By Araceli M. Cantero - Florida Catholic
MIAMI | Days before the new administration occupied the White House and implemented its proposals to deport thousands of undocumented immigrants, a hundred people attended a Catholic Legal Services of the Archdiocese of Miami (CLS) information session at Corpus Christi Parish in Miami Jan. 15, 2025 to clarify issues and inform immigrants of their rights.
The event was organized by the parish with the support of CLS lawyers and a team of volunteers, as part of a project to help low-income immigrants with their asylum and refugee applications.
Father Federico Capdepón began the session with a prayer. Joe Kano, a CLS attorney, guided participants on potential changes to immigration laws and procedures that the new president could implement.

Photographer: ARACELI M. CANTERO | FC
Attorney Joe Kano, of the Archdiocese of Miami's Catholic Legal Services, answers questions from an attendee during an immigration information session at Corpus Christi Parish in Miami, Jan. 15, 2025.
“Many rumors are circulating with false information, and I am going to be aware,” he told them. “You don't have to be Catholic to receive our help. We are not part of the government, and everything is confidential,” he clarified.
During the presentation, the lawyer warned about the importance of writing down important dates carefully and not missing court dates. "Because if you don't, the entire process is lost, and you have to start over and pay the costs."
This is what Marta, a Nicaraguan, experienced. After 30 years in the country, she missed her appointment and ran out of money until she found out about the program in Corpus Christi. “They helped me a lot, and Immigration (Services) has already answered me. They are angels,” she said.
Kano advised participants to notify the place where they live that a letter from Immigration Services might arrive and to take pictures of all their documents. And given the fear of possible deportations, he assured them that “you have the constitutional right not to speak and to ask for a lawyer.”
And if they come looking for you, he said: “You have the right not to open the door of your house if there is no entry order. And you shouldn't talk either.”
“The most important thing is to be proactive, not panic, and to get information from reliable sources, such as legal nonprofit organizations.”
He emphasized that in the United States, a notary public does not have legal power as in other countries.
In Miami, there are organizations that help immigrants, including Camillus House, an agency affiliated with the Archdiocese of Miami that helps the homeless, which offers free blood tests and vaccines required for the process.
After the presentation, many participants spoke privately with the lawyer.

Photographer: ARACELI M. CANTERO | FC
Attorney Joe Kano, of the Archdiocese of Miami's Catholic Legal Services, answers questions from some of the attendees after presenting the immigration sesion, Jan. 15, 2025, at Corpus Christi Parish in Miami.
Days after the session, rumors about what the new administration would do were becoming reality. On the same day of his inauguration as president, Jan. 20, 2025, Donald Trump signed several executive orders, including “Strengthen Our Borders,” which declares a national emergency at the southern border and prohibits the entry of illegal aliens, closing the borders.
Before leaving office, Jan. 13, Alejando Mayorkas, Secretary of Homeland Security in the Joe Biden administration, in an interview for National Public Radio (NPR), had clarified that “the border at this moment is safer than it was at late 2019, the last year before the pandemic hit,” during the first term of then-President Trump.
He explained that “fewer people have been crossing the border consistently today for about six months, less than during parts of the first Trump administration.”
Mayorcas pointed out that what “President Trump promised in his campaign had already been fulfilled by the Biden administration. “It is something that could not be done before because negotiations with Congress were torpedoed by Republicans at Trump's behest during the election year.”
Among President Trump's “executive actions,” several refer to immigration issues.
Among the measures is one that proposes to end U.S. citizenship for children born in the United States to parents who are not a U.S. citizens or green card holders.
Legal experts have pointed out in the news media that this measure contradicts the 14th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, which states: “All persons born or naturalized in the United States, and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States and of the State wherein they reside.”
This amendment was ratified by a Supreme Court ruling on March 5, 1898, which affirmed that birthright citizenship applies to the children of immigrants.
While some legal scholars dispute the interpretation of the 1898 ruling, it is unclear whether President Trump can do what he proposes without an act of Congress.
On January 20, the government electronic application for people seeking to enter the United States, CBP One, stopped responding. This will affect thousands of people. The humanitarian parole program that benefited migrants from Cuba, Haiti, Nicaragua and Venezuela was also suspended. When accessing a note appears: Page not available.
And although rumors have circulated of other measures about ending remittances and commercial flights to Cuba, these measures have not been confirmed.
During the briefing, prior to the arrival of the new administration, Attorney Kano explained that the immigration process in the United States involves several federal agencies working together and independently. Each has its own requirements, which makes the process complex. To help understand it, Kano projected an organizational chart of the different agencies involved in the immigration process and explained each one, although some are no longer available online.

Photographer: ARACELI M. CANTERO | FC
A volunteer with the Immigrant Assistance Project at Corpus Christi Parish helps an immigrant fill out immigration forms, Jan. 15, 2025, at Corpus Christi Parish following the immigration information session presented by Catholic Legal Services of the Archdiocese of Miami.
IMMIGRANT ASSISTANCE PROJECT
The project to help immigrants in the Corpus Christi Parish began in October 2023. It was the idea of Father Federico Capdepón, who, aware of the complicated immigration situation of so many people, contacted Randy P. McGrorty, executive director of Legal Services Catholics, who offered lawyers from his team to help with the project.
The program is organized into three teams:
1. Organization of clients seeking assistance: It is coordinated by lawyer Julie Williamson. Two parish volunteers receive calls, ask brief questions to determine if they can be helped, and schedule appointments.
2. A volunteer team, made up of 11 members of the Teresian Institution and coordinated by Patricia Stockton, comes on Wednesdays to serve clients. They have received legal training from Attorney Kano and have been certified by the national program of the Catholic Legal Immigration Network, Inc., after learning how to navigate the complexities of federal immigration law.
3. The Organizational team, made up of Father Capdepón, client services’ volunteers from Corpus Christi Parish, and lawyer Joe Kano and the paralegals Carlos Guillén and Gladlyn Jean Louis from Catholic Legal Services.
For Stockton, this program is “a beautiful task of coming face to face with the terrible and painful reality of people who leave their countries of origin in desperation, fleeing violence, situations of extreme poverty.”
The fact that the Church is involved in the project seems very good to her, because “we are not only in the temple, but the temple expands to the city and the world and to know the realities of the people,” Stockton said.
Mariana López is a social worker and one of the volunteers who wants to contribute her grain of sand said, she always learns from the strength of the human spirit.
“We are only touching the surface of this reality, and in 100 years we will wonder what we did,” said lawyer Kano, in an interview, going back to 1924, when only one percent of the Europeans who arrived were rejected.
Although he is not in favor of an open border policy, recognizing that it would be a chaos, he believes that “things could be made simpler with a registration system for people willing to respect our values, who do not have a criminal record, who are not going to be a public charge and can work.” For him, equal opportunities should not be limited by the country of origin.
Kano, commenting on the book One Billion Americans by Matthew Iglesias, in which the author argues that the country should increase its population to one billion to be “the largest nation on earth” above China, and to do so it should increase immigration.
FOR MORE INFORMATION:
- Catholic Legal Services is located at 1469 NW 13th Terrace, Suite 100, Miami. You can make an appointment by calling: 305-373-1073 or through their website: www.cclsmiami.org.
- Corpus Christi Parish is located at: 3220 NW 7th Ave, Miami.

Photographer: ARACELI M. CANTERO | FC
Dozens of people attended the Jan. 15, 2025 Catholic Legal Services information session at Corpus Christi Parish in Miami to clarify immigration questions and learn about their rights.