Source: The StarTribune

ILCM was recently quoted in a StarTribune article about the rise of citizenship applications in 2016. 

Nationally, the number of naturalization applications shot up by 13 percent in the first few months of this year, compared to the same period in 2015. In the Minnesota field office, where data includes North Dakota, South Dakota and western Wisconsin, applications have surged by 12 percent in that period.

Read the full article here.

Source: Star Telegram

This morning, the Supreme Court issued a 4-4 decision in United States v. Texas, the case challenging expanded Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) and Deferred Action for Parents of Americans and Lawful Permanent Residents (DAPA). Given the tie, the lower court decision will stand, and the new programs will remain blocked by a nationwide injunction.

The 2012 Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program, which was not challenged by the lawsuit, will continue. Learn if you, a friend, or family member qualify for DACA here.

ILCM, along with many allies who recognize the benefits of expanded DACA and DAPA, is disappointed by this news. Personal and family stories remind us of how much the United States has to gain by improving national immigration policies.

Despite this setback, advocacy around programs like expanded DACA and DAPA, as well as comprehensive immigration reform, won’t stop. ILCM will continue working to keep families together, and to create a more welcoming and inclusive Minnesota.

Infographics regarding the Supreme’s Court decision are available in English and Spanish.

As always, individuals should continue to be aware of the rights that all of us have in the United States, regardless of immigration status. For more information, please visit our “Know Your Rights” page.

 

Strong public safety reasons support creating a license for immigrants

ILCM worked with many elected officials, allies, partners, and other leaders to create a two-tiered REAL ID compliant system in Minnesota in 2016. First-tier licenses would be compliant with all federal purposes, such as boarding an aircraft and gaining entrance into federal facilities. The second-tier license, as contemplated in the federal REAL ID act, allows for a state to create a “state-only” license for those who do not wish to share their personal data with the federal government, those that do not intend to use it to board aircraft, and for the state to license all immigrant drivers.

During the 2016 session, we successfully repealed the 2009 state prohibition on REAL ID planning and passed the two-tier system in the Senate. Unfortunately, the House legislation specifically included statutory language to prohibit undocumented Minnesotans from obtaining a driver’s licenses in the future. This would have codified the prohibition in statute for the first time in Minnesota history, leading to a conflict with the Senate and the Governor’s office.

While REAL ID stalled on the last day of the 2016 session, it is important that the process to obtain drivers licenses for all immigrants did not take a step backwards during this process. Strong public safety reasons support creating a license for immigrants to allow them to pass driving tests and obtain auto insurance. There is still time for Minnesota to resolve REAL ID, as Homeland Security has granted a continuing extension of current licenses for boarding aircrafts into 2018. ILCM will continue to work with all partners and leaders to resolve both issues in a timely fashion.

Source: The Politic

The Supreme Court will soon determine the constitutionality of President Obama’s 2014 executive actions around immigration, likely by the end of the week of June 20th or the beginning of the week of June 27th. 

 

In November 2014, President Obama announced a series of administrative actions related to immigration. One proposal expanded the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program for unauthorized youth who had entered the United States before the age of 16, and a second action, called Deferred Action for Parents of Childhood Arrivals (DAPA), would defer the deportation of certain parents with children who are U.S. citizens or Lawful Permanent Residents (LPRs). The implementation of DAPA and expanded DACA is currently stalled pending a decision by the U.S. Supreme Court. The original DACA program will remain in effect, regardless of the upcoming decision.

 

ILCM joins with 136 law professors in asserting that President Obama’s executive actions were within the legal authority of the executive branch. ILCM, along with many other organizations nationwide, have advocated for the Supreme Court to accept the case and subsequently to side with the President’s position in an amicus brief.

 

If the Supreme Court does allow the expanded DACA and DAPA programs to move forward, as many as five million parents of U.S. citizens or permanent residents and DREAMers could obtain temporary protection from deportation and apply for work permits. Data from ILCM’s Deferred Action clients demonstrates the impact of DACA on immigrant lives: Seventy-percent of DACA recipients obtained a new or different job, almost three-quarters were making more money than before, and percentage increases of individuals with a bank account, healthcare, and government IDs were 25% and 50%, respectively. In addition, 88% of DACA recipients reported securing a state identification card, and 63% reported securing a driver’s license. Overwhelmingly, DACA recipients report the sentiment that “Now, I feel like I belong.”

 

Pictured (left to right) is John Keller, Senator John Marty, Monica Hurtado (Voices for Racial Justice), Maureen O’Connell (Health Access), Sarah Greenfield (Take Action), Jonathon Watson (MN Association of Community Health Centers), Emilia Avalos (Navigate MN) and her daughter, Miranda

Beginning in the fall and continuing through January of 2016, ILCM, along with Take Action Minnesota, Health Access MN, Voices for Racial Justice, SEIU Healthcare, Navigate MN, ISAIAH, and the Safety Net Coalition attended dozens of meetings and invested at least 300 collective hours into the newly created Minnesota Health Care Financing Task Force. The Task Force identified barriers to health care equity as well as solutions to address them. The final package of recommendations to Governor Dayton and the legislature are available here. The Governor’s 29 member Task Force, including health care industry and academic experts, elected and appointed officials, and advocates from labor and community groups, overwhelmingly approved our top health care recommendation to create a new coverage eligibility program to provide access to health insurance to everyone in the state, regardless of immigration status.

The recommendation (number five in the report) aims to provide access to health care coverage for uninsured, low-income individuals who do not have access to Medical assistance, Qualified Health Plans, and MinnesotaCare because of immigration status. It predominantly includes undocumented persons, but also those with lawful status such as DACA (their status precludes them from coverage by state/federal health insurance regulations). By creating a new coverage program, the state will also reduce the use of emergency room visits by the uninsured, using health care dollars more efficiently by improving access to routine and preventative care. Reducing health care disparities in Minnesota requires the state to provide affordable coverage to undocumented immigrants: about 90,000 undocumented immigrants reside in Minnesota, and about one-third have at least one U.S.-born child.

In testimony, community members shared their powerful stories, showing the importance of passing this recommendation. One community member shared his story of being a small business owner who became ill and needed an operation. He could not afford the necessary surgery both due to his limited economic means and not qualifying for health care due to his immigration status. His pain does not allow him to work as hard as he used to, or provide for his family in the same way. His small business had to let employees go—impacting more families. Allowing patients like this father, access to health care would greatly improve their ability to provide for themselves, their families, and their employees.

The Task Force’s immigrant coverage recommendation moved into legislation and had its first successful hearings in the Senate. Unfortunately, it was not given a hearing in the House. ILCM is grateful to Navigate MN’s Executive Director, Emilia Avalos, for providing some of the most powerful testimony of the session to educate and persuade senators about the importance of this equity-creating health initiative. ILCM and many of our partners are committed to continued advocacy for health care equity.

Pictured is John Keller, Executive Director of ILCM 

ILCM attorneys John Keller, Sheila Stuhlman, and Julia Decker, along with attorneys from The Center for New Americans and a pro bono team from Faegre Baker Daniels, won the 2015 Minnesota Lawyer Circle of Excellence award. This award recognizes all of their hard work in securing a victory in the Supreme Court which will help protect thousands of people from deportation because of unjust paraphernalia convictions.

Moones Mellouli, a math professor at the University of Missouri, was deported in 2012 due to the possession of drug paraphernalia; several adderall pills were found in his sock. The U.S. Supreme Court ruled the government cannot deport a lawful resident through inferences alone; instead, the crime of conviction must be a deportable offense. Nothing in the record identified the drug as a controlled substance, which would be key to the sock being considered “paraphernalia.”

Ben Casper, director of the Center for New Americans at the University of Minnesota Law School said, “it was gratifying to be able to bring some sense of proportionality to the deportation laws, which has really been lacking in recent years.” The Center for New Americans, which the ILCM helped to create, played a substantial role in fighting to advance this case to the Supreme Court.

Pictured is Mirella Ceja-Orozco, an ILCM pro bono attorney 

ILCM, in partnership with the Volunteer Lawyers Network (VLN), recently launched a new pro bono project, the Family Unity Self-Help Clinic. Volunteer legal staff provide legal advice and brief services to low-income immigrants and refugees in Minnesota regarding family petitions and immigrant visa processing. The goal of the clinic is to provide the most holistic legal services available in a clinic format, including comprehensive legal screenings, general education about the family reunification process, bilingual pro se materials, identification of alternative forms of reliefs for clients, on-site brief services, and placement for full representation where possible.

Services relating to family reunification represent one of the most frequently requested services for immigrant and refugee communities, but due to limited funding, legal aid offices are often not able to meet those needs. The Family Unity Clinic was developed as a first step to increase access to services in this legal area, and to support immigrant families in Minnesota. Family Unity Self-Help Clinics are held every six weeks, and alternate between the ILCM St. Paul office and a location in Minneapolis overseen by VLN. Clients may contact ILCM’s intake line to register for clinics.

ILCM’s new office location in Moorhead, Minnesota

ILCM is excited to announce the opening of a new office in Moorhead, Minnesota, and the addition of Martha Castañon to ILCM’s legal team at this office. This expansion is made possible by funding from the Blandin Foundation and the State of Minnesota Office of Justice Programs. Martha brings more than 35 years of experience in immigration law to ILCM. As a life-long member of the Moorhead community, Martha has witnessed the changing demographics of Moorhead as immigrant groups arrived: During the 1970s, the area saw the growth of the Latino community, and in the 1980s, increases in Hmong, Vietnamese, and Cambodian populations. Over the years, Bosnian, Somali, and Kurdish populations in Moorhead have also expanded as these groups were granted refugee status and resettled in Minnesota.

 

ILCM’s new Moorhead office location increases access to comprehensive immigration legal services for low-income immigrants and refugees across Northwest Minnesota, especially as these groups seek legal assistance with citizenship, DACA, immigration relief for victims of violence, and family reunification. The office is also an important resource for the community as new immigration programs are announced, as geographic limitations often prevent immigrants in rural areas from accessing accurate information.

 

As a legal staff member of ILCM, Martha enjoys her work because she witnesses her clients’ ability to participate more fully in their communities, particularly as they gain access to worker’s permits, driver’s licenses, and social security numbers. These gains are life-changing for the immigrants and refugees of northwest counties, and their advancements directly improve local-level governments and communities, as well as the broader state of Minnesota.

Source: Commondreams.org

On November 20 and 21, 2014, President Barack Obama announced a series of administrative reforms of immigration policy, collectively called the Immigration Accountability Executive Action. The centerpiece of these reforms is an expansion of the current Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) initiative and the Deferred Action for Parents of Americans and Lawful Permanent Residents (DAPA) initiative for the parents of U.S citizens and lawful permanent residents who meet certain criteria. Together, these initiatives could provide as many as 5 million immigrants with temporary relief from deportation. Moreover, DAPA and expanded DACA is expected not only to keep families united, but also to increase U.S. gross domestic product, increase tax revenue, and raise wages.

Read more from the American Immigration Counsel here.

Source: Minnesota State Bar Association

This April, ILCM’s Associate Director Melissa Pfeiffer was honored at the 2016 Minnesota State Bar Association’s annual Bernard P. Becker Awards.

These awards are presented to attorneys, paralegals, administrators or other staff employed by a private, nonprofit agency that provides legal services to low-income and disadvantaged eligible clients. Recipients must have a demonstrated commitment to provision of zealous and skilled legal representation for low-income and disadvantaged clients.

Congratulations, Melissa!