La Casa de Amistad, the South Bend-based Hispanic advocacy group, is watching the news very closely these days as the Trump administration takes over. On Wednesday the nonprofit announced it’s hired an immigration attorney to help members.
On Monday Trump issued an executive order renouncing birthright citizenship, which, under the 14th Amendment, grants citizenship to anyone born in the United States. The same day, attorney Sean O’Brien started his new job leading La Casa’s new Immigration Legal Clinic.
La Casa’s executive director, Juan Constantino, says lately he’s spending a lot of his time calming people’s fears. Hiring O’Brien, with money from an anonymous donor, is a step toward helping people prepare for whatever may be coming.
"Certainly there's a lot of concern," Constantino said. "What will happen? What's next? And we're trying to do the best we can to just keep people informed, but also equally not create any unnecessary angst."
O’Brien, who is the elected Democratic Clay Township trustee, for the past five years practiced immigration law with the Monterrosa Law Group in South Bend, where he specialized in removal defense and asylum cases. Before that he spent about 15 years at the University of Notre Dame, where he directed a human rights program.
La Casa recently started doing a weekly show on a local Spanish radio station and they hope to have O’Brien regularly hold Know Your Rights information sessions at La Casa’s headquarters.
