Hofstra prof. speaks on fighting deportation amid Trump crackdown

Amid President Donald Trump’s executive orders on immigration and deportation, fear is now widespread among undocumented immigrant communities across the country. This is particularly true in Nassau County, where County Executive Bruce Blakeman, a Republican, has stated the county’s law enforcement would work with the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) to round up undocumented immigrants.

Last Monday, WRHU Hofstra University Radio’s Brooklyn Dottin sat down with Alexander Holtzman, who has worked in immigration law for years. He was a staff attorney with the Safe Passage Project, where he represented immigrant youth, many of them unaccompanied children in deportation proceedings. He is now the assistant clinical professor of law and the director of the Deportation Defense Clinic at Hofstra University, whose students provide client representation, community engagement and impact litigation to Long Island’s undocumented immigrant community.

In this interview, we discuss his work in the context of Trump’s current policies about and attitude toward immigration law.