Attorney, deputy address immigrants’ fears

By Kevin O’Brien

At an event in Wausau last week, an immigration attorney repeatedly urged area immigrants to get their legal status evaluated in the midst of a deportation dragnet unleashed by the Trump administration earlier this year.

“If you are currently undocumented or have a shaky scenario regarding your immigration status, it is a great time to get that in order,” said Samuel J.S. Moheban of the Ruder Ware law firm. “There might not be good options for everyone, but you have no excuse for not finding out.”

The “Closing the Gap” educational presentation was hosted by Healthy Opportunities for Latino Americans (HOLA), a Wausaubased organization with an office in Abbotsford. Participants were invited to learn about their constitutional rights and how to navigate the justice system.

Marathon County Sheriff Chad Billeb attended the event, along with one of his deputies, Erick Guzman, who spoke to the small audience at the UW-Stevens Point campus in Wausau about the differences between local and federal law enforcement and how to interact with police.

When asked about his department’s involvement in the HOLA event, Sheriff Billeb wrote in an email that Deputy Guzman has been planning for months to do outreach events with the Hispanic community regarding various services offered by the county, but with the recent changes in federal immigration policy, they decided to focus on law enforcement.

“One key component was reinforcing that we don’t want people to be victimized and how to reach us if they are a victim of a crime and need to report it,” he wrote. “This is where he gave examples of when to call the city police versus when to call county law enforcement. He also discussed how we work with people who don’t speak English and how we use translation services.”

Moheban told the audience that many law firms and other organizations offer free consultations, which can be done either in-person or remotely, so immigrants of any income level can find out where they stand when it comes to the law.

“No matter your situation, if you are undocumented and you have not recently been evaluated for your options as far as asylum and other humanitarian visas and defenses to removal proceedings, you should do so now,” he said. “Money is not an issue, and even transportation is not necessarily an issue.”

The questions asked at last week’s event underscored the fear and uncertainty facing local Hispanic communities, which are mix of natural-born citizens, legal permanent residents, those here in work visas, and undocumented immigrants who came here illegally.

Jennifer Fuentes, a co-pastor at Gilead Church in Wausau, said places of worship have historically been off limits to immigration raids, but she wondered what her responsibilities are now that one of Trump’s executive orders did away with that exemption.

“I just don’t want anyone to fear coming to church and worshipping God,” she said.

Moheban said now that sanctuary status has been revoked for churches, schools and other areas, he said many of those entities are adopting policies and procedures to ensure they don’t “do anything to jeopardize the safety of their members” while also putting them at ease.

Questions were also raised about changes in the work permits immigrants have traditionally relied on to get a job and stay employed in the United States.

“You should know that there are many different ways that you can get work authorization in this country and they can differ quite significantly,” Moheban told the audience.

When asked about how to find out information about people who have been detained, Moheban said there are ways to verify that someone is being held at a detention facility, but it often takes some research and phone calls.

Moheban also confirmed that it is possible for lawful permanent residents to lose that status if they spend too much time out of the country or commit certain serious crimes, including fraud.

“Aside from that, if it’s a short trip abroad and none of those situations like criminal charges or fraud apply to you, you shouldn’t be particularly concerned about travel,” he said. “Your green card should be valid and you should be authorized to re-enter the United States.”

A local perspective

Alma Pierce, a social worker who used to work at the Abbotsford School District, serves as a volunteer on HOLA’s board of directors. As a first-generation U.S. citizen and the daughter of immigrants, she feels it’s important for her to work with the immigrant community and maintain the relations she had with families from her time at the school district.

During an interview earlier this week, Pierce said she can’t speak for the entire immigrant community, but she knows a lot of people who are struggling to deal with this new era of mass deportations.

“I cannot imagine the stress that a lot of these individuals are feeling,” she said. “Not just the adults but the kids. Kids don’t understand a lot of the nuances and a lot of the complexities of everything.”

Pierce said some Hispanic stores have posted signs offering to deliver groceries to those who are too afraid to leave their houses because they may get deported.

“This is how much fear there is,” she said.

School attendance has also been impacted, she said, as parents are worried about sending their kids to school after the Trump administration made it clear that schools were no longer considered sanctuaries.

Pierce said she’s also heard of at least one person who is in the country legally but has been imprisoned and is now waiting to find out if they’ll be deported.

Among the people she knows personally, Pierce said there’s a lot of anger and resentment stemming from the increasingly aggressive stance toward the Hispanic community at large.

“You might see a brown person, but you don’t know what their immigration status is,” she said. “For us, there’s also that anxiety of ‘What’s going to happen if someone addresses me? How am I going to react? Am I going to be able to keep my cool?’” Pierce said she hopes people realize that previous generations of white people came here to improve their situations, and most Hispanic immigrants are no different.. The process for coming to the United States legally is incredibly timeconsuming and costly – to the point where people would rather risk their lives crossing a desert than wait for legal entry, she said.

“Just the word ‘illegals’ rubs me the wrong way,” she said. “I really don’t believe there is such a thing as a crime for trying to find a better life for your family.”

At the same time, Pierce acknowledges that not every immigrant is here “to make the world a better place.”

“We’re humans,” she said. “There is good and bad in all ethnic groups.”

If people are mad about the number of undocumented immigrants living and working here, Pierce wondered why more of that anger is not directed at the farms and companies that hire those people. The immigrants are just trying to support their families, and despite common misconceptions, they do pay taxes, she said.

On the local level, Pierce said she would like to see more representation from the Hispanic community on school boards, city councils and in leadership roles, so that those in charge are getting input from all the people they serve.

“I personally have not seen that or heard of it. It’s quite the opposite actually,” she said. “There’s a lot of mistrust going on. I think that really affects everyone at the end of the day.”

OPEN DIALOG - Erick Guzman, a bilingual deputy with the Marathon County Sheriff’s Department, speaks to an audience at the UW-Stevens Point campus in Wausau last week Wednesday about the different law enforcement agencies in the county. The map he’s pointing to shows the Hispanic officers located in the county.

STAFF PHOTO/KEVIN O’BRIEN