Impact Docket – 08/19/26

Written By Zenab Youssef

This week demands action. Here are seven ways you can push back right now:

📩 Short-Term Engagement — Public Comments

🛠️ Long-Term Engagement

🏛️ State-Level Advocacy

🤝 Partner Actions

Whether you have 2 minutes or 2 days, join the fight. Keep reading for more context.

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🔴 The Moment We're In: Clearing the Bench

This week, the last judge blocking the administration from ending Temporary Protected Status for Ethiopians stepped aside, and the Justice Department declared every one of its TPS terminations now in effect. According to Pew Research, of the roughly 1.3 million people who held this protection when the administration took office, more than one million have now lost it across 13 countries, from Haiti and Venezuela to Syria and now Ethiopia. Just four countries still retain it. These are people who lived and worked here legally, for years or decades, now exposed to deportation.

The deeper story is about the courts themselves. Current and former immigration judges told NOTUS this week that mass firings have created a "climate of fear" on the bench — judges who don't move cases toward deportation fast enough are pushed out, and the DOJ is now openly recruiting replacements as "deportation judges." More than 100 of roughly 750 immigration judges have been removed, and the asylum grant rate has fallen by half.

But there is a counterweight: lawyers who refuse to walk away. This week a federal appeals court upheld limits on immigration enforcement at houses of worship — a ruling that exists only because attorneys brought the case. That is the thread through this week's docket, from habeas work to the call for counsel in Oklahoma. When the courts are hollowed out, volunteer lawyers are what's left of due process.

Seven actions. Pick one. Start there.

📩 SHORT-TERM ENGAGEMENT- PUBLIC COMMENTS

🔬 Submit a Comment: Stop the NSF from Codifying OMB's Power Grab on Science Grants — DEADLINE NEXT MONDAY

📍 Follow the steps below | Comment deadline: MONDAY, August 24

Earlier this year, the Office of Management and Budget proposed a sweeping rewrite of the rules governing every federal grant — one that would let political appointees freeze, cancel, or add strings to more than $1 trillion in funding for nonprofits, universities, states, and Tribes based on shifting political priorities. Nearly 500,000 people filed comments opposing it. Now the National Science Foundation is quietly trying to lock that same politicization of science grants into place through a low-profile "information collection" — a back door around the public process. Your comment can help stop it.

  1. Read Stand Up for Science's overview of the NSF action and draft your comment

  2. Submit your comment by August 24, 2026

  3. Let us know you submitted at L4GG.org/TrackComment

🧒 Submit a Comment: Oppose Invasive Searches of Immigrant Children and New Barriers to Family Reunification — DEADLINE NEXT TUESDAY

📍 Follow the steps below | Comment deadline: TUESDAY, August 25

A proposed federal rule would allow unvetted federal contractors to conduct invasive body searches of unaccompanied immigrant children in federal custody, and would make it far harder for these children to reunite with safe family members. It would impose sweeping new documentation, income, and background-check requirements on sponsors — the parents, relatives, and loved ones who step forward to take these children in — keeping kids in government custody longer, at a moment when many are already losing the trusted lawyers who represented them due to the administration's attacks on the Unaccompanied Children Program. The result is more children held longer, with fewer protections and less legal support.

  1. Use the Children Thrive Action Network's public comment template and draft your comment. You can also amplify with their other resources:

  1. Submit your comment by August 25, 2026

  2. Let us know you submitted at L4GG.org/TrackComment

🏗️ Submit a Comment: Streamline Build America, Buy America Waiver Requests — DEADLINE NEXT FRIDAY

📍 Follow the steps below | Comment deadline: FRIDAY, August 28

When a community can't get American-made products for their infrastructure projects, Build America, Buy America (BABA) rules let federal grant recipients request a waiver — but the process is so burdensome that it can delay water system repairs, road projects, clean energy, affordable housing, and many other projects for months. Local governments and grantees end up buried in paperwork instead of getting shovels in the ground.

The US Department of Agriculture is renewing the form used for these waiver requests, which gives us a real chance to push for a simpler, faster process — one that gets communities their projects sooner without watering down the "Buy America" goal.

  1. Read our comment template and draft your comment

  2. Submit your comment by August 28, 2026

  3. Let us know you submitted at L4GG.org/TrackComment

 

🛠️ LONG-TERM ENGAGEMENT

🤖 Volunteer Interest Form: Election Disinformation

📍 L4GG.org/CombatDisinfo

L4GG and Voter Protection Corps are building a fully remote program for lawyers to help identify, assess, and respond to election-related mis/disinformation online. A training is coming in the next few weeks. Fill out the interest form to be among the first to hear when the program launches. 

🗣️ Spanish Speakers Needed: Habeas Corpus Info Session for Volunteer Interpreters and Attorneys

📍 L4GG.org/HabeasInfoSession | Wednesday, September 16 | 12:00 PM ET | Zoom

L4GG is seeking volunteer attorneys, law students, and legal professionals fluent in Spanish to serve as interpreters supporting habeas corpus petitions for people unlawfully detained by ICE — facilitating intake interviews, interpreting legal explanations during telephonic meetings, and coordinating with counsel and family members. Volunteer attorneys are also invited to learn about representing detained individuals in habeas cases directly.

Our upcoming info session on September 16 covers what habeas petitions are, the tasks interpreters perform, and the support L4GG provides — including training materials, model petitions, malpractice insurance, legal research tools, and mentoring. No immigration experience required. This session will be recorded and shared with all registrants. Register today.

 

🏛️ STATE-LEVEL ADVOCACY

📱 CA RESIDENTS: Last Chance to Stop the Social Media Ban — A.B. 1709

📍 L4GG.org/StopTheBan

Time is almost up for A.B. 1709. The bill must pass the state Senate by August 31 or it dies for the session — and it cleared the Senate Commerce Committee earlier this month, so a floor vote could come any day. California lawmakers have amended it, but the core problems remain: it would ban everyone under 16 from social media and force age verification on every user, meaning adults across the state could be required to hand over a government ID or biometric scan just to log in. Courts across the country have already struck down bans like this as unconstitutional.

This is the last window to stop it. Tell your state Senator there's no "kid exception" to the First Amendment — and California shouldn't hand taxpayers the bill for defending a law that's unconstitutional on its face.

 

🤝 PARTNER ACTIONS

⚖️ Oklahoma: Habeas Counsel Urgently Needed for Detained Immigrants

📍 Learn more from the ACLU of Oklahoma

Oklahoma has immigration detention facilities but almost no legal service providers to help the people held inside them. The ACLU of Oklahoma is working to build a habeas project there and needs volunteer attorneys admitted in the Western District of Oklahoma to help file petitions seeking release for people detained by ICE. This is best suited to attorneys who can work with some independence, but for those able to step up, it's a chance to fill a critical gap where the need is greatest. If you're an Oklahoma attorney, or know one, please take a look and share. Read the ACLU of Oklahoma's call for habeas counsel and get involved!

We’ll be back next week with more ways to take action—but the work doesn’t stop here. 

  • Know someone else who would be interested in this newsletter? Share this link so they can sign up too.

  • Join our rapid-response SMS group by texting “community” to 771-203-4895.

Zenab Youssef
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Impact Docket – 08/12/26