St. Paul, December 22, 2017—Yesterday, Congress refused to pass a clean Dream Act that would have allowed nearly 800,000 young Dreamers a peaceful holiday season. Congress ignored thousands of people who have filled the streets of Washington and their own offices for weeks, demanding a clean Dream Act now, before the end of the year. They ignored the plight of 122 young Dreamers who become deportable each day that passes, almost 15,000 in total by the time Congress returns to Washington in January.

“We are deeply disappointed by Congress’s failure,” said John Keller, executive director of the Immigrant Law Center of Minnesota, “but this is not the end. Every new poll shows solid and growing support for Dreamers, across the country, among Democrats and Republicans. This year’s Congressional inaction is a setback but not a defeat. The Dreamers are here to stay.”

We need the skills, hard work, energy, courage, dreams, and imagination of young immigrants. Minnesota families, small and large cities, faith communities, colleges and universities, businesses and farms need thousands of young immigrants to remain in Minnesota; they in turn need Congress to pass a clean Dream Act in the first days of 2018.

Minnesota’s dreamers and allies showed inspiring courage and persistence over the past weeks. The struggle continues, past the disappointment of yesterday’s vote and into the new year. They will not give up now. We will not give up now

Here’s a New Year’s resolution for everyone who cares about these young people: Resolve to call your Congressional representatives on January 2 and 3 and every day until they pass a clean Dream Act, and give these young people permanent protection and a path to citizenship.

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The Immigrant Law Center of Minnesota (ILCM) is a non-profit organization that provides immigration legal services to clients of all nationalities throughout Minnesota. ILCM’s work is based on a three-pronged model—direct legal services, education, and advocacy

Chain migration is not a legal term, it is a political term, which is conveniently bandied around by those who oppose immigration, including Trump appointed officials like the USCIS Director who should be objectively administering the law rather than infecting it with Trump’s and his own personal biases.

On December 8, the Minnesota Business Immigraiotn Coalition joined the national iMarch for Immigration Campaign, calling on Minnesota’s congressional delegation to take action to protect Dreamers, and more. Here is the press release announcing their action:

The Minnesota Business Immigration Coalition today joined the national iMarch for Immigration Campaign. Business leaders called on Minnesota’s congressional delegation to take action protecting Dreamers as a first step to addressing longstanding economic hurdles within the nation’s outdated immigration system.

“New Americans are significant and substantial contributors to the development and growth of Minnesota’s economy,” said Bill Blazar, senior vice president of public affairs and business development at the Minnesota Chamber of Commerce. The Minnesota Chamber leads the Minnesota Business Immigration Coalition. “Immigration reform should tune our system to the 21st century world economy.  It will help our new Americans contribute more than they now do and propel our state’s economy forward.”

The virtual march for immigration reform has broad-based support – leaders in the business, agriculture, education, tech and faith sectors; state and local elected officials; and top voices across the political spectrum. The campaign is launching as Congress negotiates a much-needed solution for recipients (i.e. Dreamers) in the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program.

Immigrant workers are important to companies of all sizes and types across the state, Blazar noted. Hear firsthand in these videos on the need for immigration reform:

• John O’Reilly, vice president, Otten Bros. Garden Center & Landscaping, Long Lake.
• Pat Lunemann, partner and general manager, Twin Eagle Dairy, Clarissa.
• Maha Tahiri, vice president, chief health and wellness officer, General Mills.

Perry Aasness, executive director of the Minnesota AgriGrowth Council and a member of the Minnesota Business Immigration Coalition, underscored the value of immigrants to Minnesota’s economy. “From our experience, it is clear that new American workers are critical to our state’s economy, and in particular, a wide variety of agriculture sectors. Agriculture is a driving force in Minnesota’s economy, and farmers and food producers rely on immigrant workers.”

The state coalition includes the Minnesota Chamber, Minnesota Agri-Growth Council, Minnesota Nursery & Landscape Association, Hospitality Minnesota, Minnesota Milk Producers Association, Midwest Food Processors Association, Minnesota Restaurant Association and Minnesota Lodging Association.

The nationwide campaign is spearheaded by the New American Economy, which brings together more than 500 Republican, Democratic and Independent mayors and business leaders who support immigration reforms that will help create jobs for Americans today.

NAE cited the impact of immigrants on Minnesota’s economy and the effect of the DACA-eligible population in the state as key reasons for Congress to take immediate action. In Minnesota alone, the positive economic impact of DACA-eligible recipients can be easily seen:

• There are as many as 9,973 DACA-eligible recipients in the state.
• Despite the rhetoric claiming undocumented youths are a drain on the Minnesota economy, 91.9 percent of the DACA-eligible population who are at least 16 years old are employed.
• Minnesota’s DACA-eligible population earns almost $154.8 million in total income annually.
• Minnesota’s DACA-eligible population contributes more than $24.1 million in total taxes annually, $12.2 million of which goes to state and local tax revenues.

At large, immigrants have substantial impact on the Minnesota economy:

• Immigrants pay $3.7 billion in taxes every year.
• Immigrant-owned businesses employ 52,932 people.
• Immigrants held $10 billion in spending power in 2016.

For more information on the iMarch Campaign, visit iMarch.us.

In a bizarre reversal, the flight carrying 92 Somalis was rerouted back to the United States because of difficulties with hotel accommodations for the flight crew.

On December 6, the Ninth Circuit heard arguments in Hawaii v. Trump, a case challenging the latest version of the Trump travel ban/Muslim ban. You can listen to the entire argument on C-Span. Attorney Neal Katyal, representing travel ban opponents, gave a particularly eloquent, short summation, which begins around 58:50 in the C-Span video:

“Tomorrow will have been two years to the day since Donald Trump called for a complete and total shutdown of all Muslim immigration to the United States.

“It will also be another sad anniversary, 76 years since the devastating attack on Pearl Harbor. Pearl Harbor led not only to an assault on our nation’s security but also an assault on its most basic commitments. The walls of this very courthouse where Gordon Hirabayashi was tried bear witness to that tragedy.

“What the government did then in the name of national security did not make us stronger. It betrayed our values. It betrayed our nation’s soul and rather than defend those values, the court stood by then.

“Twice now, this court, reflecting the dissents in those cases, not the majority, has made sure not to repeat that mistake and to avoid the nightmare of Judge Gould’s hypothetical of a federal court system that is powerless.

“This court has twice asserted its vital role as guardians of the law, and rejected the president’s attempt to flout our constitution, to flout our laws. We ask that this court do so again.”

“You have the right to remain silent. Anything you say can and will be used against you in a court of law. You have the right to speak to an attorney, and to have an attorney present during any questioning. If you cannot afford an attorney, one will be appointed to represent you.”

If you are charged with shoplifting a carton of cigarettes, you have a right to remain silent and a right to an attorney. Your maximum sentence is 90 days in jail and a fine of up to $1000. Your likely sentence is much, much less – probably no jail time at all. Nonetheless, you have a constitutional right to an attorney and, if you cannot afford an attorney, to having an attorney appointed to represent you.

If you are charged with entering the United States without permission, you are likely to lose your home, your job, and your family, and to be deported and barred from returning for at least 10 years. If you cannot afford an attorney, you are out of luck – you have no constitutional right to a public defender.

On December 6, by a 4-3 vote, Hennepin County Commissioners said that immigrants will have a right to a public defender in deportation cases in Hennepin County.

Criminal court rules and procedures are complicated. Immigration court rules and procedures are exponentially more complicated. As MPR reported :

“Those without legal representation are less likely to fight their cases and more likely to be deported. Only about 14 percent of undocumented immigrants have representation, according to immigration lawyers.”

Hennepin County is taking a stand for immigrants. The budget amendment, introduced by Commissioner Marion Green and passed by the County Commissioners, will provide representation to immigrants who are facing deportation and cannot afford to pay an attorney.

That’s a big step forward in helping immigrants make their cases in deportation proceedings. The second big step is an order that immigrants being booked into Hennepin County jail be told of their right to refuse to talk to immigration officers — their right to remain silent, their right not to get on the  phone with ICE.

“We have overwhelming anecdotal evidence that residents aren’t given this information,” [Greene] said. “And are often kind of immediately, at a very vulnerable moment in the process, put on the phone with an ICE agent or made to go talk to an ICE agent in a room that they have at (the) county jail.”

Sheriff Rich Stanek coordinates with ICE in many ways, including the jail policy of putting any immigrants on the phone with ICE as they are processed into the jail. The County Commissioners can’t order the sheriff not to do that. They did vote to require that immigrants be told of their right to refuse to talk to ICE and that they get access to attorneys. Those are two big steps toward a higher standard of justice for immigrant defendants in Hennepin County.

St. Paul, December 5, 2017 – Since September 5, hundreds of thousands of DACA recipients, Dreamers and allies have been fighting for their lives – their lives here, in the homes they have made, in their schools and jobs, with their children and families. What they need – what we all need – is a clean DREAM Act now. That means legislation to protect DREAMers that is not weighed down with other punitive immigration provisions or funding for an extravagant and ineffective border wall.

Congress can act now to safeguard DREAMers and give them a path to permanent residence and citizenship. That is what the overwhelming majority of Americans wants.

Congressional leadership is delaying consideration of the DREAM Act and DACA relief. The administration continues to demonstrate bad faith and cruelty in wrongfully denying applications for DACA renewal, detaining DACA recipients, and making hollow promises that they take back the next day.

This week DREAMers and allies are demonstrating in Washington and across the country. Many Minnesota corporations and colleges support passage of the Dream Act. Others are marching, telling their stories, and calling on Congress to act. NavigateMN is also leading a multi-racial, multi-sector coalition action at Congressman Erik Paulsen’s office on Wednesday, December 6 at 3:30 to ask his support for a clean DREAM Act.

We need the skills, hard work, energy, courage, dreams, and imagination of young immigrants. In Minnesota alone, the end of DACA devastates close to 7,000 young people – all of whom have or will have a high school diploma, are in or graduated from college, or are working in jobs that pay them better because they have DACA. Their average age when they arrived in the United States was 6 years old, and they have lived here an average of 20 years. In Minnesota, these young people between the ages of 15 and 35 live in every Congressional District in the state and come from dozens of countries.

Every day of delay means more DREAMers losing their protection as work permits and individual DACA status expires. An estimated 122 DREAMers see their DACA status expire each day, leaving them without work permits, sometimes without valid driver’s licenses, and always vulnerable to deportation back to countries they left as young children. That’s about 11,000 DREAMers losing DACA protection since September 5, and more every single day.

December is crucial. Relief for DREAMers can be part of the year-end budget bill. Or it can be delayed and denied all the way through March 5, when DACA officially ends.

We urge every person, business, faith community, school, and organization who cares about these young people – and who cares about what they bring to our state and nation – to contact your Congressional representatives and demand that they pass a clean Dream Act NOW, and give these young people permanent protection and a path to citizenship. Minnesota’s Congressional delegation can lead the way by showing bipartisan unity in demonstrating leadership to pass permanent protection for our DREAMers.

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The Immigrant Law Center of Minnesota (ILCM) is a non-profit organization that provides immigration legal services to clients of all nationalities throughout Minnesota. ILCM’s work is based on a three-pronged model—direct legal services, education, and advocacy

The Advocates for Human Rights, a 501(c)(3) organization, creates and maintains lasting, comprehensive, and holistic change on a local, national, and global scale. Volunteers, partners, supporters, board members, and staff implement international human rights standards to promote civil society and reinforce the rule of law.

NAVIGATE MN is a non profit grassroots organization building power for immigration and education justice. Our theory of change centers the realities of undocumented Minnesotans and mixed status families. Navigate MN has education, civic engagement and civic leadership programs.

Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA), begun by President Barack Obama in 2012, offers limited protection to young people who arrived in the United States at age 15 or younger and have been here since 2007 or earlier. DACA status offers two years of protection from deportation and a two-year work permit. Renewal of DACA status has been permitted every two years. DACA status does NOT offer any path to permanent legal residence or citizenship.

 

A lifelong Moorhead resident, Martha Castanon is not your stereotypical Scandinavian Minnesotan. Her parents, both seasonal farmworkers, met in Comstock, a small town south of Moorhead. Her father was born in Arizona and raised in Mexico; her mother was born in Mexico and became a U.S. citizen in 1992. Growing up, Martha joined her family working in the sugar beet fields of Minnesota, picking cucumbers in Wisconsin, and working in the onion and spinach fields of Texas.

Today, Martha’s work keeps her traveling – from Moorhead to Crookston, Perham to Park Rapids, circuit riding around northern Minnesota as a legal assistant working for the Immigrant Law Center of Minnesota (ILCM).

“When I go long distances, I try to do general outreach in the area,” Martha says. That means “going out putting up flyers, going into social services, department of health, introducing myself, posting tear-off flyers at grocery stores, laundromats, gas stations, schools, and the post office. Sometimes I’ll walk the trailer courts, where it’s common to see clients living, and put up a flyer in the office.”

Bosnian, Kurdish, Iraqi, Somali and other African immigrants, as well as Latino immigrants, live and work in northern Minnesota. Her immigration caseload includes “pretty much everything.” Many permanent residents seek citizenship, which means filling out naturalization forms, practicing for interviews, and preparing for the civics test. People may need help renewing green cards (permanent residence) or petitioning for family members to join them here.

ILCM’s Moorhead office and Community Health Services work together to serve clients with intersecting medical and legal needs. In addition to Martha’s full-time presence in Moorhead, ILCM attorney Kerry McGuire works with Community Health Services as part of the legal-medical partnership. Community Health Services serves 40 counties. Its Moorhead and Crookston offices treated about 500 domestic violence patients last year. ILCM’s services include assistance with VAWA and U Visas. A battered spouse, child, or parent may be eligible for a visa under the Violence Against Women Act (VAWA). Some crime victims qualify for U visas. In addition to helping clients, Martha serves on the Community Health Service board of directors.

Martha has been working for ILCM since 2015. She opened ILCM’s Moorhead satellite office after working for 35 years for Southern Minnesota Regional Legal Services (SMRLS). She worked as a secretary for SMRLS for 17 years, and was eventually trained and hired as a paralegal. Martha developed a passion for helping people with immigration while she was working at SMRLS. “I saw how it opened doors for them once they obtained legal status or citizenship,” she says.

The ILCM office in Moorhead is in the Legal Services of Northwest Minnesota office building, as is the SMRLS Agricultural Worker Project. In November, a SMRLS attorney told ILCM staffers visiting from St. Paul that “Martha is the hardest working person in the entire building. She arrives earlier and leaves later than anyone else, and is totally dedicated to her job.”

Besides her work for ILCM, Martha volunteers with the local chapter of the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention, and is a member of the Minnesota Supreme Court Committee of Equality and Justice.  In the fall of 2016, she received Legal Services of Northwest Minnesota’s Partner in Justice Award for her skill, dedication, and impact as an advocate.

Newell Searle wants to “mobilize people to take initiatives and act on their own to help immigrants.”

Action can take many forms. For Newell, action means accompaniment, walking with immigrants who have become his friends. He tells of a woman whom he met ten years ago, when she was in deportation proceedings. After a long struggle, she has a green card and a path to citizenship. She is a business owner, and recently got an AA degree with a 4.0 average.

“There are lots of impactful things volunteers can do besides go to marches,” Newell says. For him, those “impactful things” have included writing character reference letters, writing articles for ILCM’s blog and newsletter, and going to court with immigrants.

“Going to court … was frustrating for me, at first, because I couldn’t do anything to affect the outcome. But, one of my friends said that just knowing I was there, watching, encouraged them, they didn’t feel as alone and vulnerable. For me, it was a couple hours time out of my workday. For them, my presence reinforced their determination and affirmed their worth as a person in a system that is often demeaning and demoralizing.”

If you are inspired to take action, here are some possibilities:

• Volunteer with ILCM, either in St. Paul or in Greater Minnesota.
• If you are a lawyer, volunteer with our Pro Bono project or with the Volunteer Lawyers Network.
• Sign up for our Action Alerts. Then call your representatives or other, identified political leaders to ask them to take action on specific issues.
• Spread the word. Follow ILCM on Facebook and then share news and appeals with your own friends.
• Going to marches is not the only action, but it remains a meaningful action for many. Keep up with scheduled events in Minnesota via ILCM’s Facebook page, Navigate MN, or MIRAc..

“I did it because someone had to and if not me, who?” Newell says. If he had not responded, “I couldn’t walk away and face myself.”

Some other local organizations working with immigrants and refugees in various ways:

• Navigate MN
• Advocates for Human Rights
• Minnesota Immigrant Rights Action Committee (MIRAc)
• ISAIAH
• International Institute of Minnesota

And in Greater Minnesota, find

• The Welcome Center in Austin
• Project FINE in Winona
• UniteCloud in St. Cloud
• Community Health Services in Moorhead and other locations

TPS (Temporary Protected Status) and DED (Deferred Enforced Departure) are current targets of the administration’s get-tough-and-tougher immigration policy. More than 300,000 people face forced return to countries where they no longer have homes if they lose TPS or DED immigration status. The governments of several of those countries have pleaded with the U.S. government to keep TPS and DED in place, saying that their countries do not have the resources to absorb returning citizens.

TPS applies to more than 300,000 citizens of 10 countries: El Salvador, Haiti, Honduras, Nepal, Nicaragua, Somalia, Sudan, South Sudan, Syria, and Yemen. DED applies only to Liberia, and is similar to TPS.

Earthquakes, hurricanes, and civil wars can strand people outside their home countries, making it unsafe to return. TPS, established by Congress in 1990, gives people from designated countries a temporary safe haven in the United States. People with TPS receive work permission and protection from deportation.

Haitian TPS was ended by the Trump administration in November, with an 18-month delay of the effective date. Haitian TPS was granted in 2010 after a devastating earthquake. Since then, the country has endured a cholera epidemic and hurricanes. In January 2017, the State Department described conditions in Haiti:

• “…arbitrary and unlawful killings by government officials;
• use of force against suspects and protesters;
• severe overcrowding and poor sanitation in prisons;
• chronic prolonged pretrial detention;
• inefficient, unreliable, and inconsistent judiciary;
• governmental confiscation of private property without due process;
• rape, violence, and societal discrimination against women;
• child abuse;
• social marginalization of vulnerable populations;
• trafficking in persons;
• violence, including gender-based violence;
• crime within the remaining internally displaced persons (IDP) camps;
• and widespread impunity.”

Despite all evidence to the contrary, the administration insists that Haitians no longer need TPS and can safely return home. If Haitians do not qualify for TPS, who does?

The Trump administration argues that TPS is supposed to be temporary, so they are ending it. That ignores the needs of real people from countries still struggling with huge problems.

People with TPS have lived in the United States for decades. Some 88 percent participate in the labor force, a percentage higher than that for native-born Americans. About one-third have purchased homes. Collectively, Salvadoran, Honduran, and Haitian TPS holders are parents to 273,000 U.S. citizen children – who would be forced to leave their country or lose their parents if TPS is rescinded. U.S. citizen children of Salvadoran TPS holders, for example, would move to a country with one of the world’s highest murder rates and with a 62 percent rate of un- and under-employment.

Home countries rely on remittances sent by their citizens living in the United States. In Haiti, for example, remittances make up almost one-third of the country’s gross domestic product. Still reeling from hurricane after earthquake after hurricane, Haiti’s economy remains unstable, its housing inadequate, and the country both unable to welcome its citizens home and desperately dependent on the remittances that they send. Remittances make up 18 percent of the gross domestic product in Honduras, 17 percent in El Salvador, 9 percent in Nicaragua.

Instead of ending TPS, a bi-partisan group in Congress proposes a path to permanent residence. The Miami Herald quoted Rep. Yvette Clark, one of the sponsors:

“The Temporary Protected Status program was created with bipartisan support to protect human life,” said Rep. Yvette Clarke, D-N.Y., who plans to introduce the legislation with Miami Republican Rep. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen and Washington Democratic Rep. Pramila Jayapal. “It advances American interests and values and we must work in a bipartisan manner to do the right thing and protect hardworking immigrants from being sent back to countries where their physical well being could be cast into doubt.”

TPS was a temporary, band-aid solution to a real and continuing problem. Now Congress needs to act to find a permanent solution for people who have become an integral part of our economy and communities.

Alianza Americas has an action guide with numbers to call and phone scripts to use in asking Congress and the administration to protect TPS holders.