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ILCM Welcomes New Board Members

ILCM welcomes three new board members – Riham Reshir, Maria Kannankutty, and Lupita Herrera! 

Riham Feshir

Riham Feshir has been a senior writer with RBC Wealth Management since 2021. In her role on the corporate communications team, she crafts articles for various channels, strategically plans and executes content for external audiences and researches and pitches byline articles for placement in the financial press as well as mainstream media. Riham was previously a reporter for Minnesota Public Radio News covering immigration issues, police killings and racial inequities. She was the co-creator of 74 Seconds, an innovative podcast that covered the first-ever trial of a Minnesota police officer criminally charged in an on-duty death, which won multiple national and regional awards.  

Riham is also an immigrant herself. She grew up in Egypt and moved to the United States as a child. Her passion for educating communities about the immigrant experience through the lens of those who’ve lived it has been evident in her work as a journalist, and she hopes to continue that mission through her volunteerism with the ILCM. 

 

Maria Kannankutty 

Maria brings more than 25 years of experience in strategic planning, operations, and finance.  She started her career in management consulting and is now the Director of Strategic Execution for Medicaid at Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Minnesota.  In her work she develops and oversees a portfolio of cross-functional projects from ideation to execution to serve members in under-resourced communities. She is a first-generation immigrant from Cyprus herself and values ILCM’s mission of advocating for and legally representing low-income immigrants and refugees. 

 

Lupita Herrera 

Lupita is the Community Education Lead at the Legal Rights Center. Lupita has a background in education, community organizing, and youth work. Her personal and professional experiences have fueled a deep passion to transform the world in which both humans and animals alike are able to live a life that is liberating from the systems that have been created to hold people back. In her spare time, Lupita loves to watch reality TV shows, make beaded earrings, and hang out with her dramatic chihuahua. 

 

ILCM is also happy to announce our new board officers – Gregory Schultz as Board President, Sarah Radosevich as Vice President, Katheryn Wasylik as Secretary, and Glenn Leitch as Treasurer.  

Protect Ukrainians in the United States

On February 23, 2022, Russia launched a military invasion of Ukraine and advanced toward the capital in Kyiv. The Ukrainian government reported 40 casualties within the first 12 hours of the invasion. As the situation continues to devolve, it will prove impossible for Ukrainians to safely return to the country.

The Russian invasion of Ukraine makes return from the United States to their home country extremely dangerous for Ukrainians now living in the United States without permanent resident status. The Biden administration must order an immediate 18-month designation of Temporary Protected Status (TPS) or Deferred Enforced Departure (DED) and Special Student Relief (SSR) for Ukraine.

Call your Senators. Call your Congressional Representative. Contact the White House through this email form. Tell them that the United States must act now to protect Ukrainians living in the United States through Temporary Protected Status, Deferred Enforced Departure, and Special Student Relief.

TPS is a statutory status that allows people from a designated country to remain in the United States while conditions in their home country make safe return impossible. The Secretary of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) can designate a country for TPS if conditions in that country meet the requirements regarding ongoing armed conflict, natural disaster, or other extraordinary and temporary conditions preventing a safe return.

DED is rooted in the President’s authority to conduct foreign affairs and is a critical foreign policy tool to provide humanitarian protection. Like TPS, DED provides protection from deportation and eligibility for work permits for designated time periods.

SSR may be granted to students from a designated country under emergency circumstances.

Call your Senators.Call your Congressional Representative. Contact the White House through this email form. Tell them that the United States must act now to protect Ukrainians living in the United States through Temporary Protected Status, Deferred Enforced Departure, and Special Student Relief.

The Immigrant Law Center of Minnesota has signed on to an organizational letter to President Biden, Secretary of Homeland Security Alejandro Mayorkas, and Secretary of State Antony Blinken, urging immediate action. Join us in taking action now.

Demand Protection for Cameroonians

April 2022: GOOD NEWS! The Biden administration has granted Temporary Protected Status (TPS) to Cameroonians who were present in the United States on April 14, 2022.

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A February 2022 Human Rights Watch report documents that 13 of the estimated 80 to 90 Cameroonians deported on flights in late 2020 were tortured, physically or sexually abused, or assaulted by state agents. Cameroonian authorities targeted the families of deported people. In seven cases HRW documented, state agents beat, abducted, detained, harassed, and in one case reportedly killed, relatives in connection with deportees’ returns.

Call your Senators. Call your Congressional Representative. Contact the White House through this email form. Tell them that Cameroonians present in this country must be granted Temporary Protected Status NOW.

Migrants from Cameroon flee both ongoing conflicts between Anglophone separatists and the government forces and violence from armed Boko Haram groups in the north. Tens of thousands of Cameroonian refugees have fled the country. A few thousand reached the United States, where they have often been imprisoned before having their pleas denied—and then being deported. Esther is one of the deportees interviewed by Human Rights Watch:

“After the United States rejected her asylum claim and deported her in October 2020, Esther, a Cameroonian woman, found herself trapped in a nightmare in the country she had previously fled. ‘I was arrested and detained [by gendarmes]… I was raped. I was well [seriously] beaten, I was tortured, I lived mostly on bread,’ she said. ‘They said we are the people that have gone out and spoiled the name of the country… so I have to pay for it dearly.’…

“Human Rights Watch research shows that US authorities not only sent Cameroonians back to harm, but also subjected them to serious human rights violations in US immigration detention, failed to fairly adjudicate many of their cases, and failed to protect confidential asylum documents, which were confiscated by their government. For these reasons, US deportations of Cameroonian asylum seekers violated US obligations under international human rights and refugee law….

“Human Rights Watch found that Cameroonian authorities have, between 2019 and 2021, subjected returned deportees and members of their families to serious human rights violations including rape, torture and other physical abuse, arbitrary arrest and detention, inhuman and degrading treatment in detention, extortion, and threats. Perpetrators included police, gendarmes, and military personnel, among other officials and state agents.”

The United States is still deporting people back to Cameroon. The quickest way to stop deportations is through Temporary Protected Status for Cameroonians in this country.

Call your Senators.Call your Congressional Representative. Contact the White House through this email form. Tell them that Cameroonians present in this country must be granted Temporary Protected Status NOW.

ILCM has signed on to a letter to President Biden, signed by hundreds of organizations, demanding protection for Cameroonians. You can read that letter here.

Afghan Adjustment Act: Tell Congress to Act Now!

Updated July 17, 2023: The Afghan Adjustment Act was once again introduced in the Senate by Sen. Amy Klobuchar (D-Minnesota) last week. Two years after the U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan, Congress STILL has not passed the legislation that would give Afghan refugees the protection we promised. 

As the Taliban took control of Afghanistan, the U.S. military evacuated more than 123,000 people – including tens of thousands of Afghan allies, refugees, parolees, and their families. More than 70,000 came to the United States immediately, and are in the process of resettlement here. Tens of thousands remain on military bases and other locations outside the United States, as do many other Afghans who have fled since last August.  

Evacuees still face uncertainty: many of the Afghans brought to the United States have been given humanitarian parole status, which only grants temporary permission to enter and remain in the U.S. for two years. For many current and nearly all future Afghan evacuees, temporary status under humanitarian parole is the only viable option to initially enter the U.S. But ultimately, parole leaves our Afghan partners without any real way of securing permanent status in the U.S.  

Call your Senators. Call your Congressional Representative. Tell them that Congress should immediately pass an Afghan Adjustment Act that would allow Afghan evacuees parolees an opportunity to seek lawful permanent resident status. 

Passing legislation that would protect these evacuees is critical because obtaining asylum may be difficult or out of reach for many of them. Given existing backlogs in the asylum system, as well as the fact that many Afghans were advised to destroy needed documents associating them to the U.S. mission to evade the Taliban, many deserving evacuees will find it difficult to obtain asylum expeditiously. With an asylum backlog stretching years, and options limited for those who may not qualify, Congress must act to resolve the long-term status of these people and provide them an expedited pathway to lawful permanent residence. Without it, these individuals face potentially being forced to return to Afghanistan, waiting years for asylum, removal proceedings, and even deportation.   

Call your Senators. Call your Congressional Representative. Tell them that Congress should immediately pass an Afghan Adjustment Act that would allow Afghan evacuees parolees an opportunity to seek lawful permanent resident status.  

There is historical precedent for passing legislation like this – in 1966, the Cuban Adjustment Act granted Cubans in the U.S. with work authorization and lawful permanent residency, and several different Acts over many years that granted adjustment status to individuals from Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia after the Vietnam War.   

Call your Senators. Call your Congressional Representative. Tell them that Congress should immediately pass an Afghan Adjustment Act that would allow Afghan evacuees parolees an opportunity to seek lawful permanent resident status. 

Suggested message: 

“I urge you to pass an Afghan Adjustment Act, legislation that would allow Afghans arriving with humanitarian parole who were evacuated from Afghanistan to have a pathway to permanent status. Creating a pathway to apply to become lawful permanent residents after one year in the U.S. strengthens our communities and supports arrivals’ integration in their new homes.” 

 

Want more information? Here’s a fact sheet on the Afghan Adjustment Act.

Take Action: Demand Safety and Release from Detention for Immigrants and Asylum Seekers

One year into President Biden’s term, more immigrants and asylum seekers are now locked up by ICE and at risk of deportation than at the beginning of his term. Despite his stated opposition to private, for-profit prisons, most immigrant detainees are held in just such unsafe and often abusive facilities. The continuing failure of ICE detention facilities is evident in surging COVID infection numbers: a six-fold increase in COVID infections among immigrant detainees from January 3 to January 13.

Many of these detainees have recently crossed the southern border seeking asylum. No one should be locked up for seeking safety or solely because of their immigration status. The Administration is responsible for the safety of people in its custody, and they are failing. Tens of thousands of lives are at stake.

Call your Senators. Call your Congressional Representative. Contact the White House through this email form. Tell them that immigrant detainees must be released from custody while they wait for their hearings. Tell them that no one should be held in unsafe conditions and exposed to COVID because they came to the United States seeking safety.

DHS must swiftly establish an affirmative file review process with a presumption of liberty for people in detention and commit to the individualized consideration of release for all people in ICE custody. This process should prioritize those most vulnerable to harm in custody, including individuals who face a heightened risk of serious illness or death from COVID-19, transgender people, pregnant people, and HIV+ people.

DHS must permit asylum-seekers and immigrants to live in freedom, without surveillance, and supported by sponsors and community-based non-profits should they need assistance navigating the immigration process.

Take action today to demand safety and humane treatment for immigrants and asylum seekers now in detention.