dream 9

#DREAM9 Walk The Line

Matthew Kolken in the News


"Matthew Kolken, an immigration attorney in New York who has fought asylum cases, said there had been a movement for federal officials to provide asylum for more Mexican nationals because of increased violence in the country.
But, he said, it’s not politically palpable. “Unfortunately, like everything else, politics comes into play. It’s basically saying that one of our largest trading partners is persecuting someone or can’t protect someone from being persecuted,” he said."
“It’s not surprising,” said immigration attorney Matthew Kolken, who is not representing the activists, but said he had given their representatives some guidance before their protest. “Most of my clients are able to establish credible fear. But it’s a first step [for the activists]. The good news is that the Obama administration’s general policy is to release individuals who establish credible fear.”


“It was a controversial course of action they decided to undertake,” Kolken said to Fox News Latino. “But that’s what acts of disobedience are, they’re controversial.”


“When I saw nine young adults basically taking on the full weight of the U.S. government, the most powerful in the history of this planet, and doing so without anything but the shirts on their back, I couldn’t help but get behind those kids.”


“I think this is the largest story in the history of immigration law,” Kolken said. “The only one that can rival this is the John Lennon deportation case. This is Rosa Parks sitting in the front of the bus.”

"Mathew Kolken, an immigration lawyer, criticized Mr. Leopold for making assumptions about the facts of the cases for the Dream 9 and potentially having “deviant motivations” of defending the Obama administration “at all costs.”"