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FINISHED FILE ALL RIGHTS RESERVED EQUIP FOR EQUALITY DISABILITY RIGHTS CONSORTIUM AUDRA PASSINAULT LISA PALUMBO MARCH 22, 2017 CHICAGO, IL Realtime Captioning Provided By: EFFICIENCY REPORTING P.O. Box 134 Wheaton, IL 60187 630.682.8887 * * * This text file was produced for Communication Access Realtime Translation (CART) at an event viewed by (a) person(s) with hearing loss and is for the sole and exclusive use of the specified consumer(s) only. The file has been roughly edited but has not been proofread nor is it verbatim or a legal transcript. * * * >> BARRY T.: There are numerous handouts if people want to get in CLE opportunities. Hello everybody in the room and everybody who is watching via webcam and calling in. My name is Barry Taylor, from Equip for Equality. And we are recording this for Illinois Legal Aid Online. Want to say that so the people know that anything you say will be heard by anybody who has a computer. So keep that in mind. We are really fortunate today to have two fantastic folks to talk to us about a very important topic, immigration issues which are very much in the headlines these days and how that interfaces with our work on behalf of people with disabilities. We have Lisa Palumbo, from Legal Assistance Foundation, and immigration and worker as rights practice group. At LAF since 1992, is that right? A long time legal aid advocate, really well known and expert person in this field. And we're really thrilled to have her back. She talked to us previously about some related issues a number of years ago. And she's joined by Audra Passinault, a Shaffer fellow at LAF, and works in the immigrants and workers rights program at LAF. They're going to fill us in on how all the stuff that's going on in the world right now will impact our clients and what we can do best to make sure they're served well. They've said that if you have burning question, feel free to interrupt them as they go along. They'll also obviously have time for questions at the end. There are a number of handouts if you didn't grab them, and if you have not signed in for CLE credit, do that. Those on the phone interested in CLE, we'll give you instructions on how to get that after the meeting is over. Those on the phone if you could mute your phones so we don't get any noise that will interrupt the presentation, we'd appreciate that as well. With that I'll turn it over to Audra and Lisa. >> AUDRA: Good morning. I'm Audra, Lisa from LAF. Thanks for the beautiful introduction. We do have a general know your rights project that we tried to modify for the didn't public benefits group. But if you do have any questions, or if you receive a question frequently from your clients or patients, then please jump in. Because we'd love to make it as specific to issues that you face as possible. So feel free to jump in. Barry did provide a general question how should disability advocates handle calls from clients who have potential immigration issues. That's the general topic we're going to be framing our discussion around today. In general our -- mini agenda for today will look like encouraging clients to get screened for immigration remedies, and to know generally what your clients' rights are. You can kind of issue spot as you're talking to someone, encouraging them to understand their own rights and providing a little encouragement of your own. Also encouraging clients to prepare safety plans, action plans, just in case they do come into an immigration encounter or face an emergency situation like detention or deportation. And then to educate clients and dispel rumors, we come across this a lot with our clients. There's a lot of stories going around the immigration community of things that are happening, some may be founded in fact, some are just very fear-based and kind of rumors that are going around. So we encourage everyone to through this presentation and through individual research just be aware of what's going on and how to speak to your clients about facts of the situation. So first and probably the most detailed, immigration relief options. So obviously we're not expecting people to become immigration attorney experts. But it is helpful to know the general immigration remedies so if you see someone and you can catch that red flag of maybe you should go get screened, it will be a little more helpful for your client. These are the most -- pretty general categories, but they are the most relatable immigration remedies for clients. The first is DACA, it's been in the news a lot lately. Still an immigration remedy program. If your client is under the age of 36, they were in the U.S. when they were young, before the age of 16, they're in school or have their GED or attending college, or if they're a veteran from the armed forces. If any of those characteristics of your client kind of catch your attention, you might want to think about recommending them for a DACA screening. That gives them some deferred action. It's not a path to citizenship, but allows them to remain in the U.S. with some type of status. The U visa is for clients who's been a victim of certain qualifying crimes. Not every crime qualifies you for a U visa, but in general if they are a victim of a crime, it's a good idea to get screened because it is a pretty broad category. We often find with clients that we have to ask them some broad questions to get them thinking about if they're eligible. Like if they've ever called the police. That would be a good one to start with. Or if you hear of them coming into contact with the police or having to call for any issue, would be a good idea to get U visa screened. For T visas, for human trafficking. Which can be sex trafficking or labor trafficking-based. We most often hear of the sex trafficking, it's the more hot-button issue. But labor trafficking is common. So if a client or patient mentions that they feel unsafe at work, or they were made some promises by their employer that weren't followed through on, or if they don't have control of their own passport, or someone else is controlling them coming and leaving from their employer-based housing, or something like that. That would be a flag to recommend that they get a T visa screening. VAWA are for necessary particular violence, the abuser has to be a permanent resident or U.S. citizen. That sometimes disqualifies people, but good to know about. Family-based visas, if you hear of your client or patient having a family member or spouse -- pretty broad category -- that is resident or U.S. citizen, they may be eligible for some immigration remedy. And then finally, the most unknown category is prosecutorial discretion, defenses to removal or cancellation of removal. This is for a client who's already in deportation proceedings. So -- or has been ordered removed. There still may be options for clients who are in a crisis situation, in deportation proceedings. There are some factors they can bring in front of a judge that may allow them to remain in the United States. And if your client has none of the above, they don't qualify for anything, if they've been in the U.S. for two or more years, they can at least have the possibility of receiving a bond if they're detained, released, and then given a hearing date in the future. So then they'll have time to arrange their personal effects, get their documents in order. And then speak to an attorney. We do have a list -- I think that was circulated -- of agencies and organizations that take these referrals of screenings. So you'll have someone to go to if you do find a client that is in need of an immigration screening. >> BARRY T.: To interrupt here, we made copies for those of you in the room. Those of you on the phone, we'll send those out electronically after the webinar. >> AUDRA: We think this is one of the most important things to encourage people to get screened. Because we're always surprised by how many people we encounter that don't know what they're eligible for. And any status is a good thing to have. So we encourage this step to be taken first with all clients that we see. >> LISA: One of the things I wanted to add is we've obviously been doing a lot of community outreach, and we put this slide first before we talk about what rights people have if they're stopped by ICE, because we want people to start thinking first about what it they might be eligible for. And I'm never surprised that oftentimes 95 percent of individuals who we talk to do not know about the vast majority of these remedies. The most common one that we do at LAF are U visas, and T visas, in that context we also do what LAF is really the only agency that has full expertise in called labor based U visas, we represent people who have wage and hour claims, who make those claims to U.S. DOL, sometimes to IDOL. And in the context of that complaint their employer says if you make a complaint about this, I'm going to call immigration because I know you don't have documents. One of the U visa crimes, most of them are violent crimes but one is obstruction of justice or witness tampering, U.S. DOL, and others like the EEOC, they can complete the form that's needed to file with your immigration case called a certification form based on nonviolent crimes, when we find labor trafficking cases maybe it's not a high enough exploitation to be a T visa, but might be sufficient for a U visa. Most people don't know about that at all. And the other remedy that individuals don't know about is the one that Audra was talking about called cancellation or removal. It's an application you can file only as a defense to removal. So you can't go to immigration and say I have these factors, I want my application, it's only if you're in removal proceedings. But to be eligible you have to have resided continuously in the United States for ten years, be a person of good moral character, no serious convictions; a couple misdemeanors might still make you eligible and you have to have a U.S. citizenship spouse, or child. You have to have U.S. -- many have U.S. citizen kids and don't have convictions. We don't want people getting arrested by ICE and signing for automatic removal when they might be eligible for something. >> AUDRA: Any questions on the remedies? Go ahead. >> For the U visa, in the situation you just explained with the employer and obstruction of justice, does the client have to report it to the police to qualify? >> LISA: Not to the police, to the labor agency. So a filing with the EEOC for a sex harassment case where there's been abuse -- not all sex harassment have abusive sexual contact, that's a U visa qualifying crime. But when there has been contact, the EEOC has certified U visa for us. When we are in a union-organizing situation and threatened with calling immigration or fired as a result of that, we've made requests to the NLRB. It doesn't have to go to the police. >> LAURA: For the screening, can that be a private attorney or one of these nonprofit agencies, both lists? >> AUDRA: Yes. Both lists, definitely. >> LISA: The National Immigration Justice Center and the resurrection project received just over a million dollars from the City of Chicago to provide screening and know your rights to individuals residing in Chicago. So they provide both Know Your Rights presentations and individualized screening. And you can find those -- their presentations on the City of Chicago Web page. So if you want to refer somebody to that, you can refer them, if they're inside Chicago. The community action law alliance, CALA, also does screenings and we can provide you -- did we provide them with -- so they're not always immediate. So you might not get somebody on the line at that moment. But they'll call you back and then set you up for a screening. The know your rights through the City of Chicago legal defense fund is usually an on-site, so they'll do the know your rights first, and then they'll have attorneys to do screening after, that is one-on-one screening. >> LAURA: And any of these agencies provide training for lawyers who want to learn more about how to actually do the cases? On a pro bono basis? >> LISA: Yes. We have had a pro bono project in the past for U visas, probably again in the future. NIJC works with generally firms, but also pro bono work in the asylum context, and I think in the U visa context as well. And I think CALA does training as well. I'm not sure. >> A two-part question regarding timing and applying for U visa or T visa. First of all, is there a time limit, a statute of limitation beyond the time when a violation has actually occurred wherein the individual can still apply for the visa; and number two, if the individual has already been detained by ICE, is it still an option if they're otherwise eligible for them to apply at that time? >> LISA: The answer is no, and yes. So there's not a statute of limitations for filing a U visa or T visa. We have U visa applicants whose crime occurred -- we had a case where the crime occurred in the 170s and she applied and received the U visa. And in terms of -- and same with the T. The only thing you have to watch is because they're family comprehensive applications where the victim can apply but also can include what's called derivative. So minor children under 21. The -- your child is no longer a child in immigration law if they turn 21. So you're going to watch that so that you don't lose the opportunity for a child to be included in your case. ('70s) and the second question was, sorry. >> BARRY T.: Once you're a resident. >> LISA: You can still apply for those while you're detained. Immigration judges in the past, once they know you filed, will continue the case. If you bond out, of course your case will continue for longer. If you're detained, they're supposed to kind of wait. But immigration in Vermont where those cases are decided has taken longer and longer. So there's a big sort of suggestion now that both with ICE and with perhaps -- it might start happening with court, that you can wait for your U visa outside the country. So there's no reason to wait. Because you actually can. Not a T. You have to file a T and be here to receive a T. But a U visa you can actually receive it from abroad. So we're a little concerned with changes in policy that judges won't continue detain cases longer. Or even nondetained cases because we know that you can receive those abroad. But at the present time judges generally continue the case until there's a decision on the U visa. You're not excluded because you're in removal proceedings. >> AUDRA: All right. So this is where it transitions a little bit more into what clients' rights are. We thought it was important to highlight for this group just in your conversations with clients if they're talking about an immigration encounter that sounds counterintuitive or like it might have crossed a line into the client rights, that it would be important to report or at least encourage the client to do so themselves. So regardless of immigration status, so if they're undocumented, DACA, U visa pending, U visa received, your client has rights just as we all do in encounters with immigration and police. So they always have the right to remain silent. I think every attorney can rattle off that at least as one right that everyone has in a police encounter. A request to speak with and be represented by an attorney. In immigration law it will have to be at the client's own expense, which we provided the list of some organizations that provide pro bono or at least sliding scale representation. And then also there's a family support hotline that we provided information for. So if a client is in a deportation crisis, or if their family member is or friend, they can call this number and at least speak with someone about next steps and receiving some type of legal representation. Like Lisa pointed out, it may be a call-back in that situation where depending on when they call, they'll have to leave a message. But they should receive a call back. And then they also have the right to request a local telephone call. And this is where we encourage people to memorize a phone number. I think in our age of cell phones we don't memorize many phone numbers anymore. But without access to your telephone and the right to request a local telephone call, it would be important to memorize someone's phone number that may be able to help you. We understand that in the disability context that kind of takes on a different shade. We do have -- or encourage people to get a Know Your Rights card. They're issued by ICE, a lot other groups in Chicago. They'll have a blank line on it where you can write down an important number. If that person at least has access to it in their wallet or a bag, they can pull it out and give it to the person who they're in an encounter with. If they're unable to memorize a phone number, then that would be at least an option or a step in the right direction besides relying on a cell phone. We also point out that if someone doesn't have a friend or a family member that they can contact in the U.S., they can reach out to their local consulate, there's also a number later in the slide for a consulate service line where an individual can call that service line and be directed to their individual consulate. That would be an option if someone doesn't have a network of support in Chicago to call. >> LISA: There's an app. that they're developing which hasn't launched yet, but it's in development where people can preprogram texts to important individuals if they get detained. And so that -- the general idea is that you would it sort of push a button and it would send out that sort of text to a number of people. I can get the name, but I tried to walk through it a couple days ago, and I got to the point where it said we have not launched yet. So it's coming soon. And people may want to use that on their phones as well. If it seems to work well. >> AUDRA: In some community presentations we've done, we've received some fear from community members like how do I tell police officer that I don't want to talk to them or how -- it's such a fearful encounter, what is the conversation going to look like? There are a lot of videos on YouTube of just like a mock conversation between an individual and a police officer, or an ICE immigration officer. So you could always encourage people to do some research or at least practice with a friend or family member on what would you say if you got pulled over, or what would you say if an immigration officer came to your house. So that is one suggestion that we have. So in general there are some things that clients also should definitely not do when they talk to the police or an immigration officer. They definitely should not lie. This is important as not only influences the immediate interaction with the police or immigration officer, but it can color your eventual immigration remedies when you're coming up with two different stories that might show negatively on your credibility. So this would include not providing any false names, any false information. We should encourage clients if they are using a false Social Security card or false driver's license or any kind of false paperwork not to carry it around with them when they're driving or when they're just out not working, because if they are searched or feel like they have to provide something, that can definitely be a negative on their case. Importantly they should not claim to be a U.S. citizen. And if they are detained by the police or being questioned by the police, there is a hotline to call First Defense Legal Aid. I'm sure people have heard of this organization, but they will send someone to the police station to kind of make sure that their rights are being guarded with an interrogation situation. >> LISA: I know there was a recent training with immigration first defense. So they're getting more training on those issues as it might relate to noncitizens being arrested by the police. We -- we're hoping that that's not going to be an area of inquiry inside Chicago. Chicago does not cooperate with ICE. But that doesn't mean ICE doesn't arrest people in Chicago. They do it all the time. So you know, if it's a police stop and arrest, they can call first defense. If it's an ICE stop, I don't believe first defense will go. >> AUDRA: Right. And we also encourage clients, they might be tempted to lie and say they haven't been here for that long. Like they -- we just got to the U.S., I don't know what's going on, I haven't been here for very long, please don't punish me. But as we saw in the previous slide, there are some immigration benefits you get if you have been in the U.S. for two years or more. So the temptation might be to act like you haven't been here for that long, but actually it's a little counterintuitive that you may receive some additional protection or benefit if you have been in the U.S. for two years or longer. >> LISA: One of the other -- the new priorities for removal are it's always been in the statute, but it's never been activated that if you haven't been here for two years, you don't get a hearing with an immigration judge. It's just never been used. But now the administration has said it is going to use that. So if someone can't establish that they've been here for at least two years, they don't go in front of an immigration judge if they're arrested by ICE. So that whole, you know, fear of being punished or thinking you're going to be punished if you've been here longer is really counterintuitive for a couple reasons. >> AUDRA: For documentation on this slide, at least in Illinois -- or Illinois there's a TVDL, a temporary visitor driver's license, I believe is what that acronym stands for, even an undocumented individual may be able to qualify for a driver's license. It will be a different color, and it will say the -- at the top that it is a temporary visitors driver's license, but at least they will have a documentation that they can drive, has their picture on it, their name on it, and they may be able to feel more comfortable showing that to someone than a document that is not their own. Don't sign any documents you don't understand. If it's not in your native language. Don't discuss citizenship or immigration status with anyone besides an immigration attorney or any attorney that you have retained. And then not to run. If you're being detained, you must stay with the officer. But you can ask if you're being detained, and if they say no, then you can calmly walk away. That one is also -- causes people a lot of trepidation with an encounter, trying to leave the police officer. But it is a right that your client has. And then if ICE or the police come to a client's home, they're not required to open the door. Unless they have a warrant that's signed by a judge. That's very important they can ask ICE to show it to them on their door, through their window, slip it under the door. But should not open the door. Because that invites a lot more interaction than they may be up for. So we wanted to provide a sample of what one of those warrants might look like. If a client said they're someone -- I guess I don't really know how you interact with your clients, but if the client wants to call and say there's someone at my door, they say that they're allowed to come in, I don't know what to do, this is how we could walk them through -- what kind of paperwork do they have? It would be a heading at the top of the courts. They would have a list of the purpose. Why it was issued. In this case it looks like a work -- employment warrant to gain access to a work area. It will list the client's name, address at the top. And then at the bottom it will be signed by a judge, with the judge's title on the paper. And it will say a date that we make sure is recent. Within the last couple months. So at least this way if you can't see the document, you might be able to ask them a couple questions about what it looks like and if they don't -- if ICE agent does not have this piece of paper, they do not get access to the client's home. >> LISA: So the only thing I wanted to mention here is that a number of ICE and CBP officers issue warrants. They have the right to sign warrants. Those warrants are administrative warrants at the top of those warrants it will say U.S. Department of Justice. Those are not sufficient for somebody to open their door and have to open their door and look for that individual for your home. It has to be a search warrant. I read something recently where ICE personnel have said that -- sort of inferring that more people are actually paying attention to this and not opening their door and as a result their expectation is that there will be more street arrests. So how to act on the street is also, you know, really important. And you don't need arrest warrants to arrest somebody on the street. You need reasonable suspicion and ICE might not have it. But if they're looking at for somebody at a home, and they can't get in because they don't have -- it's not -- it's not generally an arrest warrant that the court is going to issue, it's a search warrant for -- on a particular premises for a particular individual. And the arrest warrant, administrative arrest warrant that ICE issues is an administrative warrant for that individual. Generally because the person has a conviction or has been previously deported. On the street ICE will probably use that as well. Or if they believe that somebody -- they have reasonable suspicion that somebody is an alien, and I'm using the statutory term, they can stop somebody without a warrant. >> AUDRA: As Lisa mentioned, it's very likely that an immigration encounter between your clients and ICE or the police will happen outside of their home. So whether at a shelter, a community organization, we know that for people with disabilities it might often occur at a hospital or at a public benefits office or a healthcare facility. So these are their rights in those spaces. Immigration or ICE, they have the right to search a public space. So that they do not need a warrant for. If a shelter, hospital, or employer gives ICE permission to enter their space, ICE can enter. But even if your employer grants ICE access to the entire factory, your individual clients still has their own personal rights: Which are to remain silent, refuse consent to search their person or their car or their home. They can calmly leave if they're not under arrest and ask to speak with a lawyer. And as a reminder, immigration must have a warrant signed by a judge or permission from the employer, the hospital, the shelter staff to enter that space also. >> LISA: So ICE has a memo from the prior administration, and is say that go they're complying with that memo not to enter sensitive locations to arrest individuals. So churches, hospitals, clinics, schools, all of those -- and there's a few more. I can get those for you if you like -- are supposed to be sensitive locations that ICE will not effectuate arrests. So we -- even though they have this authority if they want to, they have made an exception to sensitive locations. That said, they have gone into courts and -- that's not one of the sensitive locations. And they have arrested people near these locations. So a father drops his daughter off at school and then a half mile down the road ICE stops and arrests him. So the sensitive location doesn't have a -- it seems like the perimeter is pretty tight. So as a result people are afraid to go to hospitals, afraid to drive their kids to school, because it's not the school per se or the hospital per se where they fear they might be stopped, but in the environs of that area. It's important that people understand what their rights are if they're stopped anywhere on the street. But we expect that these sensitive locations will be respected and they won't go to them specifically. The Chicago Public Schools and many other public schools are issuing guidelines that ICE will not be allowed to come into the school, they would have to, you know, register a warrant or talk to the school before they would deliver anyone to ICE. But many schools are looking at these types of policies to ensure that ICE does not arrive at school to arrest a kid or somebody else, or their parent. >> AUDRA: There are specific duties that the Department of Homeland Security and customs and border protection have to people with disabilities. They -- anyone arriving -- a person with a disability arriving at an airport or interacting with customs and border protection can ask for a reasonable accommodation. So this would include any accommodation that the disability may require such as access to food, water, medication. Different types of communication like sign language, translation, interpretation, braille. Accessible restrooms, wheelchairs, extreme temperature protection, and if handcuffs are used, to place them loosely or in the front in the case of people who use sign language to communicate. So there may be special protections for certain clients. Reasonable accommodation is the key word when interacting with a customs and border protection officer or Homeland Security officer. And then in the case of an emergency situation like a deportation or detention, we are encouraging clients to start to consider emergency plans. So that would include either formally or informally sitting down with the family or yourself and thinking about what kind of documents are important to have; if you have certain information like medication or a doctor or bank account that you need to write down and put in a safe place. So just to start to walk through these questions with clients, who would they want to care for their children if they were unable to pick them up from school. If they will need their paycheck picked up from work and need to give specific permission to their employer for someone else to do this for them. This has become a little bit of a hot topic now in the realm of guardianship documents or Power of Attorney documents. Based on the client situation, those documents may or may not be appropriate. If they share custody or don't have custody of their children, guardianship becomes a little more complicated. But it's important at least to start to ask yourself these questions. Consolidate documents. And just think through an emergency plan. We have some checklists available, which I will also make available electronically to start to spur these conversations. And then this is the number that we referenced earlier to CIAM, the center of information of assistance for Mexicans. That is available to assist for individuals to consular assistance. Even if they're not Mexican nationals, they can call that number and be connected to their consulate if they are in an emergency situation. >> LISA: This is the only live 24/7 phone line in the country for this kind of assistance. So CALA has a hotline. The ICRR family support line. Those may have somebody answer, but they may have a voicemail to call back. The Mexican line is -- Mexican consulate line is 24/7 live personnel. So it's probably one of the best ones to call initially if you have -- particularly if you're a Mexican national. But they can refer you for individuals in particular who might be detained, a family member might be detained to another consulate as well. >> AUDRA: The important document, like I mentioned earlier, is passport for themselves and their children; birth certificate, Social Security cards; medical records, bank account information. And also registering children with the consulate. I don't know if you want to talk more about that in the possibility of having to bring children... >> LISA: Yeah. So the Mexican consulate has asked that even U.S. citizen children who could have dual -- who are eligible for dual nationality are registered with the Mexican consulate and Mexican-born children as well. Because if a parent is deported and the Mexican government wants to advocate for the children, they can do that if they're registered. They can't do that if they're not registered. So now there's a flood of people trying to register their kids with the Mexican consulate. There's sort of a line everywhere for immigration services, passport services, assistance to get a guardianship, screenings, consultations. It's really -- and I would say that this -- this area is really sort of new to the immigration field. We in the past have not been looking at issues related to guardianship and powers of attorney for immigrants. This is the current situation has raised so much concern about fear of deportation that people are at -- sort of adding and creating documents even further than just know your rights and your know your rights card. The emergency plan, the short-term guardianship, the Power of Attorney, those are new to me as well. I have some concerns about those. There are -- there's sort of a spectrum of how people are looking at this. And it's also very knew, what's happening. So we're sort of not at the end of this yet. But for example CVLS is now holding pop-up clinics where attorneys -- pro bono attorneys, in fact you were asking that question before of sort of training, pro bono attorneys are trained in the first half hour, 40 minutes of a particular event and then there's a presentation to the community about guardianship. And then after that, the pro bono attorneys will sit with any individuals who want to execute a short-term guardianship. I think that's fine. But some folks don't really know, you know, one, whether they have the authority to execute it, whether -- and whether it gives them what they think it gives them. Many of our clients are not in a situation where they have the authority to do so because they know where the -- so they may be single moms, they're not married, they know where the father is. They know the father's going to want that child if they think that this person -- that the mother might be deported. But she doesn't want him to go with the father. So we have a lot of more complex issues with our clients that we have to look at for guardianship issues. And powers of attorney -- and so what we're doing in -- with our clients is going through all our cases to determine which clients appear to be high risk for potential arrest or detention. So for example, when we talked before about the U visa, you can be eligible for a U visa, but you can also have a deportation in the past or let's say a DUI. And the U visa has one of the broadest waivers or pardons for negative issues in all of immigration. So you could have made a false claim and said you were a citizen for a job and be married to a citizen, and that's not waivable when you get -- when you apply for permanent residency. But in the context of the U visa it's actually waivable. My point there is we have clients with pending cases who still have negative factors that could result in them getting arrested by ICE. So we're looking at those high risk clients to then look at what's your family plan, what's your emergency plan, do you want a guardianship, should you get one? And then Power of Attorney issues. You know, and in that guardianship issue we're making them write down what do you really want to happen. Where do you want your kids to be? Who do you want them to be with? In case something were to happen. So we're trying to do it in a more profound way. The Power of Attorney is a really extensive document. I don't know if you've seen it, but it has to comply with Illinois statute. So instead of writing out a Power of Attorney, which a lot of immigrants are doing by going to notaries and getting a Carte De Poder, and they're using that for guardianship issues, a Power of Attorney in Illinois will list all of these issues, annuities, stock, and if you don't want to apply to that, you cross it out. This sort of pro se Power of Attorney model is a little difficult, I think for individuals to fill out. If pro bono attorneys help them perhaps that can work as well. But then just the issue of you know, if you have a bank account, are you -- how much is in your bank account and who are you giving that power to? So instead we're sort of -- we're trying to reverse it by saying, if you're detained and you get a $2500 bond, and you could get that money from your bank account, who would -- who would you want to get that money for you? Or if you don't have that much in your bank account but you have a car that's worth 5,000, and you want to sell that for your bond, you know, would you want to do that? So we're sort of trying to walk through a bit more specifically rather than sort of a general Power of Attorney for people to get a sense of what their plan is. But like I said, it's sort of a whole new area for us as well. So we're kind of not at the end of even knowing, you know -- I had five clients who were detained and the Power of Attorney worked perfectly. So for example, the Power of Attorney doesn't give you the authorization to get somebody's passport. So this issue of getting your kids' passports for the eventuality that if you get deported you want your kids to return to Mexico or India, for example, you'd probably be better off working on getting the passports right now because the -- not the Power of Attorney but the short-term guardian is not going to be able to go get your kid a passport. In addition the short-term guardian form is not going to get your kids picked up at school if they're not listed on the emergency contact. So there's a lot of work in this area that we're trying to figure out in terms of advice for clients and then working through who could use those and benefit from those forms. >> Quick question. I'm just going back to what you guys were talking about, a person's entitlement to not be discriminated at airports, with CBP officers. What is the redress in the event that a person who's deaf or hard-of-hearing gets handcuffed and they cannot communicate? Do you see a lot of issues with undocumented people with disabilities that are being discriminated against? And what is the redress? Do they just file suit after the fact? Yeah? >> LISA: I think so. I know that the office of the inspector general is seeking any complaints about treatment at the airport. So the airport issue has been very big. And I can give you that information. That's a very different situation for most people because when you're at the airport, attorneys are not allowed in. Like 99 percent of the time. So I can give my client his card before he comes in. I can send him the notice of appearance we filed for his immigration case when he's coming in from Nepal, for example. But if something's happening in there, I can't go to CBP and say I want to sit with my client while you're asking him questions. So that's a really protective area that it's very difficult for attorneys to get in at the time. As a result it's usually after the fact that people are reporting this. And there actually is a new -- I don't know if it's a 501(c)(3), but it's a new org called , that is a grouping under the auspices of CAIR. That has been working at the airports. And they have -- they just put up their website like ten days ago. So if you want to look on there for individuals that may have issues coming into the country, you can actually register your travel with them and they can be at the airport at least in O'Hare, they can be at the airport to be aware that you're coming in. And generally what they do there is when the person has arrived and they've texted that they've arrived, the attorneys are sort of watching how long has it been that this person's been in there? And they can go to the CBP office and say this person's been in for six hours, can you give me some update on what's going on? And generally if you get an officer who's willing to give you some information you can kind of track it that way. But right now I think it's OIG that's looking at any kind of discriminatory violations at the airport. And it's the same with ICE. You can file a -- you can file a lawsuit, you can file a complaint with the -- actually Department of Homeland Security has a Civil Rights division and I believe DOJ has a Civil Rights division of course. So the sort of typical administrative or federal complaint is where you'd go with that. We actually had a client who -- tore an individual who talked to us at one of the presentations we did for Access Living. And she of course was -- she was deaf. Used sign language. And she was as concerned not only about the issue with handcuff, but she was also concerned about the fear that she -- she would have that if she starts to use sign language and talk, they're going to interpret that as some kind of oppositional behavior and maybe harm her. So that's a whole 'nother area I think we need to work with. Perhaps to educate officers about that kind of a situation. >> JOYCE: Thank you. >> AUDRA: Brainstorming with clients about what that might look like, what your concerns are. Her solution that she kind of talked through and we were speaking with her was to like have a printed card to hand to them. Be like I need to use sign language and then they will be aware. Everyone has different solutions that they may be comfortable with. But just to start these conversations with people in a nonfearful way to just say these might come up, like it's best to plan ahead. Think everyone kind of can get on board with the preparation idea. And then if a client or family member is in ICE custody, if someone calls and said, my family member was taken, I don't know where they are, I don't know how to get in contact with them. It's possible to find out if a client or family member has a deportation or removal order from the past. By following these instructions, it's a number to call. You'll need the person's A number, which is an immigration number that everyone is assigned. We've put a little disclaimer that it may not show every deportation or removal order because sometimes border patrol just turns people away without the full formal process that they may recognize. So if anyone has had contact with immigration or border control, they should speak to an attorney for a full assessment on any kind of past orders they may have: To locate someone in ICE custody, you go online to locator.. And you can search by the person's name, date of birth, country of birth, or also the A number and country of birth. We provided a handout with some more detailed information on the detention centers locally. It provides the phone number, how to call collect, some of the policies of the detention centers. Because they are very spread out and have varying policies. So if someone is detained, you can hopefully find them online, and then reference the handout on how to then go about contacting the detention center to speak with someone being detained. >> LISA: The vast majority of ICE detention centers in Illinois are in County jails. They don't have -- they have one center in broad view which is a quick processing center, but people don't sleep there. So most folks are held in a variety of County jails, McHenry County jail, recently Kankakee County jail, there's a number of individuals in Kankakee. The Ellen facility in Ellen, Illinois, about 6 and a half hours south of here. There really -- and some in Wisconsin. They're really held in a variety of different areas. >> AUDRA: And we put this slide up about new developments and enforcements. Sort of to counter act a lot of panic about extreme changes under Trump. And all these crazy developments that are happening. Just to say that, yes, it is a fearful time and we understand people's concerns. But the enforcement priorities for the new administration aren't as narrow as under Obama. But mostly the categories remain somewhat limited for enforcement priorities for ICE. So we outline the seven published enforcement priorities, which are DHS focussing on individuals convicted of a criminal offense; charged with a criminal offense that has not been resolved; a person who's committed an act which constitutes a chargeable criminal offense; someone who's engaged in fraud or willful misrepresentation in connection with official matter before a government agency; someone who's abused any program related to receipt of public benefits; someone who is subject to a final order of removal but has not complied with their legal obligation to depart the U.S., or someone who poses a risk to public safety or national security. In the disability context we get the most questions about enforcement priority No. 5, which is public benefits abuse. So they outlined a policy that the DHS will focus on removable aliens who have abused any program related to receipt of public benefits. So this is obviously pretty vague and unclear, which is why I think it causes a lot of anxiety. And these -- it needs to have more detail through regulation. In general most noncitizens are ineligible for public benefits, with some exceptions. Like kid care, emergency care, pregnancy care, visiting the emergency room. Things like that. And this priority should not include U.S. citizen children of undocumented immigrants. So we see a lot of mixed status households where the parents might be undocumented but they have U.S. citizen children. But because of the fear in the community, they'll just withhold the entire family because they don't want to notify people that they may have some undocumented individuals in the household. But we'd still encourage people to receive all services their U.S. citizen children or family members are entitled to, even though they may be a little nervous about this enforcement priority. >> LISA: And the -- >> AUDRA: Yes. We also provided a flyer in English and Spanish, I think it's called Salud de Papeles. For individuals trying to access healthcare. So there is some good information for clients and for ourselves about how to access this healthcare safely. >> LISA: I mean, the reality is this kind of announcement works, because people are just so fearful that they stop receiving care. They won't go to the emergency room, or they won't go to a clinic. We're doing a presentation for service providers in April from University of Chicago. And some of the service providers in this program which includes a large percentage of Latino families said people just aren't showing up now. People aren't showing up for appointments, they're too afraid to come. So the -- you know, the reality is that most people aren't going to be arrested for anything related to this. But the fear is so strong that people are just ceasing their participation in healthcare. >> BARRY T.: I think we're seeing it in other contexts as well. Hearing it from our special education clinic that families are more reluctant to go against the grain and advocate for things or be a plaintiff. Those kinds of things just because of concern of what would happen if they got more public with their opposition. >> AUDRA: And then this -- I don't know if you've had clients bring up the topic of medical deportation. It's a pretty specific area. But every once in a while there will be a case or one client will come up with a question about medical deportation. And be very scared of the idea. So there's a difference between medical repatriation and medical deportation that we wanted to outline. Medical repatriation is returning a noncitizen patient to their home country based on the patient's wishes. Which is the biggest difference between the two. So this can allow noncitizens to move closer to relatives and family culture while they receive long-term care. Sounds like a marvelous idea. But it can raise concerns because often people are sent to facilities that cannot adequately meet their need, they don't want to leave, they have concerns about ceasing care for the gap of changing hospitals or long-term care facilities. And that's when it becomes a medical deportation. So this is when hospitals, acting outside of immigration -- this is a hospital acting on its own impetus -- transfers a patient with a disability or serious illness, usually this patient is uninsured or undocumented, which is why the facility does not want to keep them on as a patient. And that patient will have significant long-term care needs. And so they will transfer them outside the United States back to their home country directly from the healthcare facility or through a court order, not an immigration court order. And without the informed consent of the individual involved or that person's medical decision-maker. So we see some red flags being raised when a hospital is asking family members to arrange the person's passport or like give them some travel information and things like that. So it's something to keep an eye out for. I know it's happened a couple times in Chicago. But it's not an extremely widespread event. >> LISA: I think the only concern is that like many feeling that ICE officers now fear more emboldened because they have these significant policies behind them will -- medical facilities feel similarly. And when people are found not to be eligible for long-term care, take it upon themselves because they believe that they're not going to be reviewed and people aren't going to be aware of it and tell people we're going to send you home. >> AUDRA: And so we encourage everyone interacting with clients. It's just the best practice for no matter what type of law or service you're in to remain apprised of current events in the community. We hear a lot of stories that have definitely a basis in what actually happened, but then through being passed from individual to individual, become a little warped. So we wanted to address the recent events that have been being brought up by many of our clients. >> LISA: So on the Department of Homeland Security's Web page, when the new policies came out, there's a couple different executive orders that talk about immigration enforcement, the FAQ on the bottom of the page says that the DACA program still exists. And that in fact is true. In fact, some people even knowing that it might be gone are actually still applying or applying for their renewals, because you get your card for two years and you have to keep renewing. That said, there have been DACA recipients who have been arrested. Two sort of very well-known ones, one was named Daniel Ramirez and one is Daniella. Daniel is in Seattle and Daniella I believe was in Mississippi. The basis for their arrest had to do with the fact that ICE was coming to look for their parents. Not for them. So in Daniel's case, ICE had an arrest warrant for his father. He and his brother were in the apartment or home that they lived in, in Seattle. And when ICE got his father, they asked him some questions, they had his DACA card, so he willingly and voluntarily answered his questions. But then the more they talked to him -- and I believe at that point they saw a tattoo on his arm, they believed he could have been informed in a gang or associated with a gang. So they arrested him. There was also another brother in the apartment at that time who told him don't answer any questions. And he didn't answer any questions. And he wasn't arrested. So that's the situation of Daniel. He's actually still detained. He's been detained for probably six weeks now. He has 14 attorneys. One of whom is Lawrence Tribe. And they have a habeas filed in the District Court in Seattle. And they've been battling this case out. And I think it's been submitted for decision by the judge. But he's still detained. Daniella was also at home when ICE came looking for her father and brother. And these are individuals who I believe they didn't have criminal backgrounds; what they had was multiple deportations. So they've been deported in the past, came back, deported in the past, came back. They got her brother and her father, I believe they got them outside the home. And then she was freaked out and sort of went into a closet and hid. She had applied for DACA and had just filed a renewal. So she didn't have her new card yet, but her case was pending. And then my understanding is that ICE came back with a search warrant and broke down the door and went into the house to look for a gun -- for guns. And they found one. And they asked her some questions. And she told them she was a DACA recipient, she had her case filed. And they left her. They did not arrest her. And then a couple days later after she had gotten some legal assistance, there was a press conference sort of discussing what happened. She was at that press conference, and when she left the press conference and was in a car leaving the press conference, ICE arrested her. So she's since been released. She wasn't detained for too long. I think it was like a day or two. And she was released. So it's odd to think that you know, the DACA program still exists -- and neither of them have any convictions, have any past, you know -- they would not have been eligible for DACA if they had past convictions. But nonetheless we've seen that some of these folks as collateral situations are being arrested. We haven't had a situation in Chicago where that has happened yet. So generally DACA individuals should be fine. It's in these collateral situations where we've seen them be arrested. So there was a person detained at the Markham courthouse. It was an individual appearing object a DUI. He came to the Markham courthouse with a child, and there's a nursery at the Markham courthouse. If he had not come with a family member, that child would have been left in the nursery, because he was arrested at the court proceeding by ICE. I believe his sister was at the nursery with the child. He was stepping up on a DUI, but my understanding is that they had a prior conviction from DuPage County and that was forming the basis of the arrest. I think the courthouses are going to be places where people are going to be arrested. I think that that is going to happen. The important part about this is people who are victims and witnesses -- not that defendants shouldn't have rights as well, they should. And we should protect those as well. But where we see this happening is people who won't proceed on an Order of Protection or won't come -- act as a witness in a particular case because they're afraid that their undocumented status is going to get them arrested. We're looking at issues of accompaniment for witnesses and clients. I don't know if you've ever heard of a place in Chicago called Tayer de Jose, a nonprofit agency that helps people by accompanying them to different places. So we've had them take our clients to the public benefits office, we've had them take them to court. And I this I think we're looking at structures where people who are afraid to go to court or afraid to report to the police may be accompanied by someone so that they can press their rights and proceed to receive an order for protection if that's what they need. You can also make a police report online or by phone. So we may start looking at our clients making police reports in that context. It may be after the fact but you can make a late police report. Because for the U visa you do have to report to law enforcement. In addition to reporting because you need security and safety and you've been a victim of a crime. So courthouses I think are not necessarily off bounds, and we're going to have to look at how we address that. And then there was fear that ICE was at a CTA station, at the Addison CTA station about a month ago because there were some police and DHS personnel who were there sort of walking around and people thought they were -- some people thought they were checking people's bags. And that it was ICE. So people were afraid like that they were going to start to see ICE on the CTA stations. In fact CTA put out a press release and it was a security search but it had nothing to do with ICE. That said, if you see anything that says DHS, because DHS covers all the antiterrorism work in addition to issues related to immigration. So it's very hard for people to distinguish. And then the only other thing that we've seen in Chicago that's been a little better than in other parts of the country is there are individuals who are on what's called orders of supervision. So they may have had a case, their case ended with immigration court, and they have an order of removal, but for special circumstances ICE decided not to remove them. And when they make that decision for humanitarian reasons or often because they can't get the country to take them back, they give them what's called an order of supervision. And they're required to report sometimes it could be every week, every six month the, every year to the deportation office. And across the country individuals have had that extended for many years. It also makes you eligible for worth authorization. You can be on an order of supervision and also be lawfully working. And -- but what we've seen across the country is a number of people are going in for their yearly report and being taken into custody and deported. In Chicago that has not happened yet. There were -- there have been about three cases where people have gone in to -- you can either not go in and they come look for you, or you go in and take your chances that you're not going to be taken into custody. So far in Chicago the cases we know of, people have not been taken into custody. On the other hand, what happened in one case in a couple cases, is that they've gone in, they've been extended on their supervision for six months or a year, and then they left and got a call either come back or a call to say well actually you're going to be deported in July, so July come in with your ticket and your bags. So it's not much better, but we haven't seen this automatic arrest. At least if people know they're going to have to go, they can start to prepare. I mean, really, it's better to have six months to get ready to leave than to be taken in the minute you go in for your order. It's not much better, but it's better for some -- for some families. So we're watching how things happen in Chicago. We're also very concerned about the -- about memorandums of understanding being signed between -- that won't happen in Chicago or Cook County, but outside of Cook County, it's very likely that many of the law enforcement agencies, police departments are going to start signing memorandums of understanding with ICE. And that would mean that if someone gets picked up and arrested on a traffic offense, they might be turned over to ICE, from the police to ICE. In the '90, I had clients who were arrested with an ICE officer and a police officer driving around in the police car, being asked questions about their immigration status. So I don't know if that's coming back. We move to suppress those kinds of arrests and won. So people may be challenging those more. But I think outside in the collar counties, what we're going to see in terms of ICE working with police is probably going to be very different than what we see here in Chicago, in Cook County. >> AUDRA: So we pulled out a couple of the FAQ questions from the sheets, but if anyone has an individual question, I'd prefer to start with those or I'd prefer to walk through the ones we thought were most important. >> AMANDA: I have a clarification on the warrants. With the ability to enter the house. Is it the same as in criminal law that the warrant has to specify they're authorized to come into the house as opposed to an arrest warrant which you know, I wouldn't normally tell my client to open the door if a police officer standing outside their door had an arrest warrant. >> LISA: So police arrest warrant that's not issued and signed by a judge? >> AMANDA: No, that is, but an arrest warrant doesn't allow the police to enter the house. >> LISA: My understanding is the warrant has to be a warrant to search the house. Yes. That's my understanding. I can look further. >> AMANDA: For ICE too. The same as police. >> LISA: Yes. I believe it's the same. >> BARRY T.: Here the term sanctuary city, how does that play into all this and what does that mean like Chicago versus other locations as well? >> LISA: I don't follow it a lot because we are -- we're sort much restricted from getting involved in that kind of -- but essentially there are different cities doing different things. And essentially the city is saying some of the same things that -- like Chicago Public Schools is saying, that we're not going to allow ICE to enter into schools or enter into hospitals, et cetera with warrants. And then some are called welcoming cities. But I don't know -- like I haven't looked at actual sanctuary city plans to see what they specifically say. >> BARRY T.: Got it. >> On the issue of public benefits, have you all -- I know the leaked executive order said that they might expand public charge. And we've been getting a lot of questions about what that means for families who are legally able to obtain benefits for citizen children. So have you changed your advice to folks who are thinking about withdrawing from benefits or applying for the first time? >> LISA: In early its of how it might affect their immigration case? >> Yeah, WIC, SNAP, Medicaid. We've had questions about all of them. Both about withdrawing and also applying for the first time. >> LISA: Well, we haven't changed our advice at this point. We don't do a lot of your sort of standard adjustment case where a citizen parent is filing for their undocumented spouse. And that's generally where that comes up. In the U visa context and the violence against women act context and T visas there are exceptions to public charge. So we don't have to deal with that as much. I would be interested to know whether legal services organizations who do those sort of standard family member applications are changing that. But generally that has not been a problem in Chicago if your -- you know, your legal child or your legal spouse is receiving them, that is generally not enough to deny your claim. And so I don't think at this point people are -- whether the inquiry -- whether there might be more inquiry about whether you did something fraudulent or incorrect, maybe that might raise a little bit more at an adjustment interview, but I haven't heard from the general practitioners in Chicago that they're changing that advice. If you are lawfully eligible for it or your family member is lawfully eligible for it. >> Do medical needs ever provide and say equitable defense to removal? Somebody is getting treatment that they wouldn't be able to receive in their home country? You know, cancer, many other things as well, serious -- with maybe sophisticated treatments that just aren't available if they're able to provide a humanitarian sort of argument that might be heeded? >> LISA: It's a factor that judges can look at, and it's a really important factor, if you're eligible for an application. So the cancellation of removal application you have to establish that your deportation would result in exceptional and extremely unusual hardship to your U.S. citizen or permanent resident spouse or child. That ex national and extremely unusual hardship sounds really high, but generally it's not as high as it sounds to meet that. But you have to be eligible for something to make the argument. There have been arguments even in the asylum context where an individual is receiving certain treatment for which there's no treatment abroad. And so -- and that the government stigmatizes that treatment. So mental health, for example. Individuals have made that argument even in the context of an asylum case. In and of itself like that factor alone is not a basis by which a judge can cancel your removal. It has to be in the context of an application. Prior to the new administration, this hasn't been eliminated, we don't know to what extent it will be considered as broadly as before, but if you're in removal proceedings, you can make a request to DHS, so to trial counsel's office for prosecutorial investigation, essentially I got into proceedings, but I want you to take me out. That would be to the DHS trial counsel's office and there you could argue -- it's a paper application where you just put all the mitigating factors together. Perhaps ICE didn't realize that your undocumented wife is -- has cancer treatment or your child, et cetera, et cetera. When you were arrested. But now you want to say I have all these other factors that I want you to consider so I want you to cancel my removal proceeding. That's called prosecutorial discretion, you can make that argument there. Even if you're not eligible for something in front of the judge. Whether or not they're going to continue to use this as expansively as they did before is an open question. But it is a request you can make. >> RACHEL: I know there have been a lot of efforts to help people who were affected by this. Like there's the O'Hare attorneys event. What's your sense of how much training is happening to make sure people are learning how to provide accommodations to people -- to clients with disabilities? And thinking about how to make sure that they're getting that equal access that they may need? >> AUDRA: We've gotten that question a couple times. Like what training do officers and immigration staff have in dealing with people with disabilities. Or when someone requests a special accommodation, do they even know what that means. We -- it's on our to-do list, to research what kind of training ICE is getting. It's a little opaque. But that is definitely something we're concerned about. Because your rights don't mean as much when the person you're trying to request them from doesn't understand what you might need. So we -- I know it's dangerous to assume they have some training on these regulations; but we're definitely -- it's on our -- on our list to look into what exactly they're trained on, what type of accommodations are readily available, or if there are areas that are breached a little more frequently than others. But yeah, we're looking at that. >> LISA: Specific to the airport I know that most of the problems that people were seeing were both for individuals that needed an accommodation and for those that didn't. So for example, people were being held for very long periods of time without access to food or water. People were being held with minor children and infants without that. I know there were a couple of cases of individuals who were in wheelchairs who were detained for a lengthy period of time and not allowed access to assistance. I think this organization TAPAS, is one that we should be talking to, to get a better sense of what kinds of accommodations people have been asking for and/or not receiving when they're coming through the airport. >> RACHEL: But also what kind of training are the attorneys who are providing assistance to these clients getting about disability? Do you know if that's been incorporated into the trainings offered? >> AUDRA: I think that would be more like a Civil Rights attorney. >> LISA: Right. >> AUDRA: We haven't received any notification of like a train the trainer on how to defend or how to...press suit on behalf of a client whose rights have been challenged. But... >> RACHEL: I meant more in terms of providing that attorney-client services, like for example attorneys in the airport who may need to communicate with someone who might need communication access. >> AUDRA: Yeah. >> RACHEL: So I don't mean in terms of that far -- in terms of a lawsuit, but in -- >> AUDRA: Meeting people in the airport. >> RACHEL: Attorneys who want to provide their services. >> BARRY T.: We do training with interaction with people with disabilities and whether people are going to have that aspect of part of their overall training of assistance would be helpful. >> LISA: I think that's a great idea. We should talk to folks and incorporate that into any training people are going to receive. >> BARRY T.: I think I've read that airport group have merged into some other -- I don't know if you know the details of that. Do you have more information on that? >> On April 1st there's going to be a convening of those attorneys and training and there are folks in my office who are part of that group. What they've been trying to do is staff as many attorneys as possible throughout the week. And so there hasn't been a concerted training effort. So that's happening on April 1st. And I think it would be great to have that sort of training. Right now they're focused on public benefits and kind of getting the pro bono attorneys up to speed on immigration issues generally. But any sort of supports that are necessary in the airport, I think that's going to be part of their focus too. >> BARRY T.: Maybe you guys can connect. That would be great. Thank you. >> Phone: Can I ask a question? >> BARRY T.: Please do. >> Phone: I have a couple questions. I was waiting to ask about. One is with regard to -- we talked about identification. And getting identification cards. Can you as a noncitizen, can you give folks a state I.D. form, a driver's license, and are you recommending that -- sounds like you're recommending that people go ahead and do that. >> LISA: So you can get a temporary visitors driver's license without having legal status in the United States. And we in some of our cases are suggesting -- a lot of people have done this already and have them. In some of our cases we're now suggesting that our clients get it. We didn't spend as much time before with our clients to tell them whether to get it or not to get it. Because there wasn't as much of a concern about being stopped. Right? Now we're looking at our cases and -- so even though a client might not be high risk because they've had a couple of driving without a license in the past, they were ticketed, they paid their fine, they're fine. Now we're looking at where does that person live. Does she live in Kane County, does she live in Lake County, does she live in Chicago is this and if it's the first two we may be talking to them about looking at that. We've looked into -- you know, to clarify that, we don't understand any of that information is going to be shared with DHS for example. And what types of cases are high risk. There was really only one case where someone was referred for identity theft when he went to apply. And after that Illinois Secretary of State made a fix on that particular issue to prevent people from being concerned that they were going to be turned over to ICE. So yes, in some circumstances we're suggesting people do that. In terms of an Illinois I.D., you cannot get an Illinois I.D. unless you have a legitimate Social Security number and authorization to work. I mean, a minimum authorization -- work authorization card. So you don't have to be a permanent resident, you could be eligible for something else. But the only way you can get a Social Security number is by having a work authorization card. And so in order to apply for I.D. or a license, a regular license, you have to have those two things. The TVDL is separate. Most consulates have some kind of I.D. so you can get what's called a metricula, from the Mexican consulate. Your first thought is if that's all I have, I'm already identifying myself as a noncitizen. So you may not -- you may not want to take it out of your wallet if you get stopped, but you still may want to have it for I.D. for other purposes. Does that answer your question? >> Phone: I think so but for the temporary driver's license I have a rule of thought, it's not something that you would tell most people go ahead and get one, especially if you're going to be driving or really -- you're concerned -- something that you're concerned that that information might be shared with DHS? >> LISA: We're not concerned at this point that it will be. And we are suggesting that some of our clients do get it. >> Phone: Okay. And my other question, just to clarify, the difference between a search warrant versus an arrest warrant, would you just state that one more time in terms of being allowed to come into the house? >> LISA: A search warrant has to be issued by a judge to search the specific premises for a specific person. An arrest warrant is -- I mean, a judge can issue an arrest warrant as well. But for purposes of immigration, an arrest warrant is generally an administrative warrant issued by ICE. Through U.S. Department of Justice. And that is not sufficient to enter somebody's house. >> But an arrest warrant can be issued by a judge and still not sufficient. To enter someone's house. >> LISA: Right. Right. >> AMANDA: I think the important thing is that if they want to come in your house, the warrant has to say they get to come in the house. >> LAURA: An arrest warrant can let you into a house I think if there are exigent circumstances. But that would be the exception. >> AMANDA: Right. >> BARRY T.: We got about ten more minutes. Any more individual questions before we look at the FAQs? >> How long is the temporary visitor driver's license good for? Is it functionally the same as my driver's license? >> LISA: I don't think it's as long. >> AUDRA: No, I think -- >> LISA: Maybe two years. I'm not sure. But it's not as long as the regular driver's license. >> LAURA: I had a question. I've had clients in the past who did not have legal status but were -- you know, paying taxes and...in communication with the IRS and historically I think there's not been communication with the IRS. And other government agencies. The IRS is happy to take your taxes, regardless of your status. And I just was wondering whether you thought there was going to be any change in that regard. >> LISA: No idea. No indication. >> LAURA: Okay. >> LISA: Whether people are going to file now is probably the question. So if you don't have a Social Security number, you can get what's called an ITIN, an identification number specifically for filing your taxes. You apply for that with the government. And then you use that as your number instead of your Social Security number. So that's the basis by which a lot of undocumented individuals, they use that to file their taxes. Whether people are going to stop doing that now because they think the information's going to be shared is a question I don't know the answer to. My guess is no, that they're not going to share that information. But we -- there's no indication from the current administration that there's an expectation that something will occur for undocumented people who are filing taxes. But we just don't know. >> LAURA: And I was just curious about this. I had just read that actually there had been a big increase in deportations in the Obama Administration as compared to the Bush administration. Is that true, or -- >> LISA: Yes. That was true. So the highest level of deportations so far have been under the Obama Administration. And I believe it was up until -- it was over 400,000. And I believe it was the last couple of years of that administration where it went down to 200,000. Where they narrowed the priorities and -- there was a lot of, you know, there was a lot of criticism of that. So they narrowed the priorities, so it went from 400,000 to 200,000 in the last couple of years. But that is correct. And there were -- you know, there were raids of places of employment as well. It's not typically under the Obama Administration, it wasn't typically a raid like we saw in Postville, Iowa under the Bush administration, but the increase in employer audits by ICE, which is sort of the way a raid takes place now, that rather than surround the place and sort of arrest everybody or ask everybody questions, it's generally ICE notifying a particular employer that they're going to audit their documents for purposes of looking at the proof of eligibility for employment. And it's through that context that individuals are arrested at work. So we think we're going to see an increase in those kinds of ICE audits. But there were -- the highest number of deportations was under the Obama Administration. And remember, a deportation can count as somebody who is arrested inside the United States and placed in front of an immigration judge and ordered deported and removed. But many deportations happen on the border. So if you're stopped on the border and you're arrested and processed, that's called expedited removal, that's also a deportation. And many, many, many deportations are those types of deportations. So both court deportation and border returns can be considered removals for purposes of those statistics. >> AUDRA: We pulled out a couple questions. These are also included on the FAQ page along with some more in-depth detail. But this one kind of dovetails with the IRS question on if ICE is using information on an immigration application to then turn around and deport people. And these questions and answers are formulated by ICE serve, the people that also did the list of organizations and attorneys. So like Lisa said in the past, administrative programs have not been used for deportation programs. But because this administration so far has been a little less predictable on what their policies will be in the future we encourage clients to get screened and talk to an attorney to see if they have any personal details that might flag a possible problem with immigration. Which would be a felony conviction in the past, a past removal, any significant misdemeanors like a DUI, DV, firearm conviction. Any past arrest by immigration or any past final removal orders. Those would be factors that might heighten your risk. But as of right now administrative program information is not used for deportation. And we get a lot of questions about people wanting to travel. Especially if people want to get advanced parole, which is kind of advanced permission to travel or leave the country from immigration this is an area where we're definitely encouraging people to speak to an attorney before they go, of course, and because anyone traveling with advanced parole is always at some risk for not being allowed to reenter the United States, which that might be a little higher of a risk at the moment. So that's a hot topic and an area where you definitely need to speak to your immigration attorney before you leave. And then we have questions from lawful permanent residents being concerned that president Trump will deport them even though they have some kind of status. So under current immigration law LPRs can be deported only based on certain grounds. So if you come across a client who is a permanent resident, which means they have their green card, but they traveled outside the U.S. for longer than six months they have a criminal charge or conviction, or if they registered to vote or voted in an election, they need to speak to an attorney because those are all grounds that might flag them for an immigration problem. And then last, I kind of already went through this, that if a person is undocumented, no protections, no DACA, are they at risk for deportation. And so those are the same grounds that a person should seek legal review if they have a conviction, misdemeanor, DUI, minor traffic offenses, multiple of them, or any final orders that they should speak to an attorney. And then reminder to get screened for the temporary visitors driver's license. There are many more questions on that form. If you go through it and have more questions after or if you have a specific client situation you want to talk to one of us about, we have our cards and Barry has our contact information. So...I know a lot of these situations are very fact-dependent. So everyone always has like a special situation that you want to talk to someone about. But this is some general information that's hopefully helpful as you encounter client questions. So you at least know where to look to start. >> BARRY T.: All right. This has been incredibly helpful. Thank you very much. Please join me in... (Applause) >> BARRY T.: I had a couple housekeeping issues for folks, if you could hang for one second. One is if you want CLE, and you didn't sign in, make sure you sign in. Those on the phone, you just need to email me at Barryt@ and we'll take care of your certificate. Please fill out an evaluation for us to remain CLE providers, we need evaluations. Complete that and turn it in. And those on the phone will be sent your evaluation. The next two meetings we're going to have we're going to have one on April 26th, and we're going to have a person talking about human trafficking. And topic that came up today. We have an equal justice fellow here at Equip for Equality. Lydia Sharp, who is doing a project on that issue. And she's going to bring in some colleagues that she's been working with to educate us on that issue. And on May 31st, the Wednesday after Memorial Day, the 5th Wednesday instead of the fourth Wednesday, we're going to have Marc Weber come in. He's a professor at the DePaul Law School. He is an expert on special education law. He's going to give us sort of special ed year in review. And that will include two special ed cases that are before the Supreme Court this year. In fact, one was decided as this presentation was going on. Favorably for -- it appears for the person with disability. Andrew F. So it will actually hopefully be an uplifting presentation. Sometimes we're always talking about the bad decisions that come out. At least a couple positive decisions have come from the Supreme Court. On -- in the special ed realm. That will be helpful to know. We'll let you know about other presentations in the year as we get those scheduled. So again thanks very much for coming and we hope to see you back soon. -END- * * * This text file was produced for Communication Access Realtime Translation (CART) at an event viewed by (a) person(s) with hearing loss and is for the sole and exclusive use of the specified consumer(s) only. The file has been roughly edited but has not been proofread nor is it verbatim or a legal transcript. * * * ................
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