The section supported pro bono efforts through grants to 13 nonprofits providing legal services and support to immigrants across Texas. More recipients will be announced in June. The section was proud to receive the State Bar of Texas’ Pro Bono Challenge Highest Percentile Participation Award. The section increased educational opportunities via email blasts and by working with other sections and the State Bar. The section sponsored the bar’s Advanced Immigration Law and Immigration Law 101 CLEs with promotion and funding and collaborated with the International Law Section’s 29th Annual International Law Institute, where council member Raed Gonzalez represented the section as a panelist on Immigration Consequences of Domestic and International Criminal Activity. News was distributed through the section’s newsletter and email list and the following topics were covered as well: the expected impact under a new administration on employment-based immigration, worksite compliance efforts, E-Verify, travel bans, and expansion of detention and removal efforts. At the State Bar Annual Meeting in Dallas, the section sponsored a three hour CLE on ethics, “crimmigration,” and employment-based immigration. The annual meeting included updates from the LRINC.

-Ruth McChesney, Chair