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Faculty

Ernie Collette

Supervising Attorney at
Mobilization For Justice, Inc.

Immigration attorney committed to improving the lives of individuals and families through litigation

Admitted Jurisdictions

New York

Biography

Ernie Collette is the Supervising Attorney in MFJ’s Immigration Law Project, which assists immigrant families and children to obtain residency and citizenship through humanitarian-based immigration categories such as Adjustment of Status, Citizenship, Green Card Replacement, U-visa, T-visa, Temporary Protected Status, and Asylum before the United States Immigration and Citizenship Services and the Executive Office of Immigration Review

Prior to becoming a Supervising Attorney, Mr. Collette was a Staff Attorney in the Government Benefits Project at MFJ where he represented clients in a range of public benefits matters, including Public Assistance, SNAP, Medicaid, Medicare, and Social Security benefits, including representation in Federal Court.

He has provided numerous trainings to nonprofit organizations, law schools, and to Immigration Judges and Asylum Officers, on immigrant eligibility for public benefits, and is committed to improving the quality of life of marginalized individuals and families through litigation and policy work.

He is the co-author of “Barring Survivors of Domestic Violence from Food Security: The Unintended Consequences of 1996 Welfare and Immigration Reform” published in the Drexel University Law Review, and “Unaccompanied and Excluded From Food Security: A Call for the Inclusion of Immigrant Youth Twenty Years After Welfare Reform” in the Georgetown Immigration Law Journal.

Mr. Collette is a 2013 graduate of Seattle University School of Law.

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Articles & Publications

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    Barring Survivors of Domestic Violence from Food Security: The Unintended Consequences of 1996 Welfare and Immigration Reform

    April 03, 2017

    During the 1990s, Congress amended the Immigration and Nationality Act (“INA”) to create forms of immigration relief for previously neglected vulnerable groups. One such group—survivors of domestic violence—was aided through the Violence Against Women Act (“VAWA”), which amended the INA to allow abused spouses, children, and parents of U.S. citizens or lawful permanent residents to self-petition for family-based immigration benefits without the abuser’s knowledge. Both abused female and male spouses are able to receive immigration benefits under VAWA, as well as spouses in same-sex marriages. Despite protections in immigration law for survivors of domestic violence, two other acts—the Professional Responsibility and Work Opportunity Reconciliation Act (“PWORA”) and the Illegal Immigration Reform and Immigrant Responsibility Act (“IIRIRA”)—which also passed in the 1990s fundamentally changed immigration policy and made it more difficult for members of these vulnerable groups to access public benefits. This Article will focus on the “unintended consequences” that both of these Acts created by excluding vulnerable groups from access to the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (“SNAP”). By comparing public benefits access for categories of immigrants, such as survivors of domestic violence, trafficking, and those who obtained asylum protection, this Article will advocate for reforms at the federal, state, and local level to increase access to food security for vulnerable groups.

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    Unaccompanied and Excluded from Food Security: A Call for the Inclusion of Immigrant Youth Twenty Years after Welfare Reform

    January 03, 2017

    The purpose of this paper is to advocate for immediate access to SNAP (Food Stamps) benefits for immigrant kids applying for and granted Special Immigrant Juvenile Status (SIJS) in both New York State and at the federal level through the historical background of exclusionary immigration policies, an examination of PRWORA, and the application of a case study. First, this paper will briefly discuss the historical background of U.S. immigration policy as exclusionary of certain groups of immigrants, particularly those thought to become a public charge, and the correlation between anti-immigrant sentiment and the passage of laws restricting access to public benefits. Next, this paper will examine the SNAP sections of the PRWORA in great depth, after almost twenty years since its passage and enactment, through the review of pre-PRWORA immigrant eligibility rules and the expansion of post-PRWORA categories since 1996.

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Professional Memberships

  • American Immigration Lawyers Association (Member)

    2016

  • New York Immigration Coalition (Member)

    2015

  • New York City Bar Association - Immigration and Nationality Subcommittee (Member)

    2015

Education

  • Seattle University School of Law

    Juris Doctrate (2013)

  • Gonzaga University

    Undergraduate Degree (2004)

1 Course taught by Ernie Collette

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