An educational archive of reporting, commentary, interviews, and public records documenting immigration advocacy and debate in Montana, collected by Border Crossing Law Firm over nearly two decades of practice.
Alerts when the law moves. And an educational archive, kept and annotated for reference: selected reporting, broadcasts and public conversations on immigration law, civil rights, Montana’s immigration history, and this firm’s part in it.
KXLH reports on a 2025 Montana bill that would have required officers to check immigration status during every traffic stop. Sponsor Nelly Nicol presented the mandate as a way to avoid profiling, while law-enforcement groups warned that a compulsory check could conflict with the Fourth Amendment and tribal representatives said Native people could be wrongly targeted. The committee took no immediate action. The proposal directly revisited the safeguards created by the firm's 2015 Montana Highway Patrol settlement. A decade later, the constitutional limits established after prolonged roadside immigration checks were still shaping legislative debate over policing and immigration in Montana.
This excerpt from Mountain States Super Lawyers profiles Shahid Haque's immigration and civil-rights practice. It recounts the founding of the firm, his family's immigrant background, the LR-121 and Montana Highway Patrol cases, and his view that restrictive immigration politics often soften when Montanans know immigrant neighbors, workers, and families personally. The excerpt is a concise retrospective on how the firm's individual casework grew into litigation that changed Montana law and law-enforcement policy.
This 2024 Mountain States Super Lawyers issue profiles Shahid Haque's path from law-school asylum cases in Chicago to opening a Montana immigration practice in 2008. The article covers his family's immigration story, the unanimous court victory over LR-121, the class action that changed Montana Highway Patrol practices, representation of Afghans after the fall of Kabul, and the firm's continuing work in a state where immigration is often debated more abstractly than experienced personally. The profile looks back across the firm's first sixteen years and connects its courtroom work to Shahid's reason for entering immigration law: helping people find safety and build lives.
Montana Free Press reports on three Republican proposals for a special legislative session in 2024, including two aimed at immigration. House Speaker Matt Regier proposed state immigration enforcement and new restrictions on organizations serving immigrants after public attention focused on a Venezuelan family in the Flathead Valley. Shahid Haque explains that Venezuelans may have federal temporary protected status, that a person's status cannot be assumed, and that removal is governed by federal process rather than immediate state action. The debate revived the same state-versus-federal conflict at the center of Shahid's successful challenge to LR-121. His response placed a politically charged local incident back within the governing federal law and made clear that the firm was prepared to challenge another unconstitutional state enforcement scheme.
The firm warns that immigration authorities may use false social-media profiles to gather information. It advises readers to limit public details about status and location, review privacy settings, verify unexpected requests, avoid sharing sensitive information in direct messages, and consult an immigration lawyer when contact appears suspicious. The post reflects a newer part of immigration enforcement: online surveillance can expose people and their families before any formal encounter with an officer. The firm's advice focuses on practical digital caution rather than panic.
This firm post announces Shahid Haque's appearance on The Rational Middle podcast with Carter Carroll to discuss Open Borders and immigration in Montana. The conversation connected the firm's new public legal-information service with the realities of practicing immigration law in a rural state.
This brief promotional video directs viewers to Open Borders for a free online immigration consultation. It contains music and on-screen messaging rather than a spoken presentation. The clip was part of the firm's effort to make the Open Borders service visible and easy to share with people looking for a first step through the immigration system.
The Helena Independent Record's front page announces the launch of Open Borders, describing it as a free, TurboTax-style immigration guide available in English and Spanish. The story traces Shahid Haque's path from law-school asylum work to a Montana practice and explains how he spent years translating his consultation process into an online tool that could identify possible immigration options while encouraging users to seek qualified legal advice. The front-page coverage recognized a significant change in the firm's public role: knowledge developed through years of one-to-one representation was becoming a statewide and national legal-education resource.
This firm announcement introduces Open Borders, a free English- and Spanish-language guide built to help people understand possible immigration options before speaking with a lawyer. Shahid Haque developed its decision-tree approach from more than 17 years of consultations, including difficult questions involving unlawful entry and removal proceedings. The service offers personalized legal information, not legal advice, and gives users the option to contact the firm for representation. Open Borders turned the consultation method Shahid had developed through thousands of individual cases into a public resource that anyone could use. It marked a new phase in the firm's effort to make reliable immigration information easier to reach, especially for people who cannot begin with a paid consultation.
Border Crossing Law Firm outlines the Department of Homeland Security's October 2022 parole process for Venezuelans outside the United States. Eligible applicants could seek advance travel authorization and up to two years of temporary parole through an online process supported by a person in the United States. The post records the firm's practical response to a new humanitarian pathway created during large-scale Venezuelan displacement.
This firm guidance explains the DACA eligibility rules and the program's litigation status at the time of publication. Renewals were still being approved, but first-time applications were being accepted only to remain pending after a federal district court again held the program unlawful. The post is a snapshot of the recurring uncertainty DACA-eligible families faced after the 2020 Supreme Court victory. It gave readers a candid distinction between filing an application and having any realistic prospect of an immediate decision.
This brief firm announcement states that Shahid Haque would present on a panel at the virtual 2021 AILA Annual Conference on Immigration Law, held June 9 through 12. The appearance reflects Shahid's continuing contribution to national education for immigration practitioners.
Montana Free Press reports that Attorney General Austin Knudsen joined Arizona's lawsuit against the Biden administration's temporary narrowing of deportation priorities. Montana claimed the policy would burden detention, services, and drug enforcement. Shahid Haque disputed those premises, noting that Montana lacked long-term ICE facilities and that serious drug offenses would remain enforcement priorities after state prosecution.
This firm post excerpts Montana Free Press coverage of the state's lawsuit against the Biden administration's deportation pause. Shahid Haque explains why Montana's asserted detention and drug-trafficking harms did not fit the state's actual facilities or the continued priority given to aggravated felonies. The post reflects the firm's continuing role as a factual legal counterweight when Montana officials used national immigration arguments that did not match local practice.
Border Crossing Law Firm explains the Supreme Court's 2020 decision that the Trump administration ended DACA in an arbitrary and capricious manner. The post anticipated that first-time applications would reopen after the remaining legal steps and invited potentially eligible young people to prepare. At the time, the ruling offered new hope to people who had been barred from applying since 2017 and greater security to existing recipients. The post also captures how quickly the firm translated a national court decision into practical guidance for Montana families.
This firm post announces the Montana Supreme Court's unanimous ruling that local officers may not arrest or detain people solely on federal civil immigration detainers. The court found that Lincoln County violated Montana law when it continued holding Agustin Ramon after he attempted to post bond. The decision was a major statewide victory for the ACLU and Border Crossing Law Firm. It established that cooperation with ICE does not create arrest powers Montana law never gave local police and sheriffs.
This firm post excerpts the Montana Kaimin's profile of University of Montana soccer coach Chris Citowicki and his path to citizenship. Shahid Haque explains the marriage-based green-card process, growing denial pressure during the Trump administration, and the paperwork and scrutiny that can make even a comparatively straightforward case stressful. Citowicki's successful journey offered a useful contrast to the firm's removal and detention cases. It showed both the opportunity immigration can create in Montana and the privilege involved in having a viable, well-supported path through the system.