Transcripts For CSPAN Immigration System And The Hispanic Community 20140419

We represent the interests of the latino professionals in this country. At the regional level we collaborate very closely with the associate Bar Association in d. C. , maryland, and virginia, and as ive mentioned, i am still searching for a West Virginia contact. We do a tremendous amount of programming at the local level. One of which is we will have a judge in in honor of a baltimore, recently appointed to be a Circuit Court judge. That makes five judges within the state of maryland. Obviously a tremendous amount of work left to do. You are invited to attend. That reception will be in baltimore. Flyers are in the front desk area were the materials are. In addition, we have partnered with the bars of maryland, d c, and virginia to create an attorney director. It will be a publication that will encompass all latino attorneys or attorneys that speak spanish as well to serve, to be listed on the publication as a resource for the community not only the community as a whole, but the Legal Community as well. All right. Thank you very much. I will be around. Hopefully you will be able to participate in the national convention, which will be occurring september of this year. That will be in d. C. The convention will take place september 12 and 13th. I encourage all of you to attend and to participate. And obviously, thank you for being here as well. Good afternoon. My name is david krum. Good to see you all here. A lot of what the maryland hispanic heart does is partner with latino groups in maryland to help out the Latino Community. We partner often with groups in maryland. There was recently a maryland state Bar Association group that with local immigrant populations to further educate visas sohe u and v they could become a committed here in the United States. Also maryland passed in january of this year a law allowing those who are undocumented to obtain driver licenses, which are very important, certainly in maryland. Licensor lawsthe changed, i myself saw so many people targeted for driving without a license, while oftentimes what they would do, ipecially in frederick, and spoke to panel us this same 7g contact where local authorities would have the ability to get paid by the federal government to house tgnes for immigration purposes. What the local authorities would bondhey would set a high on a normal drive without license case, where you really shouldnt have even been arrested really. 2500 bond, long enough for immigration to put a detainer on them. Then they are never getting out. What we try to do is educate the local Latino Community, which in Montgomery County and Saint Georges county prince very limited,y is to educate them on these opportunities. And we also partner with local Bar Associations. For example in Montgomery County, we have a local pipeline scholar where we try to get more latinos involved in the local Bar Associations and partner with large law firms to afford them the best avenue for the best Career Opportunities in Montgomery County. I will stick around, so if you have any questions, please come talk to me. Thank you. Good afternoon. I am Claire Guthrie gastanaga. I have the privilege as serving as the executive director of being the executive director of csl u virginia. Moderator today. I will give short introductions to rid then we will get the content out in front of you. The aclu and are nationally and worked very hard for equal rights for immigrants. From our perspective, immigrant rights are civil rights and were happy to be in the forefront in many states, including virginia and arizona and other states where there has been a great deal of negative activity, you might say. Helping and we have a very active board or Program Staff regionally in the southwest. Usere very involved in the situations. Our discussion today will be about what is happening in our communities because we do have a broken immigration system that does not seem able to get fixed. Our first speaker will be mr. Juan osuna. Fors the executive director immigration review at the u. S. Justice department. As such, he oversees the Immigration Court system around the country. More importantly for this panel, he is the Justice Departments representative to the process and the executive branch involving the white house and federal agencies to get comprehensive Immigration Reform passed in congress. He will be speaking today on the current state of conference of Immigration Reform legislation, why it is important today, how it would affect the Hispanic Community and others, and our prospects for progress. He also will discuss some of the initiatives the Obama Administration has taken apart from legislation to make the immigration system more responsive to National Needs and priorities. He will be followed by mr. Jaime farrant, the executive director agencya, a nonprofit that helps immigrants with outreach in the pc, maryland, and virginia areas. He will be speaking about the many ways that ayuda together with his clients face is the broken immigration system on a daily basis. Sometimes it unites and sometimes brings longlasting peace. Seesany other times, ayuda firsthand how it keeps families apart, at risk of harm, and in dire need of services. Will speak. Orloff she is the director of the National Immigrant womens project here at American University and is an adjunct or fester here. She is going to be speaking about the impact of the immigration system and its current rules and regulations on victims of Domestic Violence, Sexual Assault, and Human Trafficking. After she speaks, mr. Peter assad, who brings his insight both as an immigration attorney directly representing families and businesses, and his experience as the past president of the d. C. Hispanic lawyers , will talk about the attorney being the single most contribute to an outcome in these cases. Lyzkae will hear from delacruz. She is a past president of the association, District Of Columbia. And she will be speaking about the legal limbo many immigrants face, the effect on commerce, and whats the Hispanic Community can do to shape policy. She will bring reallife examples of what she has seen in her law practice and place and context the effect of the broken system on our businesses and commerce. And finally, james fergcadima, the leader of the leading latino Civil Rights Law Firm in the country, you would argue [laughter] im kidding you again. He willbe talking, bring us back to conversations about what is going on at the executive branch level in terms of immigration policy. And we will also be talking about state legislation and litigation to impact all of these issues. So, we have a lot to do. With no further ado, i will turn the podium over to mr. Osuna. Good afternoon. Thank you claire, and to the sponsors for putting this Important Program together. I am going to start a little bit on where we have been with comprehensive Immigration Reform and where we are going with some of the administrative measures the administration has taken while we wait for what is really the important fix, which is a comprehensive effects of our broken immigration system. And it is broken. A little bit about where we started on this. Really the work on comprehensive Immigration Reform started right after the 2012 elections. There was a real groundswell of recognition at the time had come, the time was past due, that the system needed fixing, so the administration really got to work right away in a very robust interagency process to try to put together some ideas on legislation moving forward. That process was pretty much overtaken by the senate. Well, you have heard many times is referred to as the gang of eight, i Bipartisan Group that took it upon themselves to put a cumbrian great said Immigration Reform bill that they could move forward. With a very quick time, the administration looked at that not and decided while it is necessarily a bill we would have written, it certainly hit all of forpresident s priorities Immigration Reform, so the administration very quickly shifted to a policy of supporting the senate bill and trying to do what we could to help establish in the senate. And of course it was very successful in the sense that the senate was able to pass the bill in a very partisan way last june. I pause for a second just to think about that process. We often hear about how washington is dysfunctional and progress, we wish more had been made in a lot of areas. But what the senate did last june with that immigration bill how washingtonof can work. Those of you watching on cspan, you saw a very open, very transparent, robust discussion. Billhe deliberation of the that led to its discussion, going to the senate floor, then being passed again by the full senate. Just to remind you, what the four big pieces of legislation are. Obviously it is a very comprehensive will. Areasre the four large that reflect why this is necessary legislation. Number one, a legalization program. Finding a solution for the 10 million to 12 million undocumented persons in this entry. No one thinks it is best to pursue a policy of massive rotation or anything like that. The senate came up with a process that is meaningful, tough, but leads to a path for citizenship for the majority of those individuals and it is something the Administration Fully supports. Numbered two, worker verification process. Agree the best way of doing this is that the workplace. With a robust and meaningful and effective verification process that can work. Details to lot of that and obviously we dont have time to go into all of what that would actually work look like. Of the the second part bill and the administration is fully behind this. Three, the Legal Immigration system the system by which we select per minute and nonpermanent immigrants to permanent and nonpermanent immigrants to the United States is not complete. There are many workers who want to come near, many students who come here who are not allowed to stay in this country. That does not make sense. The senate bill and other proposals like it would fix that problem. It also, of course, would reduce incentives to cross the border illegally. If there are avenues for them to come legally and work that takes from undocumented immigration to this country. And fourth, the enforcement these. Piece. Largely focused on enforcement at the border. A word about this. The administration has committed a huge amount of resources that the border and the board is more secure than it ever has been. Senate bill contributed to that. There are those who argue the border is not secure and it needs to be secure first. I do not think they are looking at the reality on the border these days where the resources at the border are much more than it ever has been and sets up the thee hopefully before passage of Immigration Reform. Let me add a couple other pieces to the bill that did not get a lot of attention that are important as first the Justice Department goes. They are while they are adding pure immigration equities to the debate, those of us in the Justice Department have a role to play in terms of informing on Immigration Reform to make sure it is the best he can be. One area is civil rights. Our Civil Rights Division has been very active over the last few years and the immigration area. Through the Technical Assistance we get to the senate bill, we have tried to make sure that systems like work verification, e verify, border enforcement were informed as much as possible. For example were the work verification system, we need to be very careful someone does not receive an automatic clearance right away and will not be disadvantaged in some civil rights way while the system is moving forward. That is kind of a civil rights concerned we were able to insert into the bill and have that discussion with staffers and we will continue to do so going forward. The second area i want to highlight is the immigration or system, which is what i oversee at the Justice Department in my day job. The senate bill includes very important reforms to the court system. Not only reforms that are desperately needed, but innovative counsel programs, counsel programs for vulnerable populations appearing in the court system, as well as restoring a fair amount of discretion to Immigration Judges that was taken away in the 1996 act. Our attorney general is fully supportive of that. We believe the system works best when judges have a fair amount of discretion when someone is appearing before them. These senate bill takes us at least part of the way to restoring some of that discretion. Regarding the process forcir, of course you know it is before the house of representatives. It is up to Speaker Boehner and the Leadership Team and the house to bring it forward. I remain an optimist. The white house believes there is still an opportunity to get something meaningful done this year. An optimist remain is because ultimately it is good policy. Ultimately, i think there will be a recognition, even more so than there already has been, that the system is in desperate need of reform, and the senate or Something Like it offers the best method for fixing that system. Somethink it will pass at point and we remain optimistic there will be some action on it ,his year, although admittedly it is getting more challenging as the calendar moves forward and closer to the november elections. A word real quick on administrative procedures the administration has undertaken. In the absence of immigration legislative reform and that also may be coming we have of course tried one of the things we have tried to do in the Immigration Enforcement system is to focus on priorities. If you start with a system that has too many pieces and too few resources, you prioritize. You focus on cases that should have the governments attention in the first instance and they involve public welfare, threats to public safety, serious criminal activity, things like that and try to deemphasize those cases that may involve people that do not have criminal activity. I think it has been a sustained effort we started in 2011, primarily with dhs, with regard discretionorial where dhs was exercising more discretion in terms of the cases they sought to bring to court to get removal orders. While the numbers have not been huge, they have a fair amount of cases that have been closed out. What judges tell me when i theel across the country is concept, the idea of discretion is more ingrained into the system now the new was or has ever been. I think that is the thing. It helps to focus priorities on those cases that really need to have that priority. Of course, the whole issue of priorities and making sure that certain people dont, or are not prioritized for removal received reached a high point with the deferred action for graham the president announced for individuals who may be qualified under the dream act. Childrenought here as and to have remained here ever since. Twoyearam had a period where deportations were suspended. It is coming up for renewal this summer. We will see what the administration does with that. Reviewsident ordered a of current enforcement programs to see if they could be done furtheranely and with attention to prioritization and maybe a ship there. So, dhs is conducting that review there and we will see what that results in. Finally, let me list some Justice Department initiatives that i think could bear some fruit. We will go a lot to issues of fairness and due process. Number one, we are trying to move forward and have moved forward on innovative counsel programs for proceedings that are the attained, that are mentally incompetent, are judged to be mentally incompetent, so they cannot defend themselves so to speak and Immigration Court. We are first time, appointing counsel for that small population. It is fairly significant in terms of the ground it breaks, because we have not done that before. Engaging in an interagency process with the department of Homeland Security and others to increase enforcement against socalled flybynight rios, those flybynight individuals and organizations that hurt people by promising the world and not delivering. We also have the Public Education campaign that again has been quite good across the country. Then finally as we put the bad guys out of business, were trying to make it good it easier for the good guys to step up and represent them. Were trying to make it easier for Public Interest organizations to step in and represent people through what we call the accredited Representative Program that the board of immigration appeals conducts. We hope that will have a Significant Impact in increasing capacity for immigration communities that are going through the immigration system. All of these things, of course, are not small things, but they are not the overall fix. These are things we can do to make the system a little bit better now, but really the need is significant and great for Immigration Reform legislation. I do remain an optimist. And i hope i will not have to wait too long. I do not think i will. We will see what the rest of the year brings. Thank you. I look forward to your questions. Thank you very much. Thank you. [applause] good afternoon. It is a pleasure to be here with you on this rainy day areas it reminds me on this rainy day. December, me last this conference was to take place and it was canceled because of snow. Snow wasre the gathering, Speaker Boehner had said there was widespread distrust whether the administration could enforce our law. I think the saturday before that thetor Chuck Schumer said result of the concerns that Speaker Boehner had, what hes adjusted the house do was pass the Immigration Reform bill now, but have it not start until the cymer 31st, 2017. In his words, that would solve the problem. For three more years, respectfully, i have to disagree with senator schumer. The problem. Solve we hear more and more, nothing has moved in congress of our. We keep hearing our immigration system is broken. Itsny ways, i dont think broken. As we have heard from many, the Obama Administration has deported too many individuals. It seems to be working quite well as we deport many people. Times in the new york did last april set of 2 million the partitions by the administration, two thirds involved individuals who committed minor infractions like traffic violations or no record at all. Traffic violation initiated deportations rose from treat thousand in the last five years of the bush presidency to 193,000 in the time that president obama has been in office. At the same time, those who have country illegally and has risen to 188,000. In the final years of the bush administration, more than 25 of those caught in the United States with no criminal records were returned to their native countries with no charges. In 2013, criminal charges were filed in more than 90 of those cases. , the policyppens means deported immigrants will not be able to return to the country for at least five years. If they want to return, they the face prison time in United States. So, in that sense, i do agree the system is broken. It is notse that doing what the Obama Administration has said they are going after criminals, gang bangers, people are the economy. Not after it is, not folks who are here just because they are trying to feed their families. We agree that is what we would like the system to focus on. Unfortunately, we dont see that. As for how the system is being followed, last year we had 300 68 thousand deportations in the United States. How has that impacted the Latino Community . Over 248 thousand of them are mexicans. 30,000 hondurans, 21,000 salvador is. Coincidentally, those are the biggest latino groups in the d. C. Metropolitan area. , the number of Border Patrol agents have quit drupal in the last 10 years. And with the senate ill that was was passed, itt is going for it even further jumping of asias and the Border Patrol agent. They have Mission Guidelines so they can admit more people into academy topatrol read even with that, we are calling for double more agents in the border region. That has led to an agency that in many cases operates above and outside the law and is in many cases hurting and killing individuals, including u. S. Citizens, and devastating families. All of this leads to fear in the Latino Community. The worry that any interaction with authorities will lead to deportation. Thus, many people are afraid of coming forward. When the deferral was announced in 2012, it was estimated 100 Million People would be eligible to apply for this benefit area and it is estimated at little over 521,000 people have applied in the last three years last two years. Why havent people applied . There are many reasons for that. The first one is fair. The program was launched during the midst of a president ial campaign. What was the Immediate Reaction from candidate romney at the time . If i win, i am eliminating that. If i am an undocumented person, would i give my permission to authorities at that time . Probably not. They made a conscious decision based out of fear not to come forward. People simply cannot afford to 465 in fees it costs register yourself for daca. That would be on top of the fees for an attorney. Or if you have three kids, 3 and that y 465 by 3, and that is how much it will cost you. Multiply that with the Senate Immigration bill with a fee of 1000. For many of us, that would be a price to burdensome to carry. Daca has failedn to get as many people enrolled as we probably would like is false hope in the community. Many people decided to wait for competence of comprehensive Immigration Reform. Ybe i will wait instead of paying all of this money for this. And forth, pragmatism. If i am undocumented and working in the country, why would i spend 500 bucks for a work permit i dont even need . These are lessons we should take as we enact comprehensive Immigration Reform moving forward. We see all of these aspects and the clients we serve at ayuda. Particularly fear is the most crippling one for the clients we serve. I was standing at the front desk in our office when a woman came divorcing assistance her abusive husband. She would not give me her name. She was afraid to give me her name. I asked where she lived to make sure she was eligible to receive our services, which are restricted according to the state of the person. Somewhat frightened she said, maryland. According to the regulations we have in ayuda, we could not serve her, because shes a maryland resident. I then have to ask her for her immigration status, because i want to make sure i can refer her to a place where that will not be an issue in the state of maryland. So i asked her, what is your status . She stared at me silently. After a few seconds of silence, she only said one word. Ningun. None. That information, i was able to provide her with resources she could call where that would not be a concern. However, as she left my office, i was saddened we could not help her, even though we wanted to and had professionals that could help her, and two, concerned because i dont know if she was going to be able to obtain the help she was seeking. This is just one of many cases on a regularda basis. Many of our clients come seeking relief from violence. A number are undocumented. A number come through our borders. A number are fleeing violence in their home country. As much as we would like to see a comprehensive Immigration Reform bill passed, i see we are all waiting for it. Now that we have moved to the conference to april, we are seeing some action. Last week the Congressional Hispanic Caucus met with the dhs secretary and presented him with that wouldreport affect the immigration population. Has a number of principles they recommend in the of reform. Some of them are number one, daca. This could potentially help stop families from being divided and permanently separated from her immigration system to rid however, it does not help the parents of u. S. Citizen children deported between july 2010 and july 2012. Extend deferrals to other types of undocumented immigrants. This could help one of our clients the names have been changed to protect confidentiality. Hector is undocumented and his wife maria is a u. S. Citizen. They have been married for three years and have three u. S. Citizen daughters. Hector are revives the majority of the income for the family and participates in the girls school activities. But because he entered without permission, he must leave the United States to receive legal permission to gain entry through his marriage to maria. This is very stressful for the family and their uncertainty makes them hesitant to have hector filed his case. Hector came and initially to the to the u. S. Because he was a target of Gang Violence and its home country in central america. His own country in central america. The family obviously does not and to risk hectors safety really do not want him to continue with the case. The family would benefit from one like the one being proposed by the congressional hispanic conference. Third, among the recommendations, the recommendations would allow Daca Recipients to enlist in the u. S. Military and would permit. Djustments of status for daca and finally it would also expand humanitarian recipient, mydaca parents could benefit and remain in the country lawfully. Recommends the elimination of deportations without hearings, restricted retainers, and notice for high cases0 cases priority and elimination of agency burdens that have done nothing to make our community more secure. As we wait to see how the house does with Immigration Reform, we are waiting to see how people and our latino immunity arising up. Last week we saw over 50 actions across the country going to an end for deportation. People have been demonstrating on the National Mall and at the white house advocating for Immigration Reform. The people are rising up, finally, and begging for change. We are waiting for our leaders to act, because we cannot wait anymore. We are taking action, and our leaders who keep saying the system is broken it is time to fix it if that is truly the case. But seven immigration december the 21st century that is pragmatic, accessible, and affordable for those who need to use it so they can have a chance to succeed and our country. Thank you. [applause] hi. Im leslye orloff. Abouting to talk briefly how important Immigration Reform is for immigrant women and children in this country and then i will be talking predominantly about some of the challenges and opportunities for immigrant survivors of Domestic Violence, Sexual Assault, and Human Trafficking that have come out of a series of policies issued recently. Better fix for immigrant women and children as access to Immigration Reform, but i want to talk about opportunities for improving the representation for immigrants women and kids, particularly victims of violence. So, Immigration Reform, when youre talking about immigrant women and children, immigrant women by and large receive legal status or family members. One of the things that is really and because of that they often become dependent on family members who then use them and they end up trapped in these relationships. Actviolence against women and subsequent reauthorization what isd remedies, but great about Immigration Reform is it would be available to women as an option that would help them gain status without having to go through the trial of telling and retelling their story of violence. And without having to report abuse and cooperate with Law Enforcement in those cases, which is a huge deterrent, as you might imagine, but nuclear early to victims of Sexual Assaults. Reporting rapes are quite low anyway, and for immigrant women, they are low as well. You have victims of Sexual Assault, lets in the workplace, where they do not come forward and if they do come forward, they are not willing to report, anich does not give them avenue to legal status. Anprovides immigrant women opportunity to get their own status, ideally through work. Secondly, potentially through a family member. And once they gain it, it is portable. Lost as are no longer Farmworker Women or women at a poultry plant working in abusive environments. They do not know when and if they will be able to leave and are subject to actually i was posted on a case and there was horrific abuse. We see this happening to Farmworker Women and women in the poultry industry throughout the country. So, what happens is, we talk about how Immigration Enforcement has changed over the last 10 years when i worked in the last 10 years with ayuda, i found it a Domestic Violence 1995 inre in almost all of these cases, my iients would say to me, cant. They will report me to immigration. We did not think that anyone was actually calling. No one was calling immigration. But we are seeing a rise in immigrant women being turned in, and we find that absolutely they were always called. But now there is someone sitting by the phone. Enough resources that there are enforcement agents at the phone answering these calls. That is one issue. We see this in employmentbased abuse, and we also see it and family balance cases. The perpetrators absolutely are calling to try to get the victim turned in. The good news is and i am going back to some of juans presentation there are really coming out of the department of Homeland Security in this administration. For example today, there is a Computer System that will tell us if in immigrant crime victim has filed a case, which means if her perpetrator tries to turn her in and her cases already agentsdhs enforcement are supposed to look at that system and can save there is basically a handsoff for removal. So, if victims file cases and they find out about it or even get a case filed, there is some protection against the perpetrators retaliation or trying to get her removed. What we are seeing is, how does this, . These this come up . The policies that protect isinst that, the problem the victim has to file a case. I will talk about that more in a minute. Happens is, the other issue is programs like secure theunities, coupled with Language Access being provided across jurisdictions by local is up withment, it the victims being picked up in dual arrests. For example, a spanishspeaking victim in rural nebraska will call the lease for help in a Domestic Violence incident. The police show up. They do not speak spanish. They do not get an interpreter. And do so, whats find out happened . Who do you think interprets . Cases, 10 ofse Domestic Violence, Sexual Assault, and Human Trafficking cases, the perpetrator is interpreting and no Police Report is made, obviously. In some of these cases the victim ends up getting picked up themselves as the perpetrator, lets say when he has defensive wounds on his arm. Gets toult, when she jail, her fingerprints are taken and it is sent for verification just like anyone else. She had news is, if found her way to an advocate or an attorney before and filed an immigration case, dhs is considering those fingerprints as though she were a u. S. Citizen and she gets released. Just like if local Law Enforcement picked up a citizen. However, however, if she has not filed an immigration case, she is treated as an immigrant, and theres two ways she can try to not he detained. One is telling them about the detect the Domestic Violence, and the other is telling dhs that she has children. There are policies very good policies issued by this administration that require them to screen for children of u. S. Citizens, primary caretakers, children, etc. The problem is its a challenge advocacy groups. When a woman comes into my office or your office or whatever, what of the first things to tell her in Domestic Violence cases is if there stopped, the most important thing to tell them if they have children. Under a variety of other policies, she will be released pending she is not detained and can go home and take care of her kids, and if there is an immigration case that goes forward, theres a way to go forward, but the problem is victims who have not yet filed their cases, it is harder, and it is also a problem because most of the clients that the advocates i know around the country tell this to if you are an undocumented woman, and dhs stops you for driving without a license and they ask whether you have children, and you have undocumented children, in her mind, the logical thing is to not admit that she has children. We see a dramatic difference the women who lied and said they did not have children got deported, and the women who admitted a head children and were undocumented ended up with new visas. As a practice issue, the policies can be in place, but the reality is that those of us who are advocates and lawyers have to find and act and react and get cases filed as soon as possible. It reasons a new i do a lot of training of people in the Domestic Violence movement, and i have been working the Domestic Violence Movement Since the 1980s. Those of us that our victim advocates in that movement the first thing we think about when a victim comes to us is safety, right . For many advocates, safety translates into protection orders, which used to work, kind of sort of, but the problem is if you file a protection order before you file the immigration case, the moment you serve a perpetrator with a protection order, what does he calls and turns her into dhs, so it is a real challenge. We are spending a lot of time tryingrgy and resources to train all of the Domestic Violence and Sexual Assault and victim advocates around the country to change their practices and to file the immigration case first, which sounds good, but then, the there are nots enough lawyers to file this case cases. Iled those what we are doing in the movement is trying to train advocates to screen or the cases where you have to have a lawyer, victims with prior arrests, victims who have crossed the border multiple times, but theres a lot of cases where they are pretty straightforward and actually with good resources and support from the technical we provide can actually walk and we have done it advocates in alabama, advocates in smaller communities, walked them through the filing of the cases said that the advocates can do the simple cases, and the lawyers in their community can do the difficult cases, so they are not wasting precious Legal Resources on cases that are not complex. So the issue is that there are a variety of policies out there that can work to help immigrant ourn and children and Immigration Reform will make it even better, but what happens is that it requires advocates and attorneys to be accessible and for victims to be able to access them for help because what happens is nonenglishspeaking victims some of the research we have done nationally has shown that the good news is that when nonenglish speaking victims find their way to advocates and attorneys, they get protection orders and get immigration relief, and it is successful, but many of those advocates in the protection order context over two thirds of them did not even know what a protection order was when they showed up at a program to get help. Advocates and attorneys were key to making the laws that are on the books work for immigrant survivors. One of the other places it plays out is both keeping people out of detention so they can take care of their kids and find a path to lawful permanent many crimewhich for victims is available under the law, but also, we are seeing it play out in Custody Court where you have situations where a lot of times, there are not interpreters or interpreters are provided in the wrong language, and we are ending up with two things one, Family Court Judges hearing both parties testify usually with the perpetrator represented and the victim not, trying to decide and making really bad rulings on what Immigration Law is and then basing their family court bad rulings of Immigration Law. For example, in that context, kids. Are losing they are losing custody of children because the court when he says he cannot give custody of his children, its a total lie. You can file for your children whether or not you have custody. But the judges do not know it, so we are developing material to educate judges. Arend another grad providing direct Technical Assistance to judges and family court said that they can get real information about Immigration Law and prevent the split up of families that is happening or wrong decisions that are ending up awarding custody of immigrant children to perpetrators, or in the worst case scenario, ending up with termination of her mental rights whonst immigrant parents did not have an opportunity to fully represent themselves and family court. The good news on that one is we got an amazing ruling, unanimous decision out of the Nebraska Supreme Court in the case of a woman from guatemala whose rights have been terminated, and the court ended up saying that in termination parental rights and in custody proceedings that the constitutional right to care and custody of children applies to the immigrant parents who are detained, deported, or undocumented, and the court cannot into your an exercise of comparing what the court might envision as maybe it being better to be raised as a u. S. Homeen latina child in the of nonlatina u. S. Parents rather than being at home in guatemala with their mother. Essentially, the court says that is not part of best interest determinations, should not be a comparison of culture when you have parents who may be deported home, but that parent should have the right to take their kids in a parental directive. Tries to prevent the parents from being deported if they are not high priority otherwise, and allows parents the time they need to take their children with them and get a passport in things so the u. S. Citizen child can come back later on if need the. Theres a lot happening that is good, but a lot of need for good advocacy to make those work, and Immigration Reform will make this a lot easier for women and kids generally. Thank you. [applause] as mentioned in the intro, the single most important factor in predicting a favorable for immigrants in the Hispanic Community and for any community is representation. Access to representation. What does that mean . Access to representation more than half of all persons in immigration proceedings lacked representation. More than half. And for detained immigrants, its even more than that. The available data demonstrates that immigration for respondents counsel are significantly less. Ikely to its gone as well if you worry about people who do not show up to immigration proceedings, if they have representation, they will not abscond. Also, the government thatntability office found asylum applicants who had lawyers were more than three times as likely to be granted asylum. As compared to those who did not have representation. Counsel also is important because without counsel, Immigration Courts are going to suffer under a greater burden of where Immigration Judges are explaining the rights to immigrants, and right now, if you go to Immigration Court, you go through the hearing, you ask for an individual hearing, you get a date in 2017 in a lot of instances. Perhaps that is my experience, and many other attorneys experiences these days. Its an overwhelming system where there are cases, and again, that brings up two important points. One, if you have access to representation and you increase access to representation for these individuals, you help the efficiency of the courts. Second, if you increase access to representation, you are going ofimprove their chances getting a favorable outcome. Let me tell you a story, ok . I think it is very important to try to put a face on this, to put this all in context. Actually, this case was in the washington post. It is a case of mind, my clients. Her name was marina. She is ok with the facts coming out. It was on the front cover of section b of the washington post. ,he came from el salvador speaking of the effect of current immigration policies on the immigration community. She is from el salvador, and she came in because of a situation of abuse. She came in at age 16. Is hard to impugn at intent on someone so young who was escaping abuse. She comes into the country, and she gets access to a notario, readily available. Notario says to fill out an asylum application. She thinks that that is going to get her legal status. When the asylum application is denied, she gets a notice to. Ppear in court she has good intentions and absolutely does appear in court. What happens when she does appear in court . They tell her its her privilege to go get an attorney, and they will reschedule the case. It is not a right at the expense of the government, but they will afford that time to obtain. Ounsel unfortunately, the ina itself in the supremecourt court, first of all, said immigration proceedings are civil in nature and not criminal. Thatna itself also said you are allowed counsel, but where the right government must pay for that to the, but she goes hearing, and they give her a chance to get an attorney. Hen she comes back she could not get an attorney that she could afford, and , thelly, the case file prosecuting attorney, the government attorney did not have the case file, so the judge said, we will give you another chance to get counsel, give you more time. , and she has a notice again that says, we are rescheduling your appointment because of schedule conflicts. So they reschedule her appointment. And she never hears back. That doesnt make sense she never heard back. I will explain that in a moment. She does not ever go back to immigration proceedings, but she does file a cps application. How do i know all this . I filed a freedom of information act request that diebold a lot of information about her case. It is something that an attorney would do. , she getsead 10 years , andd over on her way home she has a broken tail light. , where aink about 287g situation where it empowers state and local authorities to look into immigration violations. In this situation, when she was pulled over, the officer looked at her information in the record and found that she had a warrant for deportation. Why . Because 10 years prior when she did not go to court, she actually there was a notice, but she did not receive it erie it she did not go to court to cuss she did not receive that notice. , youyou dont go to court are ordered deported in absentia, so she had an order of deportation without full due process. She had to u. S. Citizen children at home, and they took her to detention. School for at the two u. S. Citizen children trying to figure out where the mother is. A Neighbor Calls me, an immigration attorney and asks if i can help. She is in detention. Or obstaclesrriers to representing someone in detention is transfer. A lot of times, they transfer individuals from one place to another, one detention facility to another. That is probably the greatest barrier. Hasdepartment of justice been doing a lot, the administration has been doing a lot. One of the things they have been doing is trying to improve the transfer policy where there is an attorney who has a g 20 84 representation of the individual. In this situation, had that policy existed, perhaps she would not have been transferred so much. Also, another policy that the administration in the last couple of years has done quite well is also improved another barrier, which is finding the person and how do you find a person . You get on the phone and just . Alling ice they have an online locator and youor detainees, can access that online right now by going to the website, and that is another administrative fix. There are administrative fixes that are very, very important and things that can be done, but it was not done at the time. So the Neighbor Calls me. We tried to locate her. We discover also another fact she is pregnant. She is in detention, and she is pregnant. This is another policy that has changed recently where they are trying to give prosecutorial discretion and perhaps in situations where the mother is pregnant with a child, that is a situation where there is a health concern. It is also a family unity concern. Family unification is something that we really need to preserve as a foundational aspect of any Immigration Reform. I have to hurry up deliver faster. I will tell you a little bit more about the story because it is very important and im sure you want to hear the end. Speeding up a little but, the we well, we tried to represent her, and we also get her case before the washington senatord when it did, a read her case, read the article, i should say. After reading the article, he called me. To be honest, i dont know how they got my phone number, and it was my cell phone, but i get a phone call on myself saying, this is senator soandso. How can i assist . I tell him to call the director of ice and get her out. This was right before christmas. The director of ice, and she gets out the next day on an ankle bracelet. This brings up another very important point. Alternatives to detention there are alternatives to detention. There are ankle bracelets. That is virtual detention, where you can be at home. Youre not going to be abused or stuck in a detention facility where there are health risks and family unification where you are tearing families apart. We have not gone far enough with alternative detention. Try toe of you wants to do more research, get more data, try to put it out there, educate the public about alternatives to detention, that is something that would be very important. I just want to speed up so we can get to the end of this story. Sorry, it is a very long story. What happens is that she gets out. Thats a great part of this story. Through the request, through an attorney helping her in the case. What we did not notice in the request from the government, that there is a notice in her is still sealed. It is an envelope that says return to sender sender unknown and it was her address. It went to her address, but it was returned by the post office, so it was actually never received by her. Through an appeal, it gets remanded, and the case gets reopened. But now we need relief, right . How do we get relief for her . Ps, but the window is closed in that file, we find something re. E another gem in thei when she did apply back in the day, there was a request, and then there was a change of address request. There was a request for evidence for that tps that was sent to her old address, and there is proof that there is a change of address before the government sends a notice of a notice for the request for evidence, so it was ever by the ins. We got the ability to say to get her case reopened. Conclusion, she has tps today. She is back with her family in legal status. There are barriers to representation. The importance of representation and the importance of effective tried to point those out in a story that i hope is helpful. Certainly, the current immigration policies affect the Hispanic Community in very significant ways. Thank you. [applause] thanks. I wont spend too much time since i want to make sure i give jim a lot of time to sum up and tell his points, but i just want , overall, as you heard from all of our panelists, there are a lot of roadblocks and barriers. Although there has been a lot of progress in terms of this administrations policies, there are still a lot of roadblocks and barriers. All of this has an effect on our economy. Youve all heard the numbers, so i will not repeat them about not only in the numbers, but the economic figures of the Latino Community in this country. With deportation, with people not having the ability to work, it is costing us millions if not billions of dollars. This touches that upon is because we are supposed to focus on the Latino Community is the specifics and something that we tried to sort of look into is the specific issue that this raises for the advancement of latinos in this country. Not only to raise their children, their families, and live a healthy, happy life and the pursuit of happiness and all that, but also advancing professionally, no matter what their career level, whether they are extremely highly educated or do not have a degree, skilled workers. That is something that this country promises to all, and we are not necessarily keeping our promises of the American Dream in that regard, saw wanted to focus a little bit on sort of the economy and professions since a lot of my practice is in business or business administration. I wanted to point out a few quick facts. For folks who do have some sort of prospect in terms of visas coming here and things that really have helped make this country the great country that it is today in terms of. Mmigration we have especially in this area, we have the nih. We have people who come here including from latin america there are barriers for them as well. If they need to go home, if they need to attend an important conference, something vital for the advancement of their careers. The policies to date make it very difficult for them. We have individuals who will not leave, cannot leave to attend these important conferences. If there is something happening at home, they cannot leave. Addition, there is also the issue of persons who are married , andho have families because of their careers, they need that other income from that spouse or that family member. For some of these visa categories, thats not possible. That is Something Else that, yes, obviously, these are the individuals who are in a better place than some of the individuals we have heard about tonight, but all of this, again, takes a toll on our economy and affect the advancement of our community as well as many other immigrant communities. I also wanted to point out that it is very difficult for a lot of these folks, especially latino businesses that tend to be small businesses, and it is hard for them to obtain visa types. Do not work for a large multinational, its very hard because visa categories are very limited. I think we do not hear about when there are no options for family members or, say, in the sense of not visas but the other types of immigrants we have heard of here that are married say if they are married to a u. S. Citizen or resident some of them are choosing to go back to their home countries and starting their businesses there. We are seeing a lot of that, and that is taking a toll on the economy. In some extreme cases we have read about recently, the u. S. Is renouncing citizenship, and we no longer have that tax base. That is obviously small, but a growing number, so that is going to take a toll on our economy. But the news is not all bad. I just wanted to touch on a few points from some of my colleagues. Bviously daca the jury is still out. We have not had enough people applying. I wanted to tell you about a success case in my office. A young, promising individual appointed by the governor of the state to various boards and commissions. In the normal political environment of the past, he would have been a prime candidate for a private bill because he is just an amazing individual, but, you know, that is not the normal political hasronment of today, but he applied and received it, and he can work now. It is something that a lot of immigrants it just makes a complete difference in their it is still legal limbo. If we dont get comprehensive Immigration Reform, we dont know what it is going to lead to. It is sort of creating, i believe it will create a secondclass sort of community here in the united dates because there are people who will not be able to have the path to citizenship, and they will just be stuck in this legal limbo forever, and thats not necessarily the type of environment that we want to create. I just flew in from germany last night, and they had in their Immigration Laws they actually there are a lot of people who absolutely cannot ever have a path to citizenship, and if that is something that we want to create here, we are issue thate the same we see in certain communities in sort of, and underclass of people who are their ownregated in communities that are not sort of considered part of society in those countries. The ramifications for society there are terrible. Up, i want top it just take a few minutes about what you can do. When i was president of hpadc, i what anso much about organization like that can do. Our current president is here. The goal and mission is to not justno latino lawyers, but the Latino Community and to educate the Latino Community, and that is something that is vital as many of my colleagues and i have said. Without education in the community, people will not come out of the shadows. People will be too scared. People will not know their rights. I urge all of you to get. Nvolved there is something that everyone in this room can do because you are very privileged in terms of the opportunities that you have our, and it is definitely responsibility to do this for our community and to help advance them and to advocate for them. Community education is key. Like peter mentioned, alternative to detention. I doubt many immigrants know about that. But like women telling the authorities that they have children. All of these things the community does not know about. It is up to you to try to spread the word, and you can do it through these organizations. As a Public Service committee, and that is the essence of what they do. Again, good advocates and the facts is what will help our immigrant community, and it is , those of us in this we bringmake sure that that out and that our community is helped. Thank you. [applause] good afternoon. First off, thank you to all the local hispanic Bar Associations and to wcl for pulling the conference together. I would like to provide a connective thread through what everyone has offered before, to point out why this is truly an important issue for the Latino Community, both those of us here and around the country that have long licenses and for those of us that care and advocate in other ways, so let me make that case. We are a Legal Defense fund, and we advocate on behalf of the Latino Community, including citizens and immigrants. When we look at the immigration side of what is needed for our community, we have to use high impact models that include litigation, that include legislative and regulatory reforms, so let me walk you through some of those interesting choices, these interesting opportunities we have on the horizon before us in the days and weeks to come. Thee is a clear reality for Latino Community. We live in mixed status families. Forget about the numbers. We make up the greater share, the 11 million undocumented in this country. Forget about the numbers, that we make up 97 of the 2 million who have been deported recently. Forget about those numbers. What really matters is that we live in communities and families that is mixed status. Some of us have papers. Some of us are citizens, and many of us do not have any form of immigration relief. What does that mean . Nearly one in four latino families citizens and noncitizens included no someone personally that has been removed or deported. That is one in four of us. This is not political. This is personal. This immigration debate and the choices and what we ask of the executive branch and of congress is extremely personal to every hispanic in this country, and that includes voters. Lets take a look. We have this interesting debate moving where we are being lead by our young people. Dreamersted students, the potential beneficiaries of the dream act that has been pending in congress for over a decade have outshined us all. They been using every social media. They are undocumented and unafraid, and they are organized and leading movements. They are leading the discourse. They are leading the moral argument behind Immigration Reform, and they pretty much are broken into two camps this is an interesting, stark choice in front of us. Ntwait versus notonemore. People on a Hunger Strike in front of the white house putting pressure on the administration to do more administratively. What i offer is we dont need to pick one or the other. We have work to do both in front of congress and in front of all executive Branch Agencies to do better, including our court system, so lets talk about some of what was offered before. I agree that we should be optimistic. Optimistic for and cautious at the same time. Our window is narrowing. In on every detail of every piece of the 1200 pages that was the senate bill. We looked at all 300 amendments, every line, every comma, and we weighed in. We were our own best advocates. We try to get the best bill we could. The bill is not perfect. The bill is tangible and sizable. What do we know on the house side . We know there is a gang of eight in the senate. There is a gang of eight in the house. Whereas the house gang of eight, unfortunately, has broken up. They have been working quietly since 2009 trying to find consensus by partisan effort. There is a ton of legislative text that has been drafted and has not been made public. Our challenge in the days and weeks to come is to make that work product public so we can comment and critique and improve. It will not be as good as what has come through the senate, but it is something. We need something, and we need it now. We know the speaker has announced there will be no conference, so the senate bill is almost not a place where we are going to start. We have to start again with a new, fresh house bill. We look at that we have a lot of local theater. Where the senate has provided 1200 pages of text, the house has provided one page of text. A few months ago, the Senate Caucus met at a retreat and provided one page as a result. We have a sense of where we are headed in the days and weeks to come. What we do know is there is a lot of overlap between what happened in the senate and what happened or what might happen in the house. The consensus many of the points that have been stressed previously are there. What we need to pay careful attention to is outside of the four corners of that one page. Page, there is a clear call for limiting the executive Branch Discretion on migration. Thats the whole point of this debate. We need the executive branch to usely used his powers and practical discretion. We have to Pay Attention to that in the house. We are asking immigrants to admit hope ability to a civil wrong, not a criminal wrong. How we administer that due process will be a tough question. We know that the house from the house that they will have developed proficiency in english far earlier than naturalization. How we deliver Adult Education in this country will become a premium effect comes to pass. Lets talk about that the legal representation peter pointed out, the Pension Reforms many folks pointed to are not mentioned in this one page. Reforms are not present in this one page. In the role of state and local enforcement post the arizona decision of the Supreme Court will be part of this debate, and that, too, is missing in that one page. There is a lot of work ahead of us, so we have worked for congress as a community, but we also have work in the meantime with administrative relief. Let me point to an example of where administrative relief has been done right not perfect, but it is creatively done. I point to an example where different branches of the executive branch are working across purposes. The model of what is to come i think this should be applied to all the reasons people have not applied. Let me make sense of how this has and made within the agency that shows they are doing things on a daily or weekly basis to make that program better. As they learn and they get feedback from those that have applied and those that are afraid or have not been able to apply. Lets talk about it. Dhs actually is working with other agencies, which is a rarity. Thead dhs working with department of labor and the department of education on some of the tough implementation issues to get daca and probably Immigration Reform, should it come to pass. Applicants for relief will have to prove tenuous presence for some sizable amount of time. I dont know about you, but i dont keep every receipt of every transaction i do when i purchased my coffee this morning, but it hinges it comes down to the work that peter would do representing people individually comes down to proof. We have to take a look at how we think about how we prove a continuous presence. Department of education should be a plot of for creating generators. Undergrad institutions, high school. There was a daily joke requests for transcripts. One of the best pieces of evidence to document continuous presence for young people. Older adults there are some additional challenges. In school, what does that mean for specific populations . Take carean effort to of migrant students, im an affirmative effort to include Adult Education literacy programs thomas and make sure theirhe legal test demonstrably and effectively means something. Kudos to dhs for working with sister agencies in a way that sort of makes the potential program and potential relief, albeit temporary and not permanent, something that is more likely to benefit populations that could benefit to apply. The estimate we heard from on who would benefit from daca was 1. 9 million, and data shows we have roughly 500 people approved and pending an process. One of four people that in theory could apply have not. And for all the reasons pointed out. Lets talk about a program, and effort for administrative relief that is working at cross purposes between agencies. There is an affirmative parole in place of relief for dependents of those serving in if the spouse is undocumented. In theory, there is a way to provide them discretionary relief. The problem is we also have many branches of our military that have regulations that prevent the enlistment. If you are a u. S. Citizen in rolling in the navy, if you are enrolling in the marines and possibly the coast guard, technically you cannot because you are married, and under the legal constructions from the Defense Department and these military branches, you are harboring, some errors has been legally construed as harboring. Thats a problem. Theres a disconnect between belief dhs would like to afford and what its sister agencies are doing or not doing. We had the arizona decision arizonas sb 1070 a couple of years ago. We have worked alongside doj to strike down some of these antiimmigrant clone laws. Those are kind of teetering out. I quietly wrapping down. What were seeing is a new trend in cases that we as a Legal Profession, as law students need to pay careful attention to. Here is a new concern our discipline is the high court that regulates the bar. For other professions medical all the way to hairdresser and truck driver and others there is some apparatus that regulates at the state level. The question of whether the undocumented can sit for professional licenses and the question of whether those that and get acan sit professional license is now an open issue. Every single one of us in this room and watching the two use our law degrees to into those debates. Association was a collective of the undocumented law students. What we do know is when the high court of florida and the high court of california was recently confronted with these questions, they came out with a conclusion that 1996 Immigration Law federal Immigration Law construes law licenses as public benefits. I dont know about you i have never paid so much for a public in a fit. It seems counterintuitive, but that is the legal conclusion. Unfortunately, doj entered that case in a way that was not helpful. Thats another example where the executive branch is working at cross purposes with the immigrant rights movement. Lets think about it weve got to clean these up. There needs to be legislative enactment and states. California quickly passed a bill to allow undocumented graduates of california schools or california applicants sorry, applicants to the California Bar going back to get their law licenses. Florida, which just had an opinion a few weeks ago, is beginning the legislative process to address that. There is work ahead of us. We cannot think of Immigration Reform as direct representational loan. We also have to think of high impact ways we with our law licenses and those that care about immigrants can do things. We need to think of Creative Solutions. There have been some Creative Solutions put on the table. Let me think of a let me offer a few more. We need to think of ways we can create instruments, where we can create the fee for people to apply. Microlending and loans local Bar Associations. What is holding many not all, but many daca applicants back is paying that fee. We know that under property law, we can set up instruments to get money away or loan money away. There are some any applicants we have worked with and everyone here that have worked with who have a pending daca application but do not have the filing fee. Lets get creative as a Legal Profession and solve some of these. So thank you. Thank you. [applause] such colleagues have done a good job that we have been able to reserve some really good time for questions. I want to start us off by talking a little bit more about daca. In virginia, students were able to get drivers licenses because we have a statute that says people with deferred action can get licenses, but only for the time that they are legally, lawfully present, but our students have not been able to qualify for instate residency because they have not and considered by the state, at least to this point, as being. Ble to establish domicile i wondered if you all have come across other claims are examples of situations in which daca students a disadvantage even when they have gone through the process and been unable to get status authorized. The Justice Department has been very careful or the administration has been careful to stay at least until this is not a status, and that is sort of the hang up on some of this stuff. Anybody want to answer my question . I can start. I think in d. C. , we will see this happen. There was a drivers license bill passed that will take effect i believe on may 1, if im not mistaken, and it creates a special type of drivers license. It is not that all people will be able to have the same one document, so that will be an issue probably for Daca Recipients. I am personally concerned of discrimination happening when people go and carry out a drivers license that is different. Issue ofust one more concern, at least here locally. In virginia, when we did our drivers license bill that went we foughtt in 2004, off a proposal to have something that distinguished the drivers licenses of people who are here with authority but temporarily codes,ng small little like the code that says you have to wear glasses, but we were fortunate because the statute already said people with deferred action could get a license. Had not saidif it that we would not still be questioning whether daca students could get drivers licenses. , ayour question goes to daca new legal status of some sort. What does that mean . Its an issue of First Impression that does work in ways where we did have antiimmigrant electives that thattry to legislate daca frustrate in a way that frustrates its intended purpose, but it is also a way to legislate creatively where to me morenable daca than just a drivers license, for it to mean professional licensing, for it to mean other important transactions. What i do know is many sympathetic folks had that same question. What does daca mean . What can i and can i not do . We have come across this most with College Administrators. A document student last fall, now all of them have daca. Can those private grants, private scholarships can they live in the dorms those have been the questions we have been trying to put out as they pop up. That is something for our Legal Profession that we need to in affirmatively engage those that want to help. There are sympathetic allies we need to engage better. The National Hispanic state legislative caucus meets i think next week in utah where they are taking up a specific half data thing about creative ways to legislate so that daca means more at the state level. We have allies. What i would like to add to that is that drivers licenses are not only a problem for daca students. Battered immigrants, the only state in the u. S. That recognizes the documentation, so it is a huge problem. It has gotten better by the fact and between November November 2013 and january 2014, dhs got rid of the backlog. They are now processing cases to Work Authorization for six or seven months, but the point is it is a huge problem for immigrant crime victims as well, and the last thing i want to say is that the other issue we have , so it isng on another opportunity for people to think creatively a lot of kids have been crime victims. The College Administrators College Advisers and High School Advisors and all of us have an opportunity to try to inform , so those of the net qualify might want to consider coming forward about the abuse a past legal permanent residency. I think that is the key. Deferred action does not get you on the path. It just holds you in limbo. We do have the problem in the commonwealth of virginia that are notnsing laws adequate to allow people who are here lawfully even to get licenses, and thats a problem. Currently, our dmv does not accept the employment Documentation Office as evidence that you are able to be here legally. Anybody else have a comment about that . Lets go back to the deportation issue there seem to be two points of view here. That the Obama Administration is deporting people who are not dangerous to the community or people who have been convicted or even arrested on serious crimes, and yet, you hear at the same time that we are using our resources effectively and more conscientiously than that. What is really going on out there . Id like to take the first stab at that. Views of it,ferent obviously, and the new york highlighted that there have been a certain number of deportations and questions. Lets keep in mind that the real effort with regard to prosecutorial discretion of programs like that began in late 2011 and he really was trying to be implement it in 2012 and last year. It is a system that obviously has had a lot of history and a lot of momentum for a long time. To use an old metaphor, you dont switch the direction of an ocean liner quickly. I will say that just from what i have seen in the court system and a lot of work we have done, there has been a shift. There is more of an emphasis now on people that have serious criminal convictions and other highpriority cases. Is it perfect . No, because of again the ocean liner analogy, but i think that it is undeniable that generally speaking, the trend is toward higher priority cases, even though when you look at the snapshot overall for those five years, it is a much more mixed picture. Thisjust want to add that constant indications coming out that the government is stantly trying to improve for example, there was documentation gathered recently about courthouse enforcement. I was in a meeting a couple of weeks ago with the head of er at ice who basically said i think its about a month now ago, in writing someplace, not public yet, but basically, ice has changed. His wholeanged approach to courthouse enforcement, and i have agreed to only go after highpriority targets, only go after individuals, not ask any whotions or stop anybody were with those individuals are courthouses, and not do any kind of broad sweeps or anything like that like they may have done in the past. They also agreed in the same meeting to because they have training on confidentiality and not do enforcement around victims they are in the process of trying to mandate that training and enforcement offices, which has certainly been one of the things i have been looking for for a long time, so you have the thistunity in administration to continue making changes. In all honesty, those of us in the advocacy world also need to measure those in the short term, not just in the whole five years so they actually get credit for what is done, and it also gives us optimism to keep trying. At least thats the way i look at it. We will take question from the audience, so anyone who has one should wonder up to that microphone. Your question of whats going on there are those that have offered the perspective, and in some ways, i think there is something to it, that there is line agentgement or problem at dhs, and then there is a Research Problem created by congress. When we look at those who are employed at dhs, there has been interesting challenges. Every time there is prosecutorial discretion or advancement, not always, but often times, theres a suit by ice agents or dhs personnel, oftentimes represented by the secretary of kansas im not sure how that is possible, but yet, the representation in this case is mostly peter out. Ice employees are trying to stop the policies of their higherups. That is sort of an interesting management challenge, and i think thats because to the work theecretary johnson and deputy secretary. They have a lot of work to do with those carrying out these policies, so implementation and who carries this out matters. The other thing is congress we have thrown more and more money at enforcement and detention. The Migration Policy Institute released a report recently where we are spending 15 times more on removal and detention than we in 1986. Adjusting for todays dollars, thats 219 billion we have been devoting to these efforts. On we areing paying for what we have asked the budgetgress and cycles proceed year after year. You have a question . Can you speak into the microphone so we can hear you . I am a student here, and my , forion is, i guess anybody who would like to reply. My question is in reference to the prosecutorial discretion. How does this apply to unaccompanied minors who are detained at the border . Is there a policy . With that policy directive, is there more of an infants and inference on parolees . Also, you spoke about parolees to receive appointed counsel if they are not able to afford it. Is this something that is being looked at in particular for unaccompanied minors . Few things to the question, so let me take a couple of them. The issue of unaccompanied minors is a huge and growing issue, just in terms of the numbers, that we are seeing coming across the border. My understanding is that those folks those kids are actually after they are apprehended by the Border Patrol, the nonmexican children especially, are then sent to hhs, which has custody of the individuals. Then they are technically put into removal proceedings, but i do know that children are one of the priority groups for ice to look at in terms of prosecutorial discretion initiatives. It is one of the groups identified that ice attorneys and Immigration Court can actually exercise discretion to not move forward on a case, and of course, Immigration Judges encourage that were appropriate in individual cases where that happens. I also think that a lot of the may not actually end up in court forever, so the case gets closed out, and there is another avenue they move forward on. Sorry, there were other parts to your question. The other part two the question was about whether they were under consideration for the the council area is kind of peter andg because as others alluded to, we have some statutory mandates that make counsel inappointed government expenses is not there. The mental that, Competency Program i mentioned was our first effort to try to identify those small but still significant groups that go through the court system that hard for it would be them to navigate the system on their own without some sort of counsel, so that was our effort to try to at least test whether this would work for people who are mentally incompetent and see if that works, and so far, it has worked pretty well. We are looking at other groups. There is nothing yet, but we are looking at options as to what of the group is available. The senate bill, as i mentioned earlier, has a significant portion of the bill that would make very clear that for vulnerable populations, you know, the attorney general and Immigration Judges can appoint counsel for individuals, and that is that obviously is a significant signal of Congress Intent on that. Also, our attorney general, if you look at what he has testified on, he has made clear that he would like to see some sort of initiatives or programs to try to make the system a little bit easier for certain vulnerable populations including children. I can tell you that is something we are looking at very closely, and we will see what develops over the next few months. Thank you. Thank you. Is there another audience question . Over on the lefthand side . . Es good evening. I am a board member of the hispanic Bar Association of d. C. My question is to anybody who would like to take it. It strikes me that one of the points made in addition to the moral and family unification arguments on copperheads and Immigration Reform is the cost. I would like to hear any of the panelists tackle the role of private prisons in relation to the cost to our system. Thank you. And also what we can do to address that as well. Ok, i guess i have to take this one. Very good. We have a couple of things through the preparation process. We have a congressional detention bed mandate, which fosters the maximization there is an interesting space where there are major corporations that run private prisons that are making record profits. If you look at their Campaign Contributions, they donate to both sides of the aisle. Almost every one of the drivers of this immigration debate have received Campaign Contributions from the major private prisons that run these immigration beds. Circularan interesting , almost guarantee. Some of the terms of the senate bill are absolutely essential to how we treat special populations in prisons. These include transgender populations that are detained in inhumanelyor an long time. The senate bill wouldve put an end to that and create alternatives to detention but it does not truly reform this sort of funding and contributions that exist. Can i add something on the alternatives to detention . Going back to the comments he made about the ankle bracelet i did a lot of work on the immigration raid. If of the things we saw there it was incredibly important that alternatives to detention, particularly for women and children or women with children not include ankle bracelets. That is no evidence immigrant women in the u. S. Who are here undocumented are going to flee with their kids abroad. There is no reason to be giving ankle bracelets. What we saw that was really that women walkingm around with an ankle bracelet become targets for prostitution. You were undocumented and you have children and you cannot work legally to feed those children they brought in a whole bunch of other workers to replace the ones that were at the plant. They were mostly male and they started hitting on the women Walking Around with ankle bracelets. When youre talking about undocumented workers in particular, ankle bracelets are. Ot the solution it is better than detention, but it is totally unnecessary when you look at the data, especially when youre talking about errands caring for kids. Parents caring for kids. When we talk about alternatives to detention, immigration should have the same discretion to figure out whether somebody is at risk and to assess how to release them and to only use ankle bracelets when there is a risk that they willfully. That they will flee. You heard, we have three delays at least in many places around the country. We have people that dont have access to an attorney and are facing permanent separation from their country. Work in the border region and we documented cases where people were transported eight or nine times within five days. Sometimes it was done to save cost by the agency because i cant remember how many hours they have to be in order to be fed you can charge and collect money for the transfer and you dont have to spend the cost on feeding them. Documented cases of people who were being they would spend three days in detention but would have been in five new facilities and were never fed. Area of concern. There is a lack of i worked in the case of a u. S. Citizen timess deported four in three years. He was a u. S. Citizen and he kept being transported from tijuanato new mexico to and would come back in through arizona because that is where he lived. It is a huge issue. There is a bigger need to shed more light on it. There is a website for my group that tracks detainees in illinois. It shows how these people were transferred across the country. Many from illinois to texas and back to illinois. If you want to learn more about that, you can see. There are not many websites that do that. If you search for it, you will find it very quickly. I just want to say here speak directly into the microphone. I have a quick question regarding funding. Think its a significant issue. I think somebody needs to call and see who they are making donations to. I completely agree with that. The lawson is about for immigration review and whether there has been any consideration about moving resources around and funding issues for the court. We are currently in arlington significant delay. Determinations will be made in regard to placement of judges. To me, it seems significant that you could if you are living in the state of maryland, you are in the proceedings with a new year. You can guarantee that if you are a respondent who is in the District Of Columbia or in the commonwealth virginia, we will be here until 2016 at least air. On some occasions, it is sometimes helpful to buy time. Overall, there are other cases isre it seems to me that it this region in particular that requires more resources. It is a great court. But this is an issue for them. I agree. I think the issue of how long it takes to get certain cases done in Immigration Court is troubling. It is something that bothers me every day and we try to look at it. Generally speaking, the highest detainedcases were ther cases. Somebodys detained and a lot of our courts are located to try to speed it up. We have shifted more resources we have aed large number of judges and resources focused on detained cases to move this forward as quickly as possible and getting them done. That, youre not getting the huge influx of resources. That has consequences for the nondetained side of the house. The Arlington Court is a good example of that. Department recognized early on we engaged in a robust hiring process in 2010 to try to bring on a large number of judges and staff. Unfortunately, congress then engaged in sequestration. The resulting harry freezes. The result was hiring freezes. We lost a significant number of judges and we werent able to replace them because of the hiring freezes. We were looking at possibly even seizing operations in a couple of courts because it got so bad. Luckily, were not there. We got some funding and we will be hiring about 30 new judges nationwide this year. Including arlington. Well i ams as hopeful that congress will approve programs for fiscal year 2015. If you look at that request, it is a significant boost for resources for the next fiscal year. Im hopeful that we will be engaged in a twoyear hiring effort. In terms of the question of how you allocate resources, it is all done based on anticipating caseloads. Detained has been a priority. Gauge and try to get as much information as we can from ice and dhs as to what they judgesate so we can put there. It is a moving target. We do try to shift and make use of technology in a way to try to fill the gaps. It is not all about resources. I dont want to say its all about resources. Its the way of doing things that we look at to make things better. We are trying some pilot programs around the country. That have conferences shown some success. Are a big part of that. Were hopeful that the resources we got this year and next year will at least let us dig ourselves out of the whole of sequestration. Of sequestration. The University Wide Research Center in latino studies. We are launching a project looking at the health of u. S. Citizen children who have parents deported. That involves more than a quarter of a million children in the last five years. My understanding is that the senate bill included a provision reunification of families where parents had been deported. Can you comment on that . And whether it is likely that such a provision might be included in a bill that would come out of the house . Thank you. I have one page to go on. We know that the senate will be conferenced. There is no mention of that or in themote phraseology webpage page we have gotten from the house. The political odds are, probably not. We do know that the house approach to this in engagement with offices is going to be a fraction of the relief available in the senate approach. The senate approach from any estimates inside congress would not reach all of one million. The house approach might be more like 45. Whether that comes to pass or not remains to be seen. Regardless of what the congressional solution is for those parents who have been is a new movement. The parents that have been removed and the parents who remain behind our out in the political process for the young people. Whether they be citizens or not. There is a dreamer movement. Implications the will be filled in by the political actions of the mothers and fathers. They have been politically active. I dont think it is purely resolved through congressional action. There are other ways to look at it creatively and following their lead. Last word. L be the if i can add to your comment. In the letter from congress, they specifically included that. Allow for family members outside of the u. S. To reunite. The odds of that becoming reality, i dont know. It is in the letter. I want to say thank you to all of the panelists here tonight. This has been an educational evening for me. I hope it has been that way for all of you. Thank you very much for coming and for being such a good audience. [applause] a look at tomorrow mornings washington journal. We will have a discussion about creating public and private sector jobs. The Vice President of the Economic Policy institute and dan mitchell with the cato institute. Daniel, a correspondent for fox. Com will talk about what the fed might do to help stabilize the economy. Matthew with the Wilson Center talks about president putin and the chance for civil war in ukraine. Plus, your calls, tweets and facebook comments. Live tomorrow morning and every morning at 7 00 a. M. On cspan. Supreme Court Justice Stephen Breyer will talk about human rights with advocates and senior officials from the department of justice. An event cohosted by georgetown, the new york review of books and law. Enter for the rule of well have live coverage starting at 4 00 eastern time on monday on cspan. Finished al have qaeda in 2001. Our general who was there all of us think back. When we were attacked on 9 11, 3000 americans died. More americans than died in pearl harbor. We had al qaeda and we had Osama Bin Laden tracked in some mountains. We did not finish them off. Then we let him escape over the other side of the mountain because we said, that is pakistani territory. Think for a moment can you imagine during world war ii when won the battle of midway he sailed across the pacific and attacked the japanese and destroyed their fleet in 1942. Even across the International Date line. Suppose you turn back and say, that is the international we get to these mountains in the middle of nowhere and we allow al qaeda to escape . Makes no sense. Our entire country had become more legalistic. We should have gone and finished it right then. Clubok tvs book t. Lection is bing wes joined the discussion at otb. Org. Look for our next guest, luis j rodriguez. His work includes the awardwinning, always running