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(The Center Square) The Chicago City Council and Mayor Brandon Johnson heard Wednesday from Chicago residents upset about the influx of migrants in their communities and the resources that have been allocated to assist them.

Chicago started moving some of the foreign nationals bused from the southern border to other communities throughout the city. However, some believe not enough is being done to help those whove been lived in those neighborhoods for generations.

Last month the Chicago city council appropriated $51 million for migrant services. The money comes from opioid and vaping settlement funds. However, it is only expected to last a few months.

More than 10,000 migrants have arrived in Chicago over the past nine months from the southern border.

On Wednesday, residents of Chicago attended the meeting, and several used their time to speak out against the financial resources for the migrants.

George Blakemore voiced his frustration with the handling of the situation by the city council.

Cant you see what is going on here, with these illegal immigrants and our so-called elected officials who vote against our interests? asked Blakemoore. We are not going to tell them [migrants] to go. Maybe some of you all need to go.

Last week, state Rep. La Shawn Ford, D-Chicago, said current city residents feel underserved.

What people are feeling is that the people who have been in these neighborhoods for generations, they have been treated inhumanely by the same government that is making efforts to provide good care to the asylum seekers, Ford told The Center Square.

Jessica Jackson told the council that she and others feel tricked by the handling of the migrant situation.

In the words of Malcolm X, we have been hoodwinked, run amok, bamboozled, by sitting here thinking that these Black politicians are helping us, Jackson said.

Gov. J.B. Pritzker has sought the help of the federal government to provide resources for Chicago and the migrants, which includes jobs.

I have been imploring the White House and the federal government to do two things. One is we need comprehensive immigration reform, Pritzker said. In the meantime, we ought to be allowing at least the asylum seekers that came here in the latter half of last year to now get work permits. We have jobs available for them.

The state government will also provide $43 million in taxpayer funding to care for the migrants as a part of its fiscal 2024 budget.

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Chicago residents speak out against amount of resources going to ... - Heartlander News

Coloradans are about to enjoy the bounty of the summer: Rocky Ford melons, Palisade peaches, and Olathe sweet corn.

But the farmers who grow that produce have a big problem. There just arent enough workers.

I cannot find domestic workers who want to work seasonally at any price, said David Harold of the Tuxedo Corn Company in Olathe. He and his father grow a variety of crops on their 1,300-plus acre farm, including the sweet corn thats put Olathe on the map.

The tender kernels on those cobs require some delicate handling. In fact, those cobs have to be hand-picked. And the lack of labor is a constant worry.

I dont see how we will be able to continue to operate how we have traditionally operated, said Harold. But what scares me is not operating. Not being able to continue.

The problem may be especially acute with a crop like sweet corn, but across the state, agricultural producers are struggling to find people to do the hard work of planting, weeding and harvesting. Its a problem many believe only Congress can fix, if it can get past long-standing roadblocks.

Like many other farmers, Harold relies on the H-2A visa program to bring in temporary agricultural workers. Some have been coming to work for Tuxedo Corn since he was a child.

For them its relatively great pay. And for us its a relatively good deal because we are getting access to a labor pool that if we had to use domestic labor might cost us five times as much, said Harold.

The federal government sets the minimum pay rate for H-2A workers in each state, to prevent farmers from offering such low wages that they automatically exclude domestic workers. In Colorado, that rate is just under $17 dollars an hour.

Still, Harold said the program is hard to use. The applications are cumbersome, farmers must provide temporary housing, and sometimes the visas are late, causing extra stress and headaches.

In addition to addressing those problems, farmers also want Congress to make some bigger tweaks, such as allowing some visa holders to stay year-round and changing how quickly minimum pay rates rise.

Even for the workers, the H-2A program has some downsides. The biggest one for many is that they can spend decades working in the country, without any hope of being able to permanently make it their home, at least not legally.

Juan Francisco Chavez Santana from Chihuahua, Mexico, is one of those temporary agricultural workers. Hes worked in Paonia for five seasons now, spending eight months at a time away from his wife and three daughters.

My motivation is for the family, to get them ahead, he said in Spanish. And he added, hed be interested in a pathway to citizenship. Unlike the H-2A visa, permanent residency would mean his family would be able to join him.

It would be a way to be closer together as a family, he said.

The H-2A program has also at times left visa holders vulnerable to abuse. Most recently in Georgia, where dozens of people were indicted for human trafficking, allegedly defrauding the government out of thousands of H-2A visas while exploiting, threatening and abusing the workers.

Farm worker advocates arent investing a lot of effort into reforming the H-2A program, but do see supporting changes as a way to get leverage on an issue they see as more pressing: protecting workers who are here without visas.

While the H-2A program brings in tens of thousands of workers each year, its estimated that almost half of the agricultural workforce in America is undocumented. Advocates want to see them protected from deportation and, most importantly, given a chance for legal status. They argue its only fair compensation for helping secure the nations food supply.

If you feed America, you deserve the right to stay in America, said Antonio De Loera-Brust with United Farm Workers, the union that represents agricultural labor. We believe that the undocumented farm workers who have been the backbone of the American agricultural industry for many decades deserve the chance to obtain legal status.

One of those undocumented workers is Marisela Juarez, an undocumented worker from Georgia, who has spent the past 15 years in the U.S.

We know that we are feeding millions of people. Even though we dont know them, its a way we feel connected with them, said Juarez at a press conference at the U.S. Capitol in December, where she and the UFW urged lawmakers to pass a compromise bill that would reform the H-2A program and provide a pathway to legal status.

If you happen to eat anything today, it's thanks to farm workers. This is why I think it's just to have a legalization for farm workers, she went on.

To find a solution to the labor problem to either open up the H-2A program to allow more workers or to give guest workers hope for permanent residency would require Congress to take action on an issue it's long struggled to deal with immigration.

While comprehensive immigration reform might be the hottest of political hot potatoes, lawmakers have shown little interest in tackling even this limited aspect of the issue.

In the last Congress, Colorado Sen. Michael Bennet tried to get the Senate to come to agreement on the Farmworker Modernization Act a bill that passed the Democratic controlled House twice. It would have expanded the H-2A visas to allow some workers to stay in the country year-round. It also offered protections for undocumented farm workers.

These people literally are breaking their backs to put food on the table of the American people. And I think that we should approach this negotiation with a generous view about their contribution to our country, Bennet said.

The Farmworker Modernization Act passed the Democratic-controlled House twice, but stalled in the Senate.

With little indication that a now-divided Congress wants to take up the policy again, some producers are hoping that perhaps their concerns could be addressed by one of few must-past bills out there the Farm Bill.

Tuxedo Corns Harold brought that idea up with Bennet at a recent Farm Bill listening session on the Western Slope.

I asked him, Can we work on labor in the Farm Bill? I mean, traditionally, I don't think it ever has been done, recalled Harold. The response was, Yes, but

While he may not have wanted to get Harolds hopes up, Bennet, who serves on the Agriculture Committee, has looked into whether the issue would fit the purview of the Farm Bill, but said hes still waiting on a firm answer from the Senate Parliamentarian.

If there is a way to address this in the Farm Bill, to discuss it in the Farm Bill, to have a debate about this, I certainly would love it for us to do it. Because even if ultimately it cant be addressed there, we have to keep this issue in front of the American people, he said.

Republican Rep. Dan Newhouse of Washington is less sanguine about this approach. Hes been a leader on the issue of agricultural labor in Congress and has been willing to break with his party to support compromises. But he doesnt think the Farm Bill is the right vehicle to get something done.

[The] Farm Bill's already difficult to get passed This might even make it more complicated, he said, noting that the Judiciary Committees are the proper place to bring up immigration policies.

The Republican House has passed a border security bill that includes provisions to study the agricultural labor issue, as well as a Sense of Congress basically nonbinding guidance that the country, in using the E-Verify system to check for undocumented workers, should consider and address how it would impact the nations agricultural workforce.

As a farmer himself, Newhouse knows the importance of solving the agricultural labor issue. But he said in the end, public pressure might be the only thing that will push lawmakers to finally act.

If you can't find the labor, it doesn't matter what it costs, the work is not gonna get done. People have to make sure that members of Congress understand how serious this is, he said.

Read more:
With shortage of local labor, farmers and advocates want Congress ... - Colorado Public Radio

Americans take their freedoms, social and financial, for granted. In a land of plenty, were all upset about something these days. Meanwhile, according to a recent U.S. Department of Homeland Security study, there are some 400,000 undocumented people in Georgia, in plain view yet invisible, largely migrant workers in landscaping, construction and agriculture, mostly Hispanic and from Mexico and Central America.

My experience with them comes from legal representation Im a Spanish-speaking gringo. My Colombian-born wife, with her education and awareness, strictly adhered to the immigration laws. Many of my criminal case clients, by contrast, cross the wastes into Texas or Arizona on foot they tell me of encountering human bones in the desert. For various reasons repulsive to our sense of freedom, including overwhelming corruption and poverty, they are desperate to leave their countries.

Our state courts do a noble job of handling this incoming chaos. The undocumented, simple as their objectives typically are (to work, send money home and live a better life), tend to create chaos.

Its not that they overburden the courts in Cobb, Cherokee, or Forsyth, the counties where I work. They hardly commit a majority of crimes usually domestic violence or alcohol-related incidents but a handful are dangerous. A few drug mules, but the scariest cartel stuff does not occur in Georgia. Gangbangers are usually young American citizens making that choice migrants, on the other hand, have fewer options.

My courtrooms provide the same treatment to all. In my public defender work, in addition to our native crooks, Im paid to represent the undocumented. Their distress sometimes stems from possible deportation, although not all crimes are deportable. For sure, the persistent ones tend to find a way back up here.

Truly, what sets the undocumented apart in the legal process is the sense of alienation, a cultural gap that can be seen as disruptive to the American idea of order. Their cases are no more difficult than those of our citizens, but the mismatch remains all the more striking within the delicate balances of the justice system. Certainly, our interpreters well render English words into Spanish, but so many undocumented people stumble at the due process rights during a plea, not from resistance but from confusion over the concepts.

Years-long probated sentences are pronounced upon people and then made pointless by immediate deportation, especially in counties which hold them for immigration authorities to pick up. Unable to bond out without full cash payment (bail bondsmen dont want a forfeiture), some finally plead out after months and months of waiting.

I try to anticipate the effects of a guilty plea on a clients immigration status, but it seems to change over time. While the undocumented serve their sentence in prison before deportation for heavy crimes, misdemeanors dont have clear outcomes. Will they be released directly from county? Or sent elsewhere and released? Or sent to an ICE detention center in South Georgia? For a hefty sum, an immigration lawyer might find grounds for federal relief, but thats a long shot. Keep in mind, my clients tend to be uneducated and poor, surrounded by other undocumented people who cant sponsor them.

Couple their background with their living conditions no credentials means paying in cash, basically off the grid, as a rootless people. My efforts to investigate a crime can result in a dwellings residents scattering or hiding, even when Im trying to help a family member. Im sure its the same for the cops.

Be clear Im not shilling for anyone. Criminals are criminals, no matter what status. From my vantage point, our counties go to great lengths to protect the rights of folks already violating federal law. And most undocumented folks arent breaking state laws they are toiling outside in the Georgia summer heat or at the chicken plant. As always, Im willing to defend people in trouble.

Still, the problem of a culturally distinct and rootless people gnaws at the fabric of society. The federal government, in its division, has really dropped the ball. The last promising bill, the proposed Comprehensive Enforcement and Immigration Reform Act of 2007, a bipartisan effort under President George W. Bush, did not make it through Congress. The bills combination of an eventual path to citizenship and border enforcement is beyond us in todays political climate, simply reinforcing the problem.

And it may be that any federal legislation to remedy all this is truly beyond us now. Ancient Rome in its growing disorder saw an influx of Germanic people, many soldiers, coming into the Empire, foreigners tasked with defending an order not their own. How are we so different? For so many of our undocumented people, in my experience, do want to belong here.

Doing justice by them at a local level might not move the ball at a higher level, but it is our best hope for now.

Douglas D. Ford is a commercial litigation and criminal defense attorney in metro Atlanta.

Read more from the original source:
Opinion: Lawyer reflects on undocumented people in our legal system - The Atlanta Journal Constitution

[Below is the abstract of an article appearing in Vol. 48, No. 1, of theJournal of College and University Law. It is based on a November 2022 CIS report.]

A notable group of immigration law professors has assured California that it can allow its State universities to hire aliens not authorized to work under federal law, concluding that the Immigration Reform and Control Act of 1986s prohibition on hiring undocumented persons [known as employer sanctions] does not bind state government entities. They contend that Congress cannot intrude on the States historic police power to regulate employment without being explicit about doing so, and IRCA does not explicitly spell out that employer sanctions apply to States as employers. The professors also contend that the States constitutional right to select their elected and non-elected leaders allows them to hire unauthorized aliens as professors, regardless of any congressional command to the contrary.

I conclude that the professors first argument is incorrect because 1) Congress clearly intended employer sanctions to apply to all employers, 2) Congress had good reason for not spelling out application to the States, 3) Congress can evidence its clear and manifest purpose without the need for such a spelling out, and 4) in any case, employer sanctions are unlikely to be the sort of mandate that require any spelling out in the first place.

I further conclude that the professors second argument may possibly be correctto the extent employer sanctions were applied to State policy-making officials. However, the right of State universities to hire unauthorized aliens as professors would have to be extrapolated from Supreme Court rulings that States have the right to impose citizenship tests for positions such as public school teachers. This is a bridge too far. It is not clear that courts would agree to the obverse of the principlethat States have a right to expand eligibility to non-citizens, even to aliens unauthorized to work in the United States. And even if courts were to agree in the context of public school teachers, it is unlikely that they would equate professors with school teachers as performing a role that goes to the heart of representative government.

[Read the whole article at theJournal of College and University Law.]

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California Dreamin': Can State Universities Legally Hire Non-Work ... - Immigration Blog

June 20, 2023

In Absence of National Strategy, Asylum Application Help Center Will Provide Thousands of Asylum Seekers in NYC Assistance to Submit Asylum Applications, First Step Toward Work Authorization

City Will Also Continue to Support Non-Profit Legal Providers and Pro Se Clinics with $5 Million Investment

Interested Immigration Lawyers and Application Assistants Encouraged to Apply Immediately

NEW YORK New York City Mayor Eric Adams today announced the Asylum Application Help Center, which will offer thousands of asylum seekers assistance completing and filing asylum applications as they seek a new life in the United States. While the tens of thousands of migrants that have arrived in New York City over the last year seeking shelter have already been paroled into the country by U.S. Customs and Border Protection, many have not officially filled out their asylum applications, delaying their eligibility for work authorization. Opening in the coming weeks in consultation with immigration legal service providers and with the initial pro-bono support of the law firms Cleary Gottlieb Steen & Hamilton LLP; Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton & Garrison LLP; Simpson Thacher & Bartlett LLP; and Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom LLP the Asylum Application Help Center will help thousands of asylum seekers currently in New York City apply for asylum, bringing them one step closer to being eligible for work authorization. Interested asylum seekers will schedule a one-on-one appointment at the application help center, where trained application assistants will work with the applicant to answer questions. Experienced immigration lawyers will be on site to supervise application assistants and provide guidance, and interpreters will be on site to provide in-person language assistance. Mayor Adams also encouraged New Yorkers interested in working at the Asylum Application Help Center to applyimmediately.

Throughout this crisis, New York City has led the nation in answering the call to support arriving asylum seekers, and we are doing that again today, said Mayor Adams. The Asylum Application Help Center will assist the asylum seekers in New York City through the complex federal immigration process, bringing them one step closer to being eligible for work authorization and the ability to support themselves. We must act swiftly to ensure the well-being of the thousands of migrants whose deadline to submit an asylum application is fast approaching, and this center will help us do that. I encourage New Yorkers to join this unprecedented effort by applying today to work at our center.

Legal services are a critical next step in the citys approach to support people seeking asylum as they work to achieve independence, saidDeputy Mayor for Health and Human Services Anne Williams-Isom.The city is making important investments in the Asylum Application Help Center in partnership with a number of private sector partners. Thank you to all the firms, legal professionals, and everyday New Yorkers that are and will be a part of this effort. Ultimately, if we all work together with a national strategy for a national issue, we can address this humanitarian crisis."

The necessary first step toward work authorization and a new life in this country is a completed asylum application, said Chief Counsel to City Hall Brendan McGuire. By scaling up this help center to aid thousands of asylum seekers, this administration is providing targeted assistance to those who need it urgently. And we are not doing it alone. The non-profit community, the private immigration bar, and many of the citys leading law firms have answered the call. We are grateful to all of them and look forward to growing this effort in the weeks ahead.

The Asylum Application Help Center represents another comprehensive measure taken by the City of New York to respond to an unprecedented humanitarian crisis, said New York City Corporation Counsel Sylvia O. Hinds-Radix. I commend those who are a part of this valiant effort to assist individuals through the federal asylum application process. This can be a daunting task for new arrivals. The help center will provide much needed guidance and assistance to asylum seekers as they forge their path towards self-sufficiency and a new life in our city.

Since the beginning of this humanitarian crisis, our administration has gone beyond our moral obligation to humanely support our newest New Yorkers and help them integrate into our city, said Mayors Office of Immigrant Affairs Commissioner Manual Castro. The Asylum Application Help Center is a historic step New York City is taking with private and non-profit partners to help asylum seekers meet their one-year application deadline. While we await a national strategy, the city will continue to meet the needs of this crisis.

New York City is a beacon of hope for so many seeking asylum, and volunteers continue to support individuals and families through their time, talents and donations. NYC Service is proud to offer free capacity building tools for organizations or programs supporting people seeking asylum, including the ability to recruit volunteers and receive in-kind donations, said Chief Service Officer Laura Rog. I encourage organizations to register on nyc.gov/service to connect to New Yorkers who want to help. To all the talented New Yorkers who want to get involved but arent sure how, register online to answer the call to serve.

The Asylum Application Help Center will operate Monday Friday from 9:00 AM 5:00 PM in the American Red Cross Greater New York headquarters in Midtown Manhattan by appointment only. Thecitycontinues to expand access to immigration assistance for recently arrived immigrants through ongoing and increased investments in its network of contracted immigration legal services providers. In addition to the Asylum Application Help Center, the city will invest $5 million to continue supporting a range of legal providers, including Lutheran Social Services, African Services Committee, Catholic Charities Community Services, and the Pro Se Plus Project (comprised of the New York Legal Assistance Group, Central American Legal Assistance, UnLocal, African Communities Together, Masa, and Catholic Migration Services) operating pro se clinics and hosting information sessions at the American Red Cross Greater New York headquarters.

In the coming weeks, the other support services offered at the Asylum Seeker Resource Navigation Center currently operating at the American Red Cross Greater New York headquarters will transition to the citys Asylum Seeker Arrival Center based out of The Roosevelt Hotel. These services include New York City Department of Education school enrollment, Fair Fares enrollment, IDNYC, health insurance enrollment, and access to mental health counseling.

Helping asylum seekers to file asylum applications delivers on promises made in Mayor Adams The Road Forward: A Blueprint to Address New York City's Response to the Asylum Seeker Crisis, released this spring. The Adams administration also continues to strongly urge the federal government to immediately use every tool at its disposal to protect and support newly arrived migrants and asylum seekers and the municipalities supporting them by expanding Humanitarian Parole and Temporary Protected Status, and expediting asylum-based work authorization.

Since this humanitarian crisis began, the city has taken fast and urgent action, opening a total of 175 emergency sites to provide shelter to asylum seekers, including 11 additional large-scale humanitarian relief centers; standing up navigation centers with support from community-based organizations to connect asylum seekers with critical resources; enrolling thousands of children in public schools through Project Open Arms; and more.

Cleary Gottlieb is committed to assisting vulnerable asylum-seekers located in New York City to apply for relief, and to working alongside our partner organizations in these efforts to leverage our long-standing experience and expertise in humanitarian immigration law, said Michael A. Gerstenzang, managing partner, Cleary Gottlieb Steen & Hamilton LLP.

We stand ready to help with this first step towards getting people authorization to work, said Brad S. Karp, chair, Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton & Garrison LLP.

Simpson Thacher has a long-standing commitment to providing legal services to migrants fleeing dangerous conditions in their home countries, said Josh Levine, co-chair, Simpson Thacher & Bartlett LLPs Pro Bono Committee. We recognize that the number of immigrant families arriving daily into New York City has reached an unprecedented level and we stand ready to help the city with the services needed to help these children and adults apply for asylum.

This crisis calls for tenacious professionalism to help those striving to make a new home in New York, said Bret Parker, executive director, New York City Bar Association and Kurt M. Denk, executive director, City Bar Justice Center. Our organizations and others like ours have seen the difference that pro bono legal services can make in times of emergency, and were confident that approach will have an impact here as well.

American Immigration Lawyers Association New York Chapter welcomes New York Citys efforts to provide support to the thousands of asylum seekers in need of assistance, said Kushal Patel, chair, American Immigration Lawyers Association New York Chapter (AILA NY).

The American Immigration Lawyers Association of New York City is proud to be included in this initiative to assist asylum seekers navigate the complex U.S. immigration system, said Neena Dutta, advocacy chair, AILA NY. Our organization is comprised of over 1,700 private and non-profit immigration lawyers and nationwide the association has over 18,000 members. We know first-hand the issues facing newly arrived immigrants, and the consequences of poor or no representation. Less than 37 percent of immigrants and 14 percent of detained immigrants are represented by counsel. Immigrants who are represented are five times more likely to win their cases with an attorney than without and detained immigrants are 11 times more likely to pursue relief when they have legal counsel. Court data regarding unaccompanied children shows that when represented, 73 percent are allowed to remain in the U.S. when represented, whereas 15 percent are allowed to stay when unrepresented. We look forward to tackling this issue at our doorstep as the country has not had comprehensive immigration reform for three decades. We applaud the mayors office for taking this crucial step which recognizes a dire need and a human right, and hope that other cities will follow suit and adopt similar programs.

I commend the City of New York for bringing to scale a practice that immigrants seeking asylum have engaged in for years: pro se representation, said Angela Fernandez, executive director, Safe Passage Project. There are not enough immigration lawyers to provide representation to our newest neighbors, so by coordinating and leveragingresources, the city is helping ensure that asylum seekers get a fair shot in this complex legal process.

Lutheran Social Services is proud to partner with the Mayor's Office of Immigrant Affairs in their efforts to assist the thousands of asylum seekers who have come to New York City seeking refuge, saidCecilia Aranzamendez, executive director of Community Services, Lutheran Social Services of New York. The establishment of the Asylum Application Help Center is a crucial step in addressing the needs of asylum seekers and further demonstrates New York Citys longstanding commitment to supporting and upholding the dignity of this very vulnerable population.

It is crucial that asylum seekers have access to quality legal representation so that they may find more stability for themselves and their families, said Theo Oshiro, co-executive director, Make the Road New York. Today, New York City is taking an important and significant step to make this a reality. We look forward to working with the city to make this initiative a success and to continue to innovate ways to support asylum seekers.

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Mayor Adams Announces Asylum Application Help Center | City of ... - nyc.gov