[Editor's Note: Periodically, Siskind's Immigration Bulletin will spotlight a non-profit organization playing an important role advocating for immigrants in America. If you know of an organization that should be recognized in this column for its important work, please let me know by sending e-mail to gsiskind@visalaw.com]

The American Bar Association, the country's largest organization of lawyers, is playing a leading advocacy role in the immigration arena, particularly through its Coordinating Committee on Immigration Law (of which this publication's editor is a member). The ABA, through its CCIL, has taken positions on a number of important immigration issues and has been actively involved in advocating on immigration policies in the Congress and in the courts.

The ABA's CCIL recently submitted an amicus brief in Reno v. ADC, a highly important case testing out deportation provisions in the 1996 Immigration Act. This litigation began a decade ago when the INS commenced deportation proceedings against eight people because of their political affiliation and activities.

The CCIL also sent a policy letter to Judiciary Committee Member Henry Hyde opposing Lamar Smith's naturalization legislation which was recently defeated. CCIL sent a letter to Senate Immigration Committee Chair Spencer Abraham expressing ABA positions on detention, the importance of custody hearings, access to legal information and representation by detained aliens and the need for the INS to apply its Detention Standards to non-INS facilities. [Editor's note: For more information on the seriousness of INS detention problems, see our story on the new Human Rights Watch report condemning INS detention procedures in our September issue].

In its role as advocates for the legal profession, the ABA Governmental Affairs Office recently sent a letter to Attorney General Janet Reno's office expressing opposition to the proposed EOIR/INS disciplinary rules for immigration lawyers.

The ABA will be submitting comments on several pieces of legislation. They include the cancellation of removal cap regulations and the streamlined BIA appeals regulations summarized above.

As a new member of the ABA's CCIL, I am quickly becoming educated on the important work being done by the American Bar Association on behalf of the rights of immigrants. The CCIL has several immigration lawyers as members, but it also has credibility since it has representatives from a number of other practice areas. Carol Wolchok, an extremely able Executive Director who enjoys tremendous respect from the immigration bar, the legal profession generally and members of Congress lead the CCIL. Most importantly, Ms. Wolchok has achieved incredible results on an extremely limited budget.