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ILCM Director John Keller on Overturning Travel Ban

ILCM Director John Keller was quoted in the Star Tribune on the court decision overturning the Trump travel ban:

Immigration law attorney John Keller, of the Immigration Law Center of Minnesota, said Wednesday night that he’s “once again extremely pleased that the independent judiciary can see these orders for what they are.”

“Things are moving so fast, with everything that’s happened in terms of immigration and executive orders since the inauguration,” Keller said.

“What we are seeing again is that the track record of hostility against Muslims during the presidential campaign continues to be the chief thing the courts weigh these orders against. Eighteen months of direct promises to discriminate against people because of their religion – the courts can’t ignore that, even with a dressed-up executive order. … As long as these orders continue, there will be litigation. “It’s important for all Americans, especially those from countries that don’t have independent courts, to see that even presidents are being held to account when they do something that’s not constitutional.”

Read the whole article here.

Immigrant Drivers’ License Issue Stalls Real ID

Minnesota’s Real ID law stalled in the legislature over the issue of drivers’ licenses for unauthorized immigrants. The House passed a Real ID law that banned such licenses; the Senate voted down the bill because of the ban. Both Democrats and Republicans agree that Minnesota needs a Real ID bill, so that Minnesotans can use drivers’ licenses as identification for airport security.

Minnesota does not currently issue drivers’ licenses to unauthorized immigrants, because of a Department of Public Safety rule. The bill would make that rule a law, making it harder to change. More than a dozen states allow licenses for unauthorized immigrants, and supporters say this would make roads safer for everyone and make it easier for these immigrants to get insurance.

Governor Mark Dayton supports a “clean” bill for Real ID, meaning a bill without the drivers’ license ban. If Real ID does not pass, Minnesotans will need a passport or an “enhanced” driver’s license to get through airport security, beginning in 2018.

Republicans generally support Real ID with a ban, but five Republicans voted with Democrats in the Senate to defeat the bill. Some are concerned that Real ID would allow too much information to be shared with the federal government.

For more information:

New refugee/Muslim ban set for March 16 as legal challenges continue

The revised refugee/Muslim ban is set to take effect on Thursday, March 16. The new order places a 90-day ban on immigrants from the predominantly-Muslim countries of Syria, Somalia, Sudan, Iran, Yemen, and Libya.

The executive order also bans refugee admissions for 120 days ban and reduces the number of refugees who can be admitted this year. The total for the fiscal year, which began on October 1, 2016, was set at 110,000 by President Obama. The executive order reduces that number to 50,000, which means almost no additional refugees can be admitted until after September 30, 2017. The new ban contains a longer list of exceptions than the first ban, which was stopped by federal courts.

Several legal challenges to the new order await court action: Washington’s attorney general leads a challenge that has been joined by several states, Hawaii has filed a separate challenge, several nonprofit groups have filed a challenge in Maryland and in Virginia, and a Wisconsin judge has barred application of the order to one specific Syrian family. Challenges include allegations of violation of due process, discrimination against Muslims, irreparable hardship to refugees, and harm to educational institutions and to Hawaii’s tourism industry.

For more information:

For a detailed legal analysis of the arguments, see Lawfare Blog: The Legality of the 3/6/17 Executive Order

What Refugee Cuts Mean In Minnesota

President Trump’s latest executive order on refugees suspended refugee admissions for 120 days and also cut the number of refugees from 110,000 to 50,000 for this year. The number of refugees admitted varies each year, but 50,000 will be the lowest number since the early 2000s. At that time, most refugee admissions were suspended for three months after 9/11.

Minnesota refugee resettlement agencies have already begun cutting staff. The 120-day suspension means almost no new refugee arrivals until mid-July. Cutting the number of refugee admissions means few refugee admissions at all until the new fiscal year begins in October.

Minnesota is a leading state for refugee resettlement, with more than 21,000 arriving in the past ten years. In the last fiscal year, which ended September 30, 2016, the United States admitted 85,000 refugees. Minnesota accepted 2,630 of this number.

For more information:

The U of M Law School Receives a Helping Hand for Immigration & Refugee Services

 

Source: The Star Tribune

The Center for New Americans’ mission is to improve federal immigration law and policy, protect detainee rights, improve access to legal representation for refugees and immigrants, and educate non-citizens about their legal rights pro-bono.

Recently, the Robina Foundation pledged $25 million to go towards the Center for New Americans’ work. In light of the recent events, it’s hard not to consider the timing of the donation. However, the foundation has stated that the decision to make the donation was not driven by the recent Executive Actions. Actually, the Robina board committed to fund the endowment last summer, but were waiting to make the formal announcement.

The Center for New Americans has formal partnerships with the Immigrant Law Center of Minnesota, The Advocates for Human Rights, and Mid-Minnesota Legal Aid, as well as,three prominent law firms (Faegre Baker Daniels, Robins Kaplan, and Dorsey & Whitney). The recent pledge comes as good news.

Moving Forward with the 9th Circuit

San Francisco Courthouse

Last week, on Friday, February 3rd, Judge James Robart, of the Federal District Court in Seattle, granted a nationwide temporary restraining order on the recent Executive Action that bans travel from seven predominantly Muslim countries. ILCM expressed its deepest gratitude to the State Attorney Generals from Washington and Minnesota that brought in the lawsuit. In addition, ILCM signed on to another lawsuit, along with other partners, filed in the United States District Court for the District of Columbia to block enforcement of the recent immigration ban.
Despite all of the recent efforts to oppose the recent travel ban, earlier this week all that was left at the time was to wait and see the 9th Circuit Court of Appeal’s ruling. On Thursday, the three-judge panel heard the cases brought up from the Justice department and Washington State. Unanimously, the federal appeals panel, rejected Trump’s bid to reinstate his Muslim ban on travel. Not only did this action prove wrong the assertion made by Trump’s administration that the courts have no power to act as a check on the president, it also brings a hopeful light to the long fight that awaits us ahead.

Breaking down the 9th Circuit’s ruling

Here are the essential points provided by the Washington Post:

  • The judiciary has the power to check the president’s authority, especially in regards to immigration and national security.
  • The executive order had reportedly impacted far more people than Trump was letting on. Reportedly, thousands of visas were canceled, causing hundreds of travelers to be prevented from boarding airplanes to the U.S.
  • Washington and Minnesota have well-backed claims that they can sue over.
  • The 9th Circuit Court of Appeals did not allow for a modification of the suspension of the ban, saying “it is not our role to try, in effect to rewrite the executive order.”

Sources: CNN, Washington Post, NY Times

For one girl, Minneapolis beats Trump ban

Contact:
John Keller, Executive Director, Immigrant Law Center of Minnesota
(651) 641-1011 x203, john.keller@ilcm.org

Friday, February 3 press release is also available in PDF format: For one girl, Minneapolis beats Trump ban – For Immediate Release –

FOUR-YEAR-OLD REFUGEE REUNITES WITH HER MOTHER IN MINNEAPOLIS:

Minneapolis community successfully stands up against un-American ban, bringing justice to one family out of countless victims of Trump policy.

A four-year-old Somali girl waited years before receiving approval to join her mother and two older sisters in Minnesota, only to be stopped at an airport in Africa last week. Her story is one illustration of how President Trump’s unprecedented and possibly unconstitutional executive order on immigration is affecting thousands of Minnesotans.

The family has asked for privacy, but will be available to speak to the press on Friday, February 3 at 1:30 pm at The Center for Changing Lives, 2400 Park Ave. S., Minneapolis. Media interested in attending should contact Jackie Nelson with Lutheran Social Service of Minnesota at (651) 969-2286 or cell (651) 324-5350.

Separated from her mother months after birth, Mushkaad underwent years of refugee processing in Africa before she finally received approval to travel to the United States and reunite with her mother, Samira Dahir, a Somali refugee who came to Minneapolis in 2013. But at the eleventh hour, President Trump’s executive order stopped Mushkaad at the very last step of the process, as she arrived at the airport in Kampala, Uganda last week.

“This four-year-old child poses no threat to anyone in the United States,” said John Keller, Executive Director of the Immigrant Law Center of Minnesota. Refugee vetting requires security checks against over a dozen different databases, and in Mushkaad’s case, the process also included DNA testing. “She is one of thousands of refugees and immigrants who have gone through extensive vetting only to have their lives upended by this unconstitutional executive order.”

Wearing a new dress, hair braided and hands decorated in henna, Mushkaad was left sobbing in the airport last week as her mother, half a world away, explained over the phone that Mushkaad could not board the plane to join her family. An empty room and welcome gifts at the family’s apartment in Minneapolis remained untouched.

After hearing the family’s story, the Immigrant Law Center of Minnesota joined forces with some of the most experienced immigration experts and litigators in the state, marshalling legal resources to reunite Mushkaad with her mother and sisters. Their efforts paid off Thursday afternoon when Mushkaad, who was finally cleared for travel, arrived at the Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport.

“We’re deeply relieved that Mushkaad is able to reunite with her family, but her story illustrates the deep flaws and fundamental unlawfulness of President Trump’s executive order,” said Keller. “It should not have taken dozens of experts and thousands of hours of emergency, high-level advocacy to reunite this innocent child with her family.”

The Immigrant Law Center of Minnesota teamed up with the University of Minnesota Law School’s Center for New Americans, Mid-Minnesota Legal Aid, University of St. Thomas School of Law, pro bono lawyers at Dorsey & Whitney LLP, the American Civil Liberties Union of Minnesota, Advocates for Human Rights, Lutheran Immigration and Refugee Service, Lutheran Social Service of Minnesota offices on two continents, and Minnesota Senators Amy Klobuchar and Al Franken to find a pathway to humanitarian consideration. Al Franken’s office has been working to bring Mushkaad to Minnesota since June. Finally, after countless dead-ends, nothing short of intervention by the highest-level immigration officials in the Trump administration were able to reunite Mushkaad and her mother.

“If this is what it took to get clearance for a 4-year-old refugee girl, we are horrified to consider what awaits thousands of other children and families,” said Keller. President Trump’s executive order temporarily bans all arrivals from seven predominantly Muslim countries, including four-year-olds and those admitted after years of vetting. These provisions disregard U.S. immigration law, and potentially the guarantees of the Constitution.

In less than a week, President Trump’s executive order has already been enjoined or held to be likely unlawful by all of the several courts to consider it on an emergency basis. The U.S. Attorney General refused to defend the order before her employment was terminated, and now a rapidly growing number of state Attorney Generals have joined together in a lawsuit. They hope to block the order’s unlawful injury of U.S. citizens, legal permanent residents, and many others with lawful refugee status and visas, who are admissible under current U.S. law.

The manner of the executive order’s creation and implementation are a departure from past Presidents’ and officials’ use of discretion in immigration law. “The hasty, secretive way the executive order was drafted—without consultation of key officials—and with its chaotic and arbitrary implementation, reflect an intent to create confusion and fear rather than establish rules,” said Keller. “The story of Mushkaad’s family proves the absence of any fair, legitimate legal process or security interest.”

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The Immigrant Law Center of Minnesota (ILCM) is a nonprofit agency that provides immigration legal assistance to low-income immigrants and refugees in Minnesota. ILCM also works to educate Minnesota communities and professionals about immigration matters, and advocates for state and federal policies which respect the universal human rights of immigrants.

Act now to oppose harmful executive orders!

Tell your representatives to oppose Trump’s anti-immigrant and anti-refugee agenda.

Friends, we need your help. Through a series of executive orders, President Trump has made his anti-immigrant and anti-refugee agenda clear to everyone. In his first week in office, Trump has paved the way for a massive, expensive construction of a border wall, expanded the reach and capabilities of ICE, and threatened the safety of cities that protect their residents as equals, regardless of citizenship status. He has slammed the door on families seeking refuge from violence and persecution and ignited fears and misconceptions surrounding our Muslim neighbors.

Tell your representatives in Washington, DC that you oppose Trump’s executive orders and that you stand in solidarity with immigrants, refugees, and asylum seekers.

Click here to send this Action Letter to Congress & Senate:

I am writing to express concern over President Trump’s anti-immigrant and anti-refugee executive orders. These orders undermine Minnesota’s history of resettling immigrants and refugees from all over the world, and Trump’s actions threaten the economic future of Minnesota.

Through the orders, the U.S. government will pressure local police officers to carry out deportation duties. Deputizing local police officers as ICE agents will make all of us less safe, and will undermine the past work of law enforcement to reach out to immigrant communities and establish mutual trust. When all individuals in our communities trust that it is safe to report crime and seek protection from violence without the fear of being separated from their families, safety increases for everyone. In expanding ICE and attacking sanctuary cities, Trump is charging taxpayers billions of dollars and failing to live up to our moral and legal obligations to protect communities from violence and crime.

President Trump has also slammed the door on refugees–leaving families split and fearful despite already having waited many years and undergoing extensive background checks. Trump has used religion in an unprecedented way as a basis for exclusion, dividing neighbors and stoking anti-Muslim fear. Minnesota has a long history of welcoming immigrants and refugees. These orders will hurt our families and communities and needlessly expose vulnerable individuals to months or years of additional delay in unsafe situations.

I take pride in Minnesota’s tradition of welcoming everyone. I take pride in our diversity. I take pride in our history of helping those in need. I ask you to oppose President Trump’s anti-immigrant and anti-refugee executive orders.