HomeMy WebLinkAboutMemo - Mail Packet - 2/23/2021 - Memorandum From Jc Ward And Leo Escalante Re: Immigration Legal Defense Fund281 North College Avenue
P.O. Box 580
Fort Collins, CO 80522.0580
970.221.6376
970.224.6134 - fax
Planning, Development & Transportation
MEMORANDUM
DATE:February 17, 2021
TO:Mayor Troxell and City Councilmembers
THRU:
FROM:
RE:Immigration Legal Defense Fund
Thismemo is an update on the progress of the research on municipal immigration legal funds
and current local data for undocumented immigrants related to a City Council request in October
2020. It will provide an outline of the process and timeline City Staff will follow to explore a
deeper understanding of the issue and frame questions and decision points for City Council’s
consideration.
Bottom Line:
A cross-departmental team of City Staff from Neighborhood Services, City Attorney’s Office,
Social Sustainability, and the Communications and Public Involvement Office has been meeting
weekly since October to identify the greatest challenges for our local immigrant populations in
Fort Collins and the role the City can play in addressing these challenges. Because of the
understandable reluctance of undocumented immigrants to self-identify to governmental entities
that could open themselves and their families to risk of deportation, the Team also meets
biweekly with local and statewide advocacy groups with existing relationships with Fort Collins
immigrants and is nearing completion of a local needs assessment, summary of research on
existing and projected conditions in Larimer County for the immigrant community, analysis of
other municipal immigration fund program and budget models, and public engagement.
Work Completed To Date:
Local Needs Assessment & Public Engagement
Information regarding the known and projected local unmet need for representation in
deportation and affirmative immigration cases for current Fort Collins residents was collected
and summarized by the following community partners and provided to the Team in November
2020 and through biweekly updates through February 2021.
Fort Collins has one law firm dedicated to immigration law and each case can cost up to
$30,000 in legal fees. There is no federal program to fund or assist with funding legal
representation in immigration cases. Even immigration cases with a solid, fact-based legal
defense often fail when the immigrant is not represented in the hearing. Young, unaccompanied
children are not provided with an attorney for immigration cases and must find and pay for their
own counsel or represent themselves in immigration hearings.
The mental and physical toll of living under the constant threat of deportation, assessing the
trustworthiness of teachers, friends, or coworkers, and struggling to access necessities like
medical care or housing without disclosing legal status permeates every aspect of an
undocumented immigrant’s life. Many undocumented immigrants in Fort Collins have a lawful
pathway to citizenship but not the money to pay for the application process or attorney’s fees.
o Alianza NORCO (Fort Collins)
-In addition to providing extensive local, regional, and national data, Alianza
NORCO has the most comprehensive Fort Collins and Larimer County-
specific data on local needs from their ongoing work in this space and
coordination with partner organizations.
-An intensive research project is currently underway and led by a CSU
graduate student to further identify barriers to accessing legal representation
and pursuing legal pathways to citizenship for Fort Collins residents. We
anticipate preliminary results will be available for incorporation into a
comprehensive summary research memo within the next several weeks.
-Alianza NORCO also assimilated information from their close partners,
Catholic Charities, Global Refugee Center, and Free Our Girls, to provide
directly to the Team.
o Colorado Immigrant Rights Coalition (Regional Northern Front Range Office)
-CIRC continually provides not only a picture of what needs exist for current
Fort Collins residents, but also how undocumented immigrants living outside
city limits in the region, but who work in Fort Collins are impacted by local
decisions on immigration policies.
-CIRC also connects the Team with the data and resources available through
regional partners, Immigrant and Refugee Center of Northern Colorado and
Rocky Mountain Immigrant Advocacy Network.
o Fuerza Latina (Fort Collins)
-Fuerza Latina partnered with the City to provide eviction prevention resources
and continues to provide available data on local needs from their ongoing
work in direct assistance and immigration hotline calls. This partnership has
been crucial in gathering information and protecting the identities of
community members requesting assistance.
o Vera Institute (National)
-Brought to the conversation by CIRC and Alianza NORCO, the Vera Institute
is a supporter of municipal immigration legal funds in 41 cities. They offer
matching funds for legal representation and assist with program design, best
practices, and ongoing support for their partner cities. Vera Institute was
instrumental in creating the Immigration Defense Fund with the City and
County of Denver.
Summary of Research & Projected Conditions
The internal Team compiled information from partner organizations and independent research
to provide City Council with data-driven projections for the undocumented Fort Collins immigrant
population, the impacts of the uncertainty created by immigration status, and the potential for
individual financing of legal representation in immigration and detention hearings. The full
summary will be included in AIS materials in advance of an upcoming work session.
The findings indicate family stability, community economic vitality, neighborhood livability, and
academic achievement are significantly impacted by concerns regarding legal status of
immigrants in Fort Collins. Due to immigration policies, undocumented immigrants are
now reluctant to self-identify even for the purposes of extending visas to continue lawful
presence. Locally, students indicate reluctance to reapply for student visas or to register as
DACA recipients for fear of disclosing their address and status to the federal government. With
a new federal administration and anticipated immigration reform, some trust may be rebuilt, but
these dramatic reversals of policy demonstrate the danger of absolute federal control of the
immigration and deportation systems. Local government has an opportunity to advance equity
and inclusion by creating support and self-advocacy programs to fill the gap left by the federal
system.
The immigrant population in Fort Collins will continue to increase over at least the next 10 years.
The need to attract and retain immigrant entrepreneurs, families, students, researchers,
educators, healthcare workers, skilled and unskilled workers, and taxpayers will also continue to
increase. Immigrants in communities with municipal immigration legal funds or immigration
application “scholarships” report feeling more welcome, supported, and likely to stay in that
community.
Other Municipal Immigration Legal Fund Models
The Vera Institute provided research and best practices of 41 other municipal immigration legal
funds and the spectrum of services provided, including models from municipalities with similar
sized immigrant populations. City Staff on the Team also met with the City and County of
Denver elected officials instrumental in creating their immigration defense fund and program
coordinators, as well as the Harris County, Texas immigration defense fund’s Director of
Immigration and Citizenship. The most successful models for cities with immigrant populations
comparable to Fort Collins utilized municipal funding or a combination of public-private funding
to support contracted external program coordinators and legal service providers with program
oversight by municipal staff to offer direct legal representation, assistance with filing fees for
administrative renewals, and outreach to support legal pathways to citizenship. Every
organization or municipality contacted emphasized the importance of coalition building and local
community partnerships to leverage established, trusting relationships to increase access to
program resources for undocumented residents.
Common Circumstances:
Most undocumented residents in Fort Collins entered lawfully but overstayed their
temporary visas.
Paths to citizenship, refugee status, or asylum have been decreased over the past four
years of the previous federal administration.
Those seeking legal status in this country do so from a wide variety of backgrounds.
Alianza NORCO created a short documentary featuring the stories of local
undocumented immigrants and the circumstances that brought them here. It will
premiere at a public “watch party” on March 7, 2021. Among those stories are human
trafficking victims, parents and children fleeing domestic violence, parents of U.S. citizen
children, spouses of U.S. citizens, students with expired visas who do not have the
economic resources to pursue legal extensions or paths to citizenship, small business
owners.
Greatest Challenges:
Community
Need for local attorneys with expertise in immigration law practice
Many skilled immigration attorneys practice in cities near detention centers so they have
faster access to clients in detention. However, evidence for defense against deportation
is found in the city of residence for the detained immigrant. Aurora-based attorneys
have to travel to Fort Collins to meet families, employers, and locate documentation,
which increases the cost of legal representation.
Initial client consultations to obtain legal advice or seek assistance filing applications or
extensions can be costly and nonprofit organizations currently try to fill this gap, but the
need far exceeds availability of assistance
Because no centralized federal or state program exists to provide pro bono attorneys in
immigration cases, those facing deportation or trying to pursue legal avenues to
citizenship must cover legal fees without assistance
Safety concerns in accessing resources
City of Fort Collins
Trust and relationship building with the immigrant community regardless of status. A
program associated with the City may feel unsafe for undocumented participants.
Alignment with existing City policies and processes such as public benefit limitations or
public information transparency requirements
Coordination of statewide and regional immigration defense funds and relief efforts
Defining meaningful metrics and outcomes
Next Steps
1.Mid-March 2021 The Comprehensive Research Memo will be delivered to City
Leaders and will ask City Council to consider whether there is interest in funding a
municipal immigration defense fund. The memo will also outline several options for such
a fund based on the participants who could be served by what type of programming at
each funding level.
2.Late March/Early April Work Session - Decision Point with City Council -City
Council discussion of findings related to challenges and consideration of models for the
City’s role in a municipal immigration defense fundwith options for scope and scale of
services.
Kelly DiMartino, Deputy City Manager
Beth Sowder, Director, Social Sustainability
Paul Sizemore, Interim Deputy Director, CDNS
Marcy Yoder, Sr. Manager, Neighborhood Services
Carrie Daggett, City Attorney
CC: