Las Vegas Sun

March 18, 2024

Immigration crackdown sparks commitment to help

protest

Associated Press

Nicole Castillo, 7, holds a sign while standing with her brother Diego, 4, and mother Elsa, who is originally from El Salvador, during a “Here to Stay” rally in Boston.

Concerned residents are asking for help as the effects of federal immigration policy reach Nevada.

This year, President Donald Trump’s administration moved to crack down on people living in the country illegally, and Attorney General Jeff Sessions said recently that he was directing federal prosecutors to make such cases a priority.

“People don’t know what’s going on,” said immigration attorney and AmeriCorps fellow Laura Barrera, who is working in the legal clinic of UNLV’s Boyd School of Law. “They don’t know who’s in danger of being deported and, at this point, it’s hard for us to tell them.”

Barrera said the clinic — which handles about 150 cases at a time, has a wait list and is losing a chunk of funding — was receiving more requests from community members who wanted presentations on current immigration policies. The Immigrant Workers Citizenship Project is experiencing similar demand, says Executive Director Yvanna Cancela, who is also a Democratic state senator representing Las Vegas.

“We have a lot more walk-ins coming in asking for help with their case, not necessarily citizenship,” Cancela said. “It starts with asking for information about what’s happening at the federal level, and then asking about their situation.”

In the past, Barrera says, Department of Homeland Security attorneys would use their discretion to dismiss immigration cases, such as for an asylum seeker with no criminal record. They are using that discretion less and less, she said.

Barrera typically represents children between the ages of 13 and 16 who crossed the border without a parent or guardian and are now in deportation proceedings. Her youngest client is 4 years old.

A January executive order from Trump addressed immigration as a matter of public safety.

“Many aliens who illegally enter the United States and those who overstay or otherwise violate the terms of their visas present a significant threat to national security and public safety,” the order says. “This is particularly so for aliens who engage in criminal conduct.”

Homeland Security Secretary John Kelly issued a memo in late February instituting Trump’s order and giving enforcement guidance to the department.

“Department personnel shall faithfully execute the immigration laws of the United States against all removable aliens,” the memo says.

“Kind of everyone’s a priority now, so it’s hard to tell anyone, ‘You’ll be fine, don’t worry,’ ” Barrera said.

Trump’s order sets priorities for deportation, including those who have abused any program related to receiving public benefits. Barrera says some families are erring on the side of caution and forgoing benefits for which their U.S.-born children are eligible.

“You have people just being really, really cautious,” Barrera said. “They’re just really afraid.”

Cancela says people also are concerned about how slowly their cases are progressing. She said a backlog at the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) has some people waiting as long as a year and half for their cases to be resolved.

USCIS handles about 6 million cases annually, including fiancé and asylum applications. The agency’s second-quarter report said that as of March 31, there were 4.9 million pending cases, a sizable increase from the 3.6 million pending cases at the same time last year.

“Folks are in a little bit of a limbo,” Cancela said. “It’s taking much longer to get applications completed, from filing all the way to the swearing-in ceremony.”

Unaccompanied minors aren’t entitled to have an attorney appointed for them, but they can have representation if they can afford it. AmeriCorps’ provision for this began as a result of a surge in 2014 of children fleeing gang violence in Central America. But Michael Kagan, UNLV Immigration Clinic director, confirmed in mid-June that Trump would defund that effort to provide children with lawyers.

Barrera says some of the people she trained with will lose their jobs. Donations, including $250,000 to be used over five years from the Edward M. Bernstein & Associates law firm, will help continue assistance efforts in Nevada, Barrera said.

“There’s just not enough people making donations to fund all these attorneys without the AmeriCorps money,” she said of the national outlook. “We’re really lucky here that we already had this donation and that the law school is committed to keeping us going.”

In the Nevada Legislature, lawmakers have tried tackling the immigration issue from both sides. Where one failed bill sought to protect local cooperation with federal immigration enforcement, two other unsuccessful measures would have allowed these “sanctuary” practices.

Cancela sponsored Senate Bill 223 and signed on as a primary sponsor for mirrored legislation, Assembly Bill 357. The bills sought to make Nevada a sanctuary jurisdiction, where state or local officers would be restricted from certain immigration enforcement actions.

The federal government is investigating Clark County and nine other jurisdictions suspected of not cooperating with U.S. immigration authorities, which could lead to funding losses. Sessions, during a visit to Las Vegas this month, said he was unsure whether the county fit the “sanctuary” designation. Clark County participates in the 287 (g) agreement to temporarily hold immigrants suspected of living in the country illegally.

“The political moment we were in, and continue to be in, did not allow for a proper conversation about policy and instead became a dialogue about anti-immigrant politics,” Cancela said. “There is a push to divide the country by playing immigrants as criminals, as less than everyone else in this country, and it’s going to be difficult to pass any sort of policies that protect immigrant families without having the will to break through those conversations.”

Cancela says she’s inspired by the response from the state and other groups that are committed to understanding the fluctuating policies.

“The federal policy is changing on a weekly, sometimes daily basis, which means there are a lot of unanswered questions,” she said.

Barrera said the clinic was doing more outreach for lawyers to take pro bono cases, which has been pretty successful so far. She said changes under the Trump administration had sparked interest and motivation from people who wanted to help.

“My first day of work here was actually the day before Election Day,” Barrera said. “I wanted to do this kind of work, but it took on a whole new meaning after that.”

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