Former Executive Director of the Immigrant Defense Project

New York, NY

Michelle Fei is currently an aspiring midwife, training as a birth assistant and doula in homebirth settings. Until recently, she served as Executive Director of the Immigrant Defense Project, where she focused her substantive work on community education and policy initiatives. There, she co-led the statewide campaign that led to the New York suspension in 2012 of a large-scale federal deportation program. Michelle helped launch the Center for Community Problem-Solving at NYU in 2003, where, with the support of an Equal Justice Works Fellowship, she spearheaded a jail and prison reentry project and an immigrant workers’ rights project. She also previously worked at a community-based law firm, representing Central American clients in their immigration cases.

Here are articles by and about Michelle Fei and her legal work:

• Two Counties in Lower Hudson Valley are First to Join Secure Communities in NY
• Immigrant Defense Project
• New Secure Communities Agreement in NY Does Little to Address Immigrant Concerns
• Equal Justice Fellow Michelle Fei
• High court: Immigrant defendants must be told of deportation risk
• 2012 Communications Institute Fellows, The Opportunity Agenda
• New York Advocates Celebrate Suspension of Controversial Deportation Program “Secure Communities”
• Secure Communities’ and the U.S. Immigrant Rights Movement: Lessons from New York State Rights Working Group, Michelle Fei
• NATIONAL DAY LABORER ORGANIZING NETWORK v. UNITED STATES IMMIGRATION
  AND CUSTOMS ENFORCEMENT AGENCY
• National Low-Income Immigrants’ Rights Conference
• More Double Punishment for Immigrants with Convictions
• The Penalty is Exile: How Immigration and Criminalization Collide
• Ten Arrested Demanding Release Of Immigrant Rights Leader
• Widespread Denial of Justice for New Yorkers Facing Detention and Deportation, New Report Finds US Immigration Authorities Seen Terrorizing City’s Immigrant Community
• IMMIGRATION ENFORCEMENT DEPENDS ON ICE HOLD REQUESTS
• Even Armed Robbers Shouldn’t Be Deported?
• New Secure Communities Agreement in NY Does Little to Address Immigrant Concerns
• NEW YORK ADVOCATES PUSH BACK AGAINST OBAMA’S “INSECURE COMMUNITIES” RACIAL PROFILING PROGRAM
• New York Immigration Pardon Project
• NYC Solidarity with Immigrants in Arizona
• Criminalizing Immigration: Perspectives on Regulation, Citizenship, and Advocacy
• City’s immigrant-friendly image tarnished by new report on cold ICE practices,  Survey by Immigrant Defense Project and Families for Freedom, and NYU School of Law Immigrant Rights Clinic cites secret deportation statistics
• City Council Passes Historic Legislation Limiting Involvement with Federal Immigration Authorities at NYC Department of Corrections
• Statement to the U.S. Department of Homeland Security One Year after the Transfer of Varick Detainees
• City Council Speaker Christine C. Quinn, Council Members and Immigrant Advocates Gather to Demand the Department of Homeland Security Halt the Activation of Secure Communities in New York City
• Immigration Reform Starts Here: City and State Policy Recommendations to Protect New York Immigrants and their Families

 #RebelliousLawyering