HomeMy WebLinkAboutConstituent Letter - Mail Packet - 3/23/2021 - Email And Attachment From Patricia Miller Re: Budget Allocation For Immigration Legal Defense Fund1
Sarah Kane
From:Patricia Miller <patriciamiller58.pm@gmail.com>
Sent:Tuesday, March 16, 2021 9:18 AM
To:City Leaders; Sarah Kane; Carrie Daggett
Subject:[EXTERNAL] Re: Legal Defense Fund
Attachments:Final Letter for Fort Collins Immigration Fund.pdf
Good Morning City Leaders,
I hope you are all doing well after the weekend's snow storm. As our coalition members had mentioned in public
comments, attached you will find the detailed letter regarding the requested Immigration Legal Defense Fund. Please let
me know if you have any questions ahead of your 3/23/21 work session regarding this topic and I'll make them a
priority.
With warm regards,
Patricia Miller
Pronouns: she, her, hers
Executive Director
Alianza NORCO | facebook.com/AlianzaForImmigrantRights | alianzanorco.org
970-290-2658
CONFIDENTIALITY NOTICE: This email contains confidential information and is intended only for the individual named. If
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On Thu, Feb 18, 2021 at 8:50 AM Patricia Miller <patriciamiller58.pm@gmail.com> wrote:
Good Morning,
I'm writing this morning regarding our request for Fort Collins to allocate funds towards Immigration Legal Services.
Attached you will find a short letter containing our coalition's priorities as of February 18th, 2021, and an invite to a
documentary screening about this topic. I have also included the original request dated September 30th, 2020, which is
superseded by the priorities in today's letter. Please reach out with any questions.
Respectfully,
Patricia Miller
Pronouns: she, her, hers
Executive Director
Alianza NORCO | facebook.com/AlianzaForImmigrantRights | alianzanorco.org
970-290-2658
CONFIDENTIALITY NOTICE: This email contains confidential information and is intended only for the individual
named. If you are not the intended recipient, you should not read, disseminate, distribute or copy this email. Please
notify the sender immediately if you received this email by mistake and delete this email from your system.
Fort Collins City Council
City Hall West, 300 LaPorte Ave.
Fort Collins, CO 80521
March 16, 2021
Dear City Council Members,
We are writing to follow up regarding budget allocation for a Fort Collins Immigration Legal Defense Fund
(LDF). We want to thank you if you were able to attend our documentary viewing on March 7th and send
you the summary of our request.
As we hear about proposed changes to immigration benefits at the national level, we want communities
like ours to be empowered and prepared with access to low-cost and pro-bono legal services. For too
long, our hard-working immigrant community has been deprived of basic protections and has faced an
immigration system without due process, justice, or fairness. The result has been family separation in Fort
Collins, a lack of equity, and damage to our economy.Therefore, we the undersigned, ask you to create a
Fort Collins Immigration Legal Defense Fund. This fund could meet a number of community needs
including the following:
1.Family separation happens through detention and deportation and has devastating impacts on
our families and our community.We would prioritize detained cases with funds for a
dedicated lawyer from the Rocky Mountain Immigration and Advocacy Network (RMIAN).
This lawyer will be able to help those most vulnerable community members who are currently
detained and could obtain potential relief through asylum, adjustment of status, or other legal
avenues. $120,000 in funding will take 20 cases from start to finish and include additional
professional support, like Forensic Mental Health Assessments (FMHAs). A FMHA increases an
immigrant's chance of being granted asylum or legal status by 80% and are key to the work that
the RMIAN lawyer will be doing to change the lives of 20 families in Fort Collins. The Vera
Institute for Justice may also be able to provide a catalyst grant if the city dedicates funding to
legal defense that prioritizes detained cases and uses a universal representation model.
2.As of February 2021, we have 54 unaccompanied minors in the PR-1 school district. These
young people are asylum seekers who cannot return to their country of origin due to threat of
death. We can keep them safe through a process called Special Immigrant Juvenile Status
(SIJS). This status allows children under the age of 21 who have been abused, abandoned, or
neglected by one or both of their parents to obtain a direct path to citizenship. Working with two
local expert lawyers and using ISAAC as the coordinator we can help 20-25 of these youth for an
additional $100,000. ISAAC has already assisted 12 Fort Collins youth in their SIJS process and
has an established relationship with local attorneys.
3.Funds provided by the city of Fort Collins would supplement the existing and developing legal
services, including low-bono and pro-bono services,currently provided to immigrants in Fort
Collins. For $100,000, the city can fund a local non-profit to hire an immigration attorney to
provide legal assistance for 100 affirmative cases such as DACA, Temporary Protected Status
(TPS), Lawful Permanent Residency, and/or naturalization to become a US Citizen.
4.We would like to hire a legal coordinator who would be the contact person between the city, the
immigrants, and the agencies doing this work. For $60,000, the legal coordinator would conduct
initial intakes with our immigrants and their families to help guide them to the organization best
suited to meet their needs. They would also be charged with spreading the word about the fund
and how it works.
Additional Information:
In Larimer county, there are an estimated 4,000 residents with undocumented immigration status,
many of whom are likely eligible for some type of immigration relief. These residents are in need
of low cost legal services. An estimated 4,657 of our county residents (2,963 Fort Collins
residents) are eligible for naturalization.1 A snapshot from February of 2019 showed 237 Fort
Collins MSA residents were either detained or had an order for removal.2 Under the Trump
administration, even Lawful Permanent Residency became an immigration status at risk for deportation.3
While we expect this to be different under the Biden administration, we know that the looming threat of
potential deportation exists for any resident who is not yet a citizen.
In 2018, the National Academies of Science, Engineering and Medicine synthesized decades of research
identifying ambiguous immigration status as a social determinant of health.4 This important research
clarified and elevated the need for public health departments to understand and act on the relationship
between the adverse impacts of immigration status ambiguity and access to essential services, including
4 The National Academies of Science, Engineering, and Medicine. (2018).Immigration as a Social Determinant of
Health.https://www.nap.edu/read/25204/chapter/4
3 Vera Institute of Justice. (2017). Evaluation of the New York Immigrant Family Unity
Project.https://www.vera.org /projects/new-york-immigrant-family-unity-project
2 Syracuse University TRAC (2019). Individuals in Immigration Court by Their Address [Data set].
https://trac.syr.edu/phptools/immigration/addressrep/
1 Center for Migration Studies. (2018).PUMA-Level Eligible-to-Naturalize Estimates [Data set].
http://data.cmsny.org /puma.html
access to legal defense.Additionally, changes to immigration policies under the Trump administration
incited increased fear in the immigrant community.In particular, the passage of the Public Charge rule
created additional barriers to obtaining legal status for immigrants who have received certain public
benefits. This has created an overall chilling effect on the use of public benefits by immigrants and their
US citizen children.5 The pervasive fear of deportation leads many to suffer in silence rather than seek
help.
The United States Constitution guarantees all individuals, including citizens and non-citizens, a right to
due process under the law if their life or liberty is threatened in a criminal legal proceeding. However,
immigrants facing civil proceedings in the immigration system have not been extended these same rights.
In fact, immigrants facing civil proceedings are incarcerated,made to remove their shoe laces and
belts, handcuffed, denied access to family members,made to wear a uniform, and sent before a
judge without being read their Miranda Rights.6 Sometimes they are not even told that they can have
a lawyer present, and in some instances, such as cases involving an indigenous language speaker,
adequate interpretation is not provided for the immigrant.Meanwhile, all immigration judges and
prosecution lawyers are contracted and paid for by the Department of Homeland Security, creating a
situation in which the federal government always has qualified attorneys who all too often are prosecuting
immigrants that have absolutely no representation.When immigrants have representation in
deportation proceedings, they are 10 times more likely to be able to stay,7 yet 71% of immigrants
facing deportation do not have legal representation.8 Furthermore, there is no jury of peers and no
presumption of innocence in immigration court.
In Colorado, 2,154 children faced immigration court deportation proceedings in 2020 -- 61% of
these children did not have access to legal representation.9 There are currently 54 unaccompanied
children in Poudre School District. Many children were forced to cross without their parents in order to be
safe from the horrors they were facing in their home country or during their immigration journey, while
others were separated from their family due to deportation.
9 Syracuse University TRAC (2020). Juveniles — Immigration Court Deportation Proceedings [Data set].
https://trac.syr.edu/phptools/immigration/juvenile/
8 Syracuse University TRAC (2019). State and County Details on Deportation Proceedings in Immigration Court
[Data set].https://trac.syr.edu/phptools/immigration/nta/
7 Eagly, I., & Shafer, S., (2015). A national study of access to counsel in immigration court. University of Pennsylvania
Law Review, 164(1), 1-91. Retrieved from
https://scholarship.law.upenn.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=9502&context=penn_law_review
6 Detention Watch Network. (n.d.).Immigration Detention 101.
https://www.detentionwatchnetwork.org /issues/detention-101
5 Philbin, M., Flake, M., Hatzenbuehler, M., & Hirsch, J. (2018). State-level immigration and immigrant-focused
policies as drivers of Latino health disparities in the United States. Social Science & Medicine (1982),199, 29–38.
https://doi.org /10.1016/j.socscimed.2017.04.007
The impact of detention and deportation on families is devastating and long lasting. Studies have shown
an increase in economic hardship, food insecurity,and housing instability associated with deportation of a
family member.10 These impacts have only been exacerbated by COVID-19 as many immigrants are
disproportionately impacted by the virus and have been excluded from most federal and state relief.Since
the majority of deported individuals are primary breadwinners,remaining partners are usually left with
dramatic decreases in family income. In a 2010 study,the Urban Institute found an average loss of 70%
of family income within 6 months of a parent’s detention or deportation.11 Remaining caregivers are forced
to take on additional work and roles, especially when shouldering the burden of legal fees. This also
creates an additional burden for older children who often assume increased responsibility for younger
siblings. Since many immigrant parents do not enroll their children in legally allowed school lunch and
health care programs out of fear of the Public Charge disqualification in future immigration applications,
income loss can lead to elevated food insecurity and poor health outcomes for Colorado kids, including
the 15% (9,687) of children in Fort Collins who live with at least one immigrant parent.12 The full impacts
on children are immeasurable and often include anxiety,withdrawal, changes in eating and sleeping, and
decreases in school performance and retention.13
The research is clear: legal defense is good for immigrants’ health, and this in turn is good for our
communities’ health. Anti-immigrant policies also compromise the health status of immigrants by
promoting fear and mistrust and deterring engagement with public institutions intended to promote
community safety, communal well being, and health information and resources.14 In addition, heightened
immigration enforcement threatens daily to abruptly separate families, placing heavy psychological
burdens on immigrant families, including citizen children.15 This is particularly true as immigrants embark
on the necessary journey to heal traumatic pasts,and in doing so gain critical regulatory skills, insight into
their impacts on overall community health, and a greater sense of “belonging to” their place of residence.
As you might imagine, this level of healing is directly related to positive mental health outcomes. We now
15 Zayas, L. H. (2015).Forgotten citizens: Deportation,children, and the making of American exiles and orphans.
Oxford University Press, USA.
14 Cruz Nichols, V., LeBrón, A., & Pedraza, F. (2018).Spillover Effects: Immigrant Policing and Government Skepticism
in Matters of Health for Latinos. Public Administration Review, 78(3), 432–443.https://doi.org/10.1111/puar.12916
13 Ayón, C., Marsiglia, F., & Bermudez-Parsai, M. (2010).Latino family mental health: exploring the role of
discrimination and familismo. Journal of Community Psychology, 38(6), 742–756.
https://doi.org /10.1002/jcop.20392
12 U.S. Census Bureau (2017).Age and nativity of own children under 18 years in families and subfamilies by nativity
of parents. 2016 ACS 1-Year Estimates. Retrieved from https://data.census.gov/cedsci/
11 Chaudry, A., Capps, R., Pedroza, J. M. Castañeda,R. M., Santos, R., & Scott, M. (2010). Facing Our Future: Children
in the Aftermath of Immigration Enforcement. Washington,DC: Urban Institute.
http://www.urban.org /research/publication/facing-our-future
10 Philbin, M., Flake, M., Hatzenbuehler, M., & Hirsch, J. (2018). State-level immigration and immigrant-focused
policies as drivers of Latino health disparities in the United States. Social Science & Medicine (1982),199, 29–38.
https://doi.org /10.1016/j.socscimed.2017.04.007
have studies that show the bidirectional links between immigration law and mental and physical health.16
The research demonstrates that the legal dimension of social and economic problems (e.g. immigration)
can and does exacerbate or create ill health.17 This cyclically creates greater legal problems for BIPOC
communities. Your support for legal defense services for immigrants is not only an act of compassion,it is
also an act of public and individual health competence which directly supports your commitment and
mandate for optimal community health and equity for all our city’s residents.
This funding has the potential to drastically increase positive mental and public health outcomes in the
City of Fort Collins, not only for immigrants, but for all of us. It will keep immigrant families together;allow
immigrants to continue contributing to the economic rebuilding during and after the pandemic; and allow
immigrants to seek health care for themselves and their children. We humbly ask that you fund our entire
proposal so that our community becomes one of the best places to live in Colorado for all residents.
Sincerely,
Alianza NORCO
La Cocina
Rocky Mountain Immigrant Advocacy Network (RMIAN)
The Colorado Immigrant Rights Coalition (CIRC)
The Community Dreamer Fund
La Familia / The Family Center
Interfaith Solidarity and Accompaniment Coalition (ISAAC)
Fuerza Latina
The BIPOC Alliance
17 Asad, A. L., & Clair, M. (2018). Racialized legal status as a social determinant of health.Social Science & Medicine,
199, 19-28.
https://static1.squarespace.com/static/59a7762f2994ca11765ff510/t/5ac906ecaa4a998f3f25852e/152312395314
6/Asad+and+clare+-+racialized+legal+status.pdf
16 Nichols, V. C., LeBrón, A. M., & Pedraza, F. I. (2018). Policing us sick: The health of Latinos in an era of heightened
deportations and racialized policing. PS, Political Science & Politics, 51(2), 293.
http://www.franciscoipedraza.com/wp-content/uploads/CruzNicholsLeBronPedraza_PS2018.pdf