[0:00] For being here, we have, oh, thank you. I should have told me. Okay, thinking we've got everyone coming in for sure. And we have a lot to hear. We haven't had the opportunity since November of 2020 to review the work that we've been doing and immigrant defense and support. And so we have that opportunity today to look at the work that's been going on together with our partners.

[0:29] members in the community, some of whom you'll see on the screen with us and joining us,

[0:34] as well as with Vera Institute, Vera's been supporting us and this work that we have

[0:41] taken on to ensure that our community is welcoming and supportive and particular of those who are

[0:48] at risk of deportation.

[0:50] Commissioner McDonough and I have had the opportunity to be out convening with partners

[0:56] across the United States, and representing this work that our board is supporting in Ramsey County.

[1:02] So I want to say thank you so much to Elizabeth and to Lydia who are on the line with us.

[1:09] Ask that we hold our questions. We have a number of presentations. They will be brief.

[1:15] And we do have partners that may need to leave before the new hour. So let's hold our questions.

[1:22] and hopefully we can do so on.

[1:24] Let's do something urgent.

[1:26] And we'll be able to ask questions

[1:28] at the end of the presentation.

[1:29] And with that, I'll turn it over to Elizabeth.

[1:31] Thank you.

[1:34] Thank you, Madam Chair.

[1:35] It's actually Lydia.

[1:36] She's gonna kick off a presentation.

[1:38] Okay. Well, then Lydia, thank you very much.

[1:41] I saw Elizabeth and turned it over to her.

[1:43] But Lydia is leading.

[1:45] So thank you for taking us forward.

[1:47] Thank you, Elizabeth.

[1:48] Madam Chair, commissioners, County Manager O'Connor.

[1:50] Thank you for having us here to present to you today

[1:53] and Ransi counties continued partnership with the city of St. Paul, the Vera Institute of Justice,

[1:59] our legal service providers and community-based organizations to support immigrant and refugee

[2:04] families in our county. The last time we came before you was in November of 2020,

[2:09] where we discussed how the county invested in community engagement,

[2:13] wraparound services, and access to legal representation for those that are detained and

[2:18] facing removal through the immigration legal defense fund.

[2:23] And as reflected in the agenda and the PowerPoint that you'll get to see soon here.

[2:29] Today's board workshop offers updated outcome data from our immigration legal defense partners.

[2:34] A sharing of community stories and overview of key initiatives led by the city of St. Paul.

[2:39] And emerging issues that continue to impact our community and conversations.

[2:44] We also continue to have in the region about sustainability of legal defense resources advocacy and partnership. I'd like to take some time to introduce our presenters here today.

[2:58] I want you to get an opportunity to hear from them and have them introduce themselves actually so if we can go around and do that Madam chair.

[3:05] Thank

[3:11] you and so we'll introduce ourselves and then will the presenters be introducing themselves as they start.

[3:20] I'm Tony Carter Ramsey County Commissioner for District 4 and I'll ask the others to introduce themselves by district.

[3:27] Thank you.

[3:28] Michelle Nicole rather district one.

[3:36] We are Mary Jo McGuire and Ramsey County Commissioner District 2.

[3:39] Yes, I see Commissioner

[3:53] Tegga.

[3:57] Raphael Tegga, Commissioner District 5.

[4:01] Jim McDonough, Commissioner District 6.

[4:05] Victoria Reinhardt, Commissioner District 7.

[4:08] Thank you very much.

[4:11] Staff on the line.

[4:14] Hi, Ryan O'Connor, I'm the Ramsey County Manager, and I think the rest of the team here is all going to be a part of the presentation.

[4:20] Great.

[4:21] Thank you, Lydia, for making sure we took that step.

[4:26] Thank you Madam Chair. I'd like to hand it off to Manta Chum, who is the director of MN 8, MN 8 was one of our community partners in providing wraparound services in 2020.

[4:38] And she will share some of the emerging issues and key stories from community that is important for us in sending the context and this conversation. So I'm going to hand it off to Monica.

[4:52] Thank you. Thank you, Lydia.

[4:53] Thank you, Madam Chair and the others, other commissioners that are on here.

[4:58] So again, thank you for having me. My name is Montachom and as Lydia mentioned, I am the executive director and a co-founder of Minnesota 8th organization.

[5:08] before I became an organizer, I worked in health care,

[5:13] health care finance for most of my career,

[5:16] and I grew up right here in Ramsey County on St. Paul's West Side,

[5:20] and I'm a really proud Minnesota, and I've lived here all my life

[5:24] since our family immigrated here from Cambodia,

[5:28] but I was born in a refugee camp in Thailand,

[5:30] and so, yeah, I've lived here all my life,

[5:34] and I'm really proud of being a Minnesota.

[5:36] So for those of you who don't know, Minnesota 8 originated with the release Minnesota 8 campaign in 2016 when eight Cambodian men were detained by ice.

[5:48] And our families just came together to fight for their freedoms and just rallied.

[5:53] And one of those men was my baby brother.

[5:56] And so the Minnesota 8 organization, we continue to support Southeast Asian individuals and families impacted by detention and deportation as well as fighting for a future without detention and deportation for our community members.

[6:11] And I just want to share that like just a little bit of the stats. So since 1998 over 17,000 Southeast Asian Americans have received final orders of removal.

[6:24] and a vast majority of them due to old criminal convictions, some as early as, or some as long as 30 plus years ago when we first came here in the early 80s.

[6:36] Many of these individuals entered the country as refugees fleeing war in the 1970s and 80s and were resettled in a really poverty stricken neighborhoods.

[6:46] even some like the ones that I grew up in, in the projects of the West side, with poor living conditions, failing schools and high crime rates and just over policing.

[6:57] And so with deportations, as you all may know, there's a lot of mental health impacts and economic impacts with that.

[7:05] And, you know, when someone is facing detention and deportation, you know, they themselves are impacted and also their families kind of like myself.

[7:14] are impacted. So a lot of us, so when you think about one individual being impacted by detention

[7:20] or by deportation, there's a multitude of indirectly impacted family members. Families members are

[7:27] especially scared and nervous because of how imitating the legal systems are and fearing the

[7:32] future of being separated from their loved ones. Community members are also sometimes they have to

[7:37] spend a lot of their resources on attorneys and therapy when there are already scar cities in food

[7:43] and other basic necessities. Sometimes someone will hire an attorney who doesn't end up being

[7:50] able to help them and ends up exploiting them instead. And one of those examples is an individual

[7:56] that we worked with about four years ago and you know a lot of times folks when they hear about

[8:02] these raids that are happening they just begin to Google you know immigration attorneys, criminal

[8:07] will do attorneys, et cetera. And someone that I personally knew many years ago hired an attorney

[8:14] spent $10,000. Their family like, you know, we're raising money and just trying to find whatever

[8:20] resources that they could to hire an attorney. And this attorney wasn't even able to help them.

[8:27] And so we see that often where they're being exploited and and people just they're in so much fear

[8:36] that they just like do whatever they can.

[8:38] And so unfortunately, very recently, in the middle of last month,

[8:44] we heard from our partners out on the West Coast

[8:46] that ICE was planning to raid the Cambodian community

[8:50] again, and the individuals began to feel really nervous.

[8:54] And for most of us, even myself, I was on vacation,

[8:58] but it relived the trauma of the Minnesota 8 campaign

[9:01] just thinking about the previous raids.

[9:03] And so with that, you know, we know that it's really important for our communities to have a way to fight back against unjust attention and deportation legal defense and legal resources from trusted organizations makes such a big difference in a community member winning their case.

[9:19] And for again, for folks who don't know Minnesota 8 or the release Minnesota 8 campaign, we were able to secure the release of three of the individuals and we had never done this before, but it was really, you know, the community support working with Ramsey County.

[9:34] Just building those relationships and I really just want to say that like with the wraparound services that we were able to provide or we were able to get.

[9:43] But we were able to have successful videos that were made, so we had no-your-rights videos

[9:52] that were made in four different languages, my Hmong, Lao, and Vietnamese, and then

[9:59] also English, so five.

[10:01] And then we were also able to make these pamphlets, and then we were able to hold, and Vina was

[10:06] also a part of it.

[10:07] We had different legal partners that help us to hold an event back in February 29th

[10:13] the year 2020 right before the pandemic. We had over 200 folks show up to our to our event at

[10:19] wilder and so we are just really grateful for like Ramsey County. Also I know someone is on here

[10:26] from from Vera and we were able to also get some support from Vera where we're a part of the Vera

[10:33] network, the safe network and we were able to produce some additional videos to really share and

[10:38] highlight what universal representation how that would help communities as well. So I just want

[10:44] to thank you all again for your continued support in our initiatives and organizations like

[10:49] Minnesota 8 and, you know, to our legal partners and Ramsey County, you know, again, which is

[10:55] home to the greatest number of Southeast Asian individuals here in Minnesota. So with that,

[11:00] I'll turn it back over to Lydia. Thank you, Montha. If we can do a screen share of the PowerPoint

[11:08] at slide five, wanna provide you some background data.

[11:25] Thank you.

[11:27] But we know that Ramsey County's population

[11:30] is comprised of 16% foreign-born residents

[11:33] and 7% of those are not currently US citizens.

[11:38] 8.5% of the population have gone through a naturalization

[11:44] process to become US citizens.

[11:46] In the city of St. Paul,

[11:47] whole cellar dysformed born population in our county. And according to our legal service providers,

[11:52] about 20 to 30 percent of individuals in Minnesota who are detained and appear in court have legal

[11:59] representation. And those who have counsel are five times more likely to win belief and detained

[12:05] individuals with counsel are 11 more, 11 times more likely to win relief. And I'd like to hand it off

[12:12] Tvina, Iyer from ILCM and Elizabeth Kinney from Vera to talk more about the impacts of access to

[12:19] legal representation and some of the outcomes that we're seeing from our partnership.

[12:24] Can go to the next slide.

[12:28] Thank you.

[12:32] Madam Chair and commissioners, I'm really humbled to be here

[12:37] today to join you to talk about really work that we have collectively done together

[12:43] to keep families together in Ramsey County and St. Paul.

[12:48] And when I say it together, I really, really do mean it.

[12:51] It is, this is an effort of everybody who is on this call

[12:56] and the folks that I'm gonna talk about who are on this slide.

[12:59] And frankly, the people of Ramsey County

[13:02] because it's the people of Ramsey County

[13:05] who, including myself, I live in District 5,

[13:09] who elected all of you and asked you

[13:11] to make sure that you were supporting immigrant families and you did that. So thank you.

[13:17] As Lydia met, my name is Vina Iyer. I'm the Executive Director of the Immigrant

[13:20] Law Center of Minnesota. And we are so grateful that since March of 2020, we have been a part of

[13:28] the Immigrant Legal Defense Partnership, which really started through a vision from Ramsey County,

[13:35] St. Paul coming together and then joining with Vera in order to make sure to come together

[13:42] to create a fairly unique partnership between the county and the city to provide legal services

[13:50] for immigrant families who were facing separation perhaps death because of deportation and detention.

[14:00] Then, we also came together as legal services partners, so the Immigrant Law Center advocates

[14:07] for human rights and minminnesota legal aid have come together to work on these cases.

[14:14] And what's really important there is that this is very much a partnership and a collaboration

[14:18] where attorneys from all of the organizations come together to figure out the best way

[14:24] to serve families, utilizing the unique gifts and the unique strengths that each of the organizations have.

[14:32] And then finally, as you see, illustrated the wraparound services through organizations like Minnesota 8,

[14:38] Minnesota Freedom Fund, which pays for bonds, conversations with friends, which is able to go into detention and provide supports,

[14:45] the Coalition of Asian American Leaders, and the Black Immigrant Collective.

[14:50] All of these organizations work together to serve the really varied needs of immigrant

[14:55] families who are facing deportation and detention.

[14:58] So this is truly a

[15:07] So, what's happened since the county first invested a lot? Obviously, this is all against the backdrop of significant threats to immigrants in detention, because of the COVID pandemic, which made it even more important for people to be able to release. Of course, the end of the Trump era and the end of the pandemic.

[15:29] the beginning of the Biden era, which unfortunately has not come with the type of reduction in deportations

[15:37] or that we would have hoped to see, but certainly more of an opening than we had before. So during

[15:44] the time that we have worked on this, that we've been working together, 293 individuals who are

[15:52] in detention have received advice about their deportation proceedings. 25 have been represented by

[15:58] the collective and of those there the parents of 25 Ramsey County youth 80% of whom are citizens,

[16:06] six have been released from detention and reunited with their families and four have been completed

[16:11] their cases and were able to stay in the United States. And to provide a little bit of context here,

[16:17] we're talking about cases that in the case of deportation cases at this time because of

[16:23] So the very long backlog can take four to five years, and significant difficulty with

[16:31] getting folks out of detention, but we were able to get folks out in these cases.

[16:36] And even in those cases where somebody may have been deported, we're still fighting a

[16:41] really good example of that is a case that is highlighted in the materials that you may

[16:46] have received of somebody of a client named Marco, named has been changed, but who had

[16:52] suffered a significant crime here in the United States had cooperated with law enforcement and

[16:58] was eligible for what's called the UVSA. It's a really important tool for law enforcement

[17:03] here in Ramsey County in St. Paul to protect immigrant victims. But he was placed in deportation

[17:10] proceedings and because there's a five-year backlog for UVSAs to be adjudicated, it couldn't be adjudicated

[17:16] before a decision was made on his asylum case. Unfortunately a negative decision and he was

[17:22] reported. But our team is still fighting, has gotten his UV set and is working to get

[17:27] him back into the country and to be able to rejoin his family. And frankly, to be able

[17:33] to demonstrate that when folks who are victims of crime do cooperate with law enforcement,

[17:39] our community is ready to stand and to support them, which is such an important part of really

[17:45] keeping our communities and our families not only together, but also safe.

[17:53] Nice to now go to the next slide. And I'll turn it over to folks from Vera.

[18:00] Hi, good morning, Madam Carter and commissioners. Thank you so much for having me at the workshop today.

[18:06] My name is Liz Kenney and I'm the associate director of the Safe Network at the Vera Institute of

[18:10] Justice. Vera is a national justice reform organization that is focused on

[18:16] among other things creating a public defender system for immigrants facing deportation by increasing public investments in defense at the local state and federal level.

[18:26] And so we've had the privilege of partnering with Ramsey County since 2019 and working with Elizabeth and Lydia and the legal service providers and Montha and MN 8 to build this publicly funded deportation defense program in Minnesota, which is a real testament about what can be accomplished.

[18:45] through these types of investments.

[18:48] At Viro we are really keeping our eyes set at the federal level

[18:52] by seeking to achieve in the long-term federal legislation

[18:56] that guarantees the right to a federally funded public defender

[18:59] for everyone across the country facing deportation.

[19:03] But these opportunities at the federal level really would never

[19:06] have been possible without this ground swell of programs

[19:10] occurring at the local and state level,

[19:12] such as this happening here in Ramsey County in St. Paul.

[19:15] These programs have demonstrated both the need for

[19:18] and efficacy of universal representation,

[19:21] as well as the political will of local and state leaders,

[19:24] like yourselves, to champion them as effective policies

[19:28] that can protect you process and promote family unity

[19:31] and community stability.

[19:33] And as you just heard from some of the stories shared by Vina,

[19:38] I think your program at the local level has not just been a demonstration

[19:41] of what can happen when someone gets an attorney, but really what can happen when someone gets

[19:45] at a legal team that can provide high quality zealous representation that is really focused on

[19:51] serving the holistic needs of that individual. And so hoping that that programs like this can

[19:57] really serve as a model across the country. So while we kind of keep our eyes set on our long-term

[20:05] fight at the federal level, which we know will take a long time to accomplish, we are really excited

[20:11] about the momentum at the local and state level that programs like yours, the impact that it

[20:18] can have in supporting your community members who are impacted by this system. These programs will

[20:25] both demonstrate proof points to make the case at the federal level and they'll build the infrastructure

[20:32] for deportation defense that will be needed when we realize that right. So we really hope that

[20:39] Ramsey County, Anne St. Paul, I see you at Mundo.

[20:42] We'll continue to invest in this program

[20:45] and stabilize and sustain the funding going forward

[20:48] to ensure that all of your community members

[20:52] have the benefit of a defense that they need.

[20:54] We're working with jurisdictions around the country

[20:57] to identify ways to make these programs sustainable

[21:01] and to grow them both through local investment

[21:04] and through serving as models in the region for additional investment at the regional or state level.

[21:12] And we'd love to continue partnering with you to identify opportunities to make that happen

[21:17] and to demonstrate the real impact that the legal service providers and MN8 have had in stabilizing this community.

[21:25] But I really appreciate your time today in learning about this program.

[21:35] And I'm not sure who I'm passing it back to, I apologize.

[21:38] back to Vienna so we can go to the next slide.

[21:41] All right.

[21:43] Thanks so much, Liz.

[21:46] The other item that I wanted to be able to share with you

[21:49] is another unique partnership.

[21:51] This one actually specifically between Ramsey County,

[21:54] the University of St. Thomas and the Immigrant Law Center

[21:57] through the Ireland Fellows Program,

[22:00] which is a way to get new law student, new law graduates

[22:05] into public service by partnering with an organization

[22:09] where they're there for a year long fellowship to serve unmet needs in the community,

[22:14] and particularly with regard to the Ireland Fellows who have been posted at the Immigrant

[22:19] Law Center for the two years, specifically the unmet immigration legal needs of folks in Ramsey

[22:25] County. So I just like to provide a two highlights of two of our past fellows. Our first fellow was

[22:32] of Angelina Duan who was with us from 2020 to 2021 and stayed with us for another year after that.

[22:37] She did significant work in our community, and I'd just like to highlight particularly

[22:41] her work with the Southeast Asian community working on some of those clinics that Monta

[22:47] mentioned.

[22:48] And in particular, a big win that came last year in which Evangeline had determined that

[22:55] an individual who had an old deportation order from 25 years ago, that he was likely eligible

[23:03] for postconviction relief.

[23:05] She partnered with Chang Lau at the Appellate Defender's Office, as well and Chang, I think

[23:12] bridged out to Jorge at the Ramsey County Attorney's Office to figure out if post-conviction

[23:17] relief was possible, able to get that conviction reopened.

[23:21] And then as a result of Angeline was able to go into Immigration Court, reopen the deportation

[23:28] case and get the deportation proceedings terminated so that this individual is now getting back

[23:34] his green card and is in the process of applying for naturalization. So these are the things that can

[23:40] happen. This is an individual who has lived in the community for over 30 years. He has children,

[23:48] he is supporting his family, and I think that actually Ter Carter got to hear his son speak

[23:53] a couple of months ago when we were actually the announcement was made for the continued funding

[23:57] of this program. So real true impacts in the community. James was our fellow last year,

[24:03] And what's so important about what he is able to do is that this funding has really helped

[24:07] us to address those emergent needs that a long-term funding for a particular thing can't

[24:14] do.

[24:14] So particularly helping with changes in DACA, assisting individuals with applying for temporary

[24:20] protected status because there were emergent issues in their home countries such as Haiti,

[24:27] Burma, Venezuela, a significant amount of outreach as well to those communities.

[24:33] So really fantastic work and and this year we're also going to be having Austin Sauer as our next as our next fellow. So thank you so much for your investment and making sure that there is legal assistance for those just new needs that come up for our immigrant and refugee communities every day.

[24:52] I'll turn it over to the next person. I think I'll be back to Lydia I think.

[24:59] Thank you, Vienna. Commissioner Carter. Madam Chair, did you have a question? Did you want me to ask?

[25:05] No, that was going to be a heart or a thumbs-up, but I couldn't find that key. Go ahead.

[25:12] Sounds good. I'll hand it off to Jorge.

[25:18] Thank you, Lydia. Good morning, Madam Chair, commissioners.

[25:23] My name is Jorge Saveira. I'm an assistant Ramsey County Attorney and I'm here to talk about our work around collateral consequences.

[25:37] You know, I joined the Ramsey County Attorney's office at the very beginning of 2019 and just before I came to the office,

[25:45] John Choi, John Choi, our county attorney issued our

[25:51] collateral consequences policy in the office and collateral consequences

[25:56] referred to those additional consequences that a person who's involved in the

[26:01] criminal justice system may experience as a result of their involvement. So those

[26:06] things that go beyond the direct consequences of the criminal prosecution that

[26:11] they may be involved in. And that can implicate things like, you know, losing access to housing,

[26:19] losing employment, losing lawful immigration status. And on that basis, we have this policy,

[26:31] which directs our trial attorneys to examine the issue of collateral consequences when the issue

[26:39] who is raised by a defendant in a criminal proceeding.

[26:44] And we do that because the law really

[26:49] is pointing towards looking holistically

[26:54] at the consequences that an individual may experience

[26:58] or suffer as a result of an involvement

[27:01] in the criminal justice system.

[27:03] And it's incumbent on us as prosecutors

[27:06] to exercise our discussion and to make sure that those consequences are proportional to the to the offense that's before before us in the proceeding.

[27:21] So I joined the county attorney's office as the collateral consequences attorney I've been doing this work now and we're at a point where collateral consequences in the process of consideration is really a part of our practice.

[27:36] at this point, I think I've worked with all of our trial attorneys on one matter or another.

[27:42] As I indicated, you know, things related to employment, housing, occupational licensing,

[27:48] those issues come up regularly. Immigration, collateral consequences,

[27:53] or where an individual may be in jeopardy of losing their lawful immigration status.

[28:00] also is an important issue that we're working with on a regular basis. The

[28:10] trolleteries have a tremendous amount of discretion and working collaboratively

[28:15] with me and with the experience attorneys in our office. We have an

[28:24] opportunity in many cases to try to craft a resolution to the case that both

[28:29] accounts for the the seriousness of the offense, but also takes into consideration this proportionate

[28:36] collateral consequences. So we can arrive at an appropriate and just resolution to the case.

[28:47] You know, I think I just want to add in closing that, you know, this work has just been so vital

[28:55] and so important to our trial attorneys frequently when a defense brings issues of collateral consequences or a little bit on an uneven playing field.

[29:07] And I think having the in-house expertise to be able to advise our trial attorneys, give them information about those collateral consequences, whatever the type of consequence is and being able to equip our trial attorneys with the information to be able to work with defense.

[29:24] and to arrive at a meaningful and just resolution of the case, I think really has made a difference in our work.

[29:38] Thank you, Jorge. Now I'll hand it off to Edmundonex.

[29:45] Madam Chair, Commissioner's good morning. It is an honor and a pleasure to be here before you again.

[29:51] And to speak to you about a topic that is near and dear to my heart as I know it is to many of yours.

[29:57] Thank you so much.

[29:59] First, I'd like to...

[30:00] So, I apologize about five minutes before I was supposed to be on with you. My computer crashed. I got a new computer about three weeks ago. And the first week, the microphone didn't work. The second week, the camera didn't work. And then today, a crash, just as I was about to join you. So I was a few minutes late, and I apologize. But it is an honor and a pleasure to be here. And first, I really want to thank Lydia and Elizabeth for the work they've done for being just fantastic partners.

[30:29] working together on this legal defense initiative has been in experience and it really is about

[30:38] what can we do as opposed to we can't do that. So I really feel that the successes program really

[30:45] has much to do with their efforts as anyone's and I am very thankful for their partnership. I'm

[30:51] also very thankful for Vera's participation in partnership. As you know we've agreed to continue

[30:57] this program for another year and Vera has agreed to be our partner and manage the contract

[31:05] of the legal service providers and the city has committed $100,000 for this upcoming year

[31:15] to the continuation of this program. Really, the next phase of this program is to create sustainability

[31:24] And to look beyond our borders, if we've learned anything in this past year and a half, we've learned that the issues raised through this program and the issues that are addressed really aren't limited by jurisdictional lines.

[31:39] It is a multi jurisdictional problem that issue, you know, we have families that live,

[31:44] may live in St. Paul, but, you know, half of the family lives in Minneapolis or NOCA.

[31:49] You know, I can't tell you how many times I've gotten a call from someone in South St. Paul or West

[31:53] St. Paul saying, hey, you need my, you know, my brother's been detained. My dad's been detained.

[31:57] You know, my mom's been detained. What can we do? And I said, well, you know, here are some numbers

[32:01] you can call, but, you know, you can't be part of our program because you're living Dakota County.

[32:05] So, you know, one of the things that Elizabeth and Lydia and I have been working on is trying to meet with our partners and other cities and counties, specifically in the Twin Cities through a multi jurisdictional group that we've put together with the city of Minneapolis and Hanupin County where we talk about.

[32:28] and we have discussed trying to come together

[32:30] and build more of a multi-jurisdictional program

[32:35] that would be sustained and would be able to reach

[32:40] more people because as I believe it was either Lidia,

[32:45] I think it was Lidia who mentioned that 20 to 30%

[32:48] of the people in removal proceedings are represented.

[32:53] And it's really not a question of is the glass

[32:54] That's half full or half empty.

[32:56] Really, the glass is pretty much empty.

[32:59] I mean, that means that 70 to 80% of the people in removal

[33:02] proceedings are not represented.

[33:05] So that means the vast majority of the people in Ramsey County

[33:07] are not represented.

[33:10] So I think this is an issue we need to continue to address.

[33:14] Others have spoken to how this type of program really helps

[33:18] to stabilize communities have made people feel safe

[33:23] and have a built trust with communities which has, has an, you know, carry over effect that all we do.

[33:31] You know, I can't tell you when I first started in my position, you know, I would talk to people in community and they would say to me,

[33:38] hey, I'm not going to talk to you. You're with the city attorney's office. You're the guys end up getting us in removal precinct. You're the guys end up getting us deported.

[33:44] It took a while for me to build trust and say, look, no, I'm not.

[33:47] You know, we're here to try to figure out how to, how to, you know, realistically deal with this dilemma that we're all in.

[33:54] And it took a while, but I feel that we built, we built trust and I think the work that the county has done through this partnership and the wraparound services.

[34:04] I've gone a long way to really build trust and build a safer, stronger community.

[34:09] It's more stabilized.

[34:10] So I look forward to our continued partnership and discussions about how we can continue

[34:18] to build and sustain this program, but possibly create one that is multi-jurisdictional.

[34:25] Also, I'd like to address another aspect that we're working on in St. Paul is a new American

[34:30] loan program with the Finany Plus Credit Union, which we announced in September.

[34:35] It is a program to assist individuals in St. Paul who are permanent residents who are eligible to naturalize to get a zero interest loan that they can pay back over the course of the year to apply for naturalization, pay for those fees for naturalization, but we have found that there are two major barriers to naturalization.

[34:59] One is the inability to be able to speak right or read in English and the other is the ability to come over that $725 up front to pay for the naturalization application.

[35:10] So this is one way for people who don't qualify for a fee waiver and believe if you're below 150% of the poverty guidelines, USCIS will waive your fee.

[35:23] if you're below 200% you get a partial fee waiver but anyone who's 200% or above

[35:29] poverty guidelines can't get a fee waiver and there's a fairly large group of

[35:35] people that just above that 200% level and who can't afford to pay that money

[35:42] upfront so this no interest loan is a way for them to pay for those applications

[35:48] But also creates an opportunity for them to create a relationship with a bank, because we've also found that many of our

[35:56] non-citizen

[35:58] residents and

[35:59] and the city are on bank and they you know they don't have a way of building wealth and and sustaining their families and and this is also a way to kind of

[36:10] meet that population at a place where we can help to educate and and bring

[36:16] some additional financial services in relationship to our

[36:22] immigrant refugee community.

[36:25] The next I'd like to really talk a little bit more about our

[36:29] initiatives to increase naturalization in St.

[36:31] Paul Ramsey County.

[36:33] Our next phase in addressing the issue of naturalization is we are

[36:39] starting to develop workshops with our libraries where we will

[36:43] will present information about what naturalization is, how do you get done, who qualifies, and then

[36:55] refer those individuals who do show up to the workshops to qualify and competent immigration

[37:01] attorneys that can provide them with assistance in applying for naturalization. Most of those

[37:08] organizations are going to be the same legal partners that we work with in our

[37:11] defense program. So it's just another phase of how we are trying to stabilize

[37:18] the communities. I talked in the past and we've met about how naturalization

[37:22] is really like the immunization against removal because if we see removal as a

[37:28] disease in the deportation phase, the person is already sick.

[37:34] naturalization prevents people from being deported because they're now US

[37:39] citizens, but if they naturalize, well, their children under the age of 18

[37:44] also automatically become US citizens. So it also immunizes those children from

[37:50] having to need legal representation if they get into trouble later in life. The

[37:59] other thing that this issue addresses is that Montha talked about the

[38:04] the conditions that that refugees are resettled into, they do come into sometimes poverty situations,

[38:10] poor educational systems and they come into difficulty because they're in difficult situations.

[38:18] They also face racism discrimination and other issues that make it difficult and much of the

[38:23] naturalization program and the other programs that we're working on in St. Paul really are going to

[38:28] try to address those conditions that immigrant refugee families are in and find ways to assist

[38:35] them to live their best lives because when we raise their standards, all of our standards

[38:44] raise in our community's roster. And that is, we're fortunate that St. Paul received the Gateways

[38:51] for Growth Initiative Award. The Gateways for Growth is a joint venture by welcoming America

[38:57] an organization that assists communities to become more welcoming immigrants

[39:01] refugees across the country and a new American economy which is an organization

[39:07] that researchers and provides data, economic and demographic data on immigrant

[39:16] refugee populations living throughout the United States and they created this

[39:20] initiative that would assist local communities to develop immigrant integration

[39:27] plans for their communities. We were fortunate to receive a grant with our partner,

[39:33] the St. Paul Area Chamber of Commerce, and we've been working over the last year to develop

[39:38] an immigrant integration plan for St. Paul. Fortunately, for us, the City of Minneapolis and the

[39:48] Minneapolis Chamber of Commerce also received a great ways for growth initiative

[39:54] were last year and we have partnered to develop a plan together for the Twin Cities with breakout

[40:01] sections for each city on how the the recommendations that came out of this this process should be

[40:09] implemented for each city. One of the issues that we raised that we encountered I'm sorry that we

[40:15] encountered when we first started this initiative work is that we were doing community engagement and

[40:21] finding that we were engaging the same groups,

[40:25] the same populations, the same communities

[40:27] that Minneapolis was engaging.

[40:31] Also, it was right after the killing of George Floyd

[40:34] and a lot of the unrest and levels of mistrust

[40:38] were very, very high.

[40:40] People did not want to talk to us.

[40:42] They felt like they had been over engaged

[40:44] and under listened to.

[40:46] They felt they were being taken for granted.

[40:47] there's also a lot of grief and going on and people were trying to recover, so it was very

[40:57] difficult. So we were able to join forces with the Minneapolis Initiative and we were able to

[41:03] join to get 24 non-profit organizations across the Twin Cities to come together and create an advisory

[41:12] committee to help us to develop this plan. I can tell you that Ramsey County was very involved,

[41:18] Lydia and Elizabeth were very involved and incredibly helpful and added a lot of

[41:25] information and suggestions that were incredibly helpful on them. I'm really excited to be able

[41:30] to watch and announce the plan at the end of March. I'm excited to come back before you and talk

[41:36] about the plan, how we can partner together to do more for immigrant and refugee communities.

[41:43] I'm not sure who we go to next. Thank you Edmundo. We're going to go to emerging issues so

[41:49] if we can go to the next slide and I'll give it to Vina and you to talk briefly about some of the

[41:55] issues that are emerging in our community and what impacts potentially they are for the folks

[42:00] when looking to search.

[42:05] Thank you. Stay

[42:07] white at office of new Americans. I can

[42:09] start real quick. The State of Minnesota

[42:11] hired an assistant commissioner of

[42:14] immigrant refugee affairs as part of

[42:16] M.D. Anisa Hajimumi is the commission

[42:20] assistant commissioner and she's been

[42:22] working on many issues involving

[42:24] economic development and workforce

[42:26] development for the immigrant refugee

[42:28] community. But she her work is through

[42:32] a grant to the Emerson Foundation, I believe, and, or the Emerson Initiative. And that grant

[42:42] is coming to an end. And the governor's office is looking at creating an office of

[42:47] new Americans for the state. And I believe they will be introducing legislation sometime

[42:51] later this month, creating an office of new Americans, which would do similar work to what

[42:58] But we in the city of St. Paul and Ramsey County and the city of Minneapolis do around our offices of immigrant and refugee affairs to promote immigrant inclusion and economic and workforce development for our immigrant and refugee communities.

[43:15] Turn over to being able to talk a little bit about the return old public charge rule.

[43:20] Yeah, I can talk about. So just a high level, as the board likely knows, during the Trump

[43:28] administration there was a proposal to change the public charge rule which created a significant

[43:34] chilling effect on immigrants and refugees and frankly children of immigrants and refugees

[43:39] seeking medical and economic assistance, lunch assistance that they were entitled to

[43:46] So that has been pulled back and in addition, the Biden administration has just issued proposed new regulations to really go back to the old public target role to really I think in a lot of ways insulated from any type of litigation attack.

[44:02] So just want to know that and that organizations like ours will make sure that the community knows about this, but overall this is a good development.

[44:09] And what did you want to have about our fan refugees?

[44:14] Sure, I can briefly discuss that.

[44:16] As you know, Afghan evacuees were recently resettling in the United States, beginning and believe in September of last year, U.S.

[44:28] Federal government began resettling Afghan evacuated after the United States,

[44:35] palletta at Afghanistan. Since then, a little over 1,200 Afghans have been resettled in Minnesota.

[44:44] Because of where the communities lie and availability of housing, about 60% of those Afghan

[44:52] evacuees have been resettled in Hennepin County. And the second highest county was Ramsey County

[44:58] with receiving about 20.

[45:00] 22% of those evacuees. The next big thing that's going on is a piece of legislation on that is the Afghan Adjustment Act, which would give Afghan to arrive here the opportunity to apply for permanent residents. They come in right now, either with what's called a parole status, or some of them come in with permanent residents because there was a special immigrant visa opportunity for Afghans, but those are much

[45:30] fewer than the actual paroleese.

[45:32] And paroleese are just here with the permission

[45:33] of the Attorney General.

[45:35] Their status is not permanent,

[45:37] and that status can be taken away.

[45:39] They also don't have a path to citizenship.

[45:43] So the Afghan Adjustment Act would give them an opportunity

[45:45] to obtain permit residence and apply

[45:47] for U.S. citizenship five years later.

[45:53] I mean, do you want to talk a little bit about

[45:55] the renewed direct to the Southeast Asian community?

[45:57] Absolutely. And one thing I just want to interject here, because frankly, these lives are made

[46:01] more than a week ago, which meant that Russia had not invaded Ukraine at the time that we share

[46:06] these. So I think one of the things that we also just need to be mindful of is supporting

[46:11] Ukrainian communities here. And I think also at the same time, making sure that we don't forget

[46:17] about, for example, Afghan evacuees, the Afghan Adjustment Act, as you are talking to federal

[46:22] legislatures making sure that it's clear that there is a lot of humanitarian disasters that are

[46:28] going on across the world and one does not replace the other. We still need to support the folks

[46:34] who are the victims of the ones that have come before and the importance of continuing to work on

[46:39] folks who are from Afghanistan, other countries as well. Finally, with regard to the Southeast Asian

[46:44] community, as you know a couple of years ago, there was discussion about repatriations and agreements

[46:52] to Cambodia, to Laos to Vietnam, and those were the efforts that led to Monta's brother

[47:01] almost being deported to Cambodia.

[47:05] There has been a renewed threat, renewed talks particularly with Cambodia, and so we wouldn't

[47:10] be surprised if there are other renewed efforts at repatriation and deportation to other parts

[47:19] of Southeast Asia.

[47:19] And it really just, I think, emphasizes the need for continued legal assistance to assist families

[47:27] as these threats arise to be able to make sure that they're able to go back,

[47:31] get rid of old convictions, and be able to stay here with their families.

[47:36] Turn to the next person.

[47:37] That would be me. I'm going to close us out here. Thank you so much, Vina.

[47:41] And we're talking about the important emerging issues that we need to continue to pay attention

[47:47] to here in our community. There's a lot that you've heard in this presentation today. And as we

[47:54] continue this work, we plan to engage community and partnership with the City of St. Paul,

[48:01] City of Minneapolis and in County and local organizations to understand concerns, barriers,

[48:07] and other emerging issues that impact immigrants and refugees in our community. And this includes

[48:12] disaggregating existing data to better understand the differing needs and experiences as well.

[48:18] We also want to be able to better tell the unique stories and the ways that they continue to

[48:23] contribute to the well-being of our overall community. We are engaging in dialogue with regional

[48:29] government agencies about the potential for greater partnership, advocacy alignment, and sustainability

[48:36] of immigration legal defense in the future, and we'll share updates with the board as this work progresses.

[48:41] I'll also share an updated fact sheet from Vera and follow up to this board meeting with you, so you have the data from our legal service providers as well.

[48:52] And I'd like to close this out. I'd like to really recognize not only are our partners that are on this call today, but those that are listening in.

[48:59] I also want to really acknowledge the cross departmental wraparound services team and director Elizabeth Tollsman for her leadership in this work as well.

[49:08] And finally, on behalf of our wraparound services team and our partners, I want to thank you commissioners and Connie manager, O'Connor for your continued support for the work that we do to support vulnerable individuals in our community to ensure that they have access to resources and services that have real life changing impacts so much appreciation to you for your support.

[49:32] And we stand for questions.

[49:33] And so now you know why we were working to get into the presentation, there has been so much that has been shared who would have known that the catalyst investment that we made by virtue of the decision of this board would have led to so much rich local state and national work that is happening with that.

[49:52] Let's open for questions from commissioners.

[49:55] I see a couple of hands up. I will call First and Commissioner McDonough and then Commissioner Reinhardt.

[50:04] I think Chair Carter, a couple observations and a couple questions.

[50:11] First off, I just want to, you know, thank everybody here.

[50:15] This has been really helpful to really kind of get this all pulled together, you know, two years after we started this process or even longer.

[50:23] really three years because I'm going to start here is I can remember the first

[50:29] time when you know four or five folks came and met with me and I know they

[50:33] met with all of you you know about this need right and sometimes the need

[50:41] to respond and just show support right away it's like okay here's we got the

[50:48] money we're gonna do it and we did it we checked the box yes we're part of the

[50:52] team. But you know, we we've got always got to do better than that. And so at that time,

[50:58] you know, we just said we've got to take the time to really be thoughtful here about what we're

[51:04] going to pull together, how we're going to craft this, how we're going to leverage the the

[51:09] partnership with the city as they were having those same conversations. How do we prepare

[51:14] to, you know, be attractive to Vera and wanting them to come in and partner and, you know,

[51:19] Elizabeth, I know you remember this, it took us a long time almost a year and there's a lot of

[51:26] impatience, right? And maybe risk of doubt, like, is the county board really involved? Why are

[51:34] they on board? But Elizabeth, you're a big part of this, you know, started with Julie, was

[51:40] county manager actually, you know, coming up with, you know, and Ryan, you're part of that transition

[51:47] in there of, you know, really bringing in the wraparound services was key component, right?

[51:53] That was something that wasn't necessarily a part of other work being done in other communities

[51:59] and really trying to figure out what that was, solidifying the strength and the partnership

[52:04] with the city's leverage those dollars so that we weren't having competing or complimenting programs

[52:11] that may be overlapping and not maximizing all the resources in our dollars to go as far as

[52:16] they possibly can.

[52:18] So, you know, it's really nice to see the slide

[52:20] with about, you know, I think count them maybe 10

[52:23] locals on that slide, because I can remember

[52:26] that first meeting, I think those folks,

[52:28] you know, the dire need and the angst in our community

[52:31] and the harm that was being done,

[52:33] they would have been fine with one local Ramsey County,

[52:35] you give us 150,000 bucks, so we're good, right?

[52:38] So we've done good work and we should take a moment

[52:41] to recognize that and then, you know,

[52:44] you know, bring it it in where it's not just a one and done, you know, that we've been able to find ways to sustain it, find the gaps and be able to start pulling those gaps or adjust as needed. So, you know, everybody from Ryan on down, that's been a part of this.

[52:59] I just want to say thank you and to all the presenters here today if we could go back to slide seven. I just wanted to peel that one back.

[53:07] I know there's a lot there, but I just wanted to peel that one back just a little bit.

[53:17] Are we able to screen share?

[53:21] And I know that we have all hands up just about.

[53:26] So that's why they had the numbers, right? I think 200 and some that, you know,

[53:31] we were able to give information to. And so a couple of different questions on that one. One is,

[53:39] you know what is that information that we're handing out or getting to people and then for that

[53:46] number is that enough or is there still a tremendous amount of gaps to be able to move more

[53:54] into that that column of 25 right? Only 25 of the 293 we've been able to move there then only

[54:01] can of the 25 we've been able to have some type of of resolution so maybe help me understand that

[54:09] 293 a little bit better of is the information enough to meet their needs or are there some

[54:16] big gaps there that you know we should that number of 25 should be a lot higher because right

[54:23] now we're just don't have either its resources or its policy or those types of things that are

[54:30] barriers to moving more into that group of 25. And Lydia while we're answering that I also want

[54:37] acknowledge that we have a partner on the line who is going to need to lead rather quickly and

[54:42] that's won't attune from Minnesota 8. And so if there is a way we can make certain we direct

[54:49] the next questions I'll look from on to that would be helpful. Lydia back to the question, my apologies.

[54:56] Thank you and I'd like to invite Vina and Liz Kinney from Bureau and I'll see you on to discuss

[55:05] Madam Chair and Commissioner McKenna, thank you so much for the question and for the partnership.

[55:11] Yes, I'm happy to answer that question.

[55:13] So first, with regard to the advice that was received about deportations,

[55:18] individuals are getting information about what a proceeding is like,

[55:24] how they can, what kind of defenses that they can assert,

[55:28] and information about how they could file those materials,

[55:32] pro-say, if a member of our legal team is not able to represent them.

[55:39] I also second 100% agree that moving folks from that 239 to the 25 is absolutely

[55:46] what the most important change that we can make in this slide.

[55:51] Unfortunately, that information is not enough as Lydia mentioned earlier,

[55:56] being represented in proceedings is absolutely the best way to increase the

[56:02] chances that somebody is going to be able to defeat deportation. So that

[56:04] informational loan is helpful, but not enough. How do we move people from that

[56:09] 293 to that 25? It's frankly an investment of additional resources. These

[56:16] cases are very, very time intensive can take upwards of 100, 200 hours over the

[56:23] the length of the case also requires additional assistance from expert witnesses, from social

[56:30] workers, others because a lot of these folks need additional supports because, again,

[56:34] have come as refugees and need that support in order to be able to help us to help them

[56:40] in their cases.

[56:41] So being able to make move that needle would I think have a tremendous effect on the other

[56:47] needles and then, of course, on the community as well.

[56:51] Thank you for that. Well, I'm sorry. Did I interrupt somebody there? Oh, do I just want to make

[56:56] sure to give Liz a chance if she needed to want it to add anything? The only thing I wanted to add

[57:00] is I you know, I think that this program started as many programs did and needed to as a focus on

[57:05] the who's who are most vulnerable, which are those who are in detention. And so, you know, there is

[57:10] increased need both for people in detention as well as people who are fighting their cases outside

[57:16] of detention and I think programs have grown over time to start to meet that need in a more

[57:24] comprehensive way. I think that, you know, as Edmundo referenced too, you know, it could be that

[57:32] many of the people in the 293 column don't qualify for services under the programs because they're not

[57:37] a resident of Ramsey County or City St. Paul, you know, because there are residency requirements in

[57:43] this program. And I think that's, you know, both an opportunity to bring in other jurisdictions

[57:51] to further support representation of those people. You know, we do work with some programs

[57:56] that don't implement residency requirements. And, you know, they service the docket that's

[58:01] in their jurisdiction and, you know, without necessarily regard to residency. So that's,

[58:05] I think, another lever that could be evaluated to change those numbers. And then finally,

[58:11] I guess I was just going to say is that, you know, the numbers you're seeing in kind of the six

[58:16] and four columns are consistent. You know, they're consistent with our other programs about the

[58:21] people who are able to obtain release or relief have their cases granted so that they can stay in

[58:28] the United States. And so that those are really important indicators of success of the investment,

[58:34] but they're not the only indicators of success. You know, even people who unfortunately

[58:38] can not stay in the country after having their attorney are still able to

[58:43] benefit from informed decision making and other interventions that can be made

[58:48] by the legal team that help them transition and fight their case. So I want

[58:52] to keep I want to center those two but absolutely want to think about ways to

[58:57] move those numbers in that slide and agree that it's an issue of investment.

[59:02] Thank you, Mr. McDonald, did you have a follow-up?

[59:06] Yeah, well, I'll save all the rest of my stuff

[59:08] because I know all my colleagues have questions.

[59:11] I'll go with all the time to the last observation

[59:13] or comment.

[59:14] When we started this, I raised a number of times,

[59:18] and I'm really glad to see the St. Paul Chamber listed here,

[59:21] because this is a big issue for businesses and employers.

[59:25] And early on, conversations around the Minnesota Chamber,

[59:30] because they've actually been recognized a couple

[59:32] a lot of times by folks for their work in this area

[59:35] because of the impact on businesses and their workforce.

[59:39] And I think we can't lose that

[59:42] because that piece there can really help us in policy

[59:47] or resources.

[59:49] And I want to just continue to raise that.

[59:51] Say Paul Chambers, Craig, but the Minnesota Chamber,

[59:54] I think is critical here moving forward

[59:55] on some of the statewide stuff that we talked about.

[59:58] So with that, Madam Chair,

[1:00:00] by for their work in this area because of the impact on businesses and their workforce. And I think we, you know, we can't lose that because that, that, that piece there can really help us in policy or resources. And I want to just continue to raise that, you know, say Paul Chambers, great, but the Minnesota Chamber, I think is critical here moving forward on some of the statewide stuff that we talked about. So with that, Madam Chair, I will mute myself here.

[1:00:28] Thank you, Commissioner McDonough, for your observations.

[1:00:31] I did see Commissioner Reinhardt hand up initially.

[1:00:35] It came down.

[1:00:36] I wonder if I should go on.

[1:00:38] All right.

[1:00:39] We'll call then, and I understand that Monta is able to stay with us until 12-15.

[1:00:44] That doesn't assume that everybody else can, but I hope so.

[1:00:47] Commission of McGuire next and then Commissioner of Tata.

[1:00:50] Thank you.

[1:00:51] Thank you, Madam Chair.

[1:00:53] And thanks all of you for all of your work.

[1:00:54] We are also grateful for these programs and for the partnerships.

[1:01:00] My questions were along the same as my colleague, Commissioner McDonough,

[1:01:04] and that page that you had up because I was just going to ask some clarifying questions about that.

[1:01:11] But one of them that I'll ask, and you don't have to put it up again,

[1:01:15] but we're seeing people that have been nervous to be a part of a government system anyway.

[1:01:21] I mean, they get a deportation notice, and they only come to us because they have to.

[1:01:27] They're probably leery of government, and so I'm wondering is when we make this contact

[1:01:32] with them, or when they make a contact with us, or they ask us a question, do we have any

[1:01:37] other work with them in any other way, then do we connect them to other services that they

[1:01:44] might need with the county, or is it mainly about their legal status, or I'm just curious

[1:01:50] if you want to comment a little bit about any other services that we might provide them

[1:01:54] as their families because now they are connected to the government and we can probably help them

[1:01:59] in other ways too. Just curious if you wanted to comment on that and then I have one more question

[1:02:06] on the numbers.

[1:02:09] I can comment briefly on that Madam Chair, Commissioner McGuire. You know,

[1:02:16] we supplemented the immigration legal defense work with wraparound services, particularly because of

[1:02:22] the reasons that you've raised, it's to make sure that A, that they're aware of these

[1:02:26] resources and B, that they're connected to county services that are not related to legal

[1:02:31] defense fairly, but just to meet their basic needs. And through that work, we were able

[1:02:36] to reach over 400 individuals, right? And working with about 17 different community-based

[1:02:44] organizations, including, and then eight, to connect them to county resources, but also

[1:02:49] to do other work, right, including what Monica mentioned earlier about legal clinics. You know,

[1:02:55] there's a lot that our community does not know about, I mean, immigration laws really complicated

[1:03:00] to begin with, but making sure that they have at least a basic understanding of what their rights are

[1:03:05] and who to get connected to. So we've been really intentional about making sure that we're supplementing

[1:03:09] the legal defense provision with all of these different wraparound services as well.

[1:03:15] Thank you for that.

[1:03:16] And I'll end with that, Madam Chair,

[1:03:19] because I know there's other people that have questions.

[1:03:21] So thank you.

[1:03:23] Thank you very much.

[1:03:24] Commissioner Taker.

[1:03:25] Thank you, Madam Chair.

[1:03:27] First of all, I'd like to let go whatever for my colleagues have stated.

[1:03:32] But, you know, we're very proud of the work you guys have done.

[1:03:37] Because you sort of starting a critical mass in this area.

[1:03:41] before we were always playing defense and we were always taking an issue as it came before us.

[1:03:48] And now it seems like we're taking the offense. And I want to thank Elizabeth because I think

[1:03:55] Elizabeth as our internal staff person really sort of coalesced us into this this trajectory.

[1:04:04] You know, this is the never-ending story of America. This is the country of immigrants. And we're

[1:04:11] always going to be dealing with this issue. So the question is, what are the underpinnings

[1:04:19] we're going to put in place to sort of make inroads long term? So I'm not so much concerned

[1:04:26] about the numbers even though we need to look at it as what is about metrics and evaluating

[1:04:32] and making things better. But it's more about the face of this effort that we're putting

[1:04:40] together now and that's impressive and I think you tell a great story. I do have one question

[1:04:47] and that really goes in and I know you all are doing good work but for my own clarification,

[1:04:52] Jorge, could you give me just a quick, also example of this collateral issues and example of that?

[1:05:05] Madam Chair, Commissioner Ortega, I would be happy to talk about more specifically about some of the work.

[1:05:14] And let me comment on, I think some of the numbers that we're seeing are so striking about the work that's going on across the county.

[1:05:25] and particularly in regards to immigration issues.

[1:05:30] I can't stress enough the highly technical nature of this work,

[1:05:37] and how much it takes in terms of time and expertise

[1:05:42] to really be able to drill down into that.

[1:05:45] That's one of the things that I think has been so meaningful

[1:05:47] in our work at the County Attorney's Office,

[1:05:51] where now this resource is available in part of our practice as prosecutors but you know so just

[1:05:58] briefly and I'll speak generally but you know in cases for example someone who may be facing the

[1:06:07] possibility of being placed into removal proceedings or facing the possibility of deportation in an

[1:06:15] immigration matter that's caused by their involvement in the criminal justice system.

[1:06:21] The first task for us is to examine the offense itself, to look at the facts,

[1:06:27] to look at the severity of the offense, and to determine if this is a case that's appropriate

[1:06:31] for us to consider for mitigation. Not every case is. And in those cases where we determine that it

[1:06:40] It is appropriate for mitigation, then we'll look at the options that we have under the

[1:06:45] law in terms of how we charge the case, how we might sentence the case.

[1:06:54] There's a lot of places in the proceeding for where we have discretion and where the

[1:06:59] law permits us to resolve the case in a way that balances this issue of proportionality.

[1:07:06] So the person, where we may request that the court impose an appropriate consequence,

[1:07:14] but that consequence is designed in a way that it helps that individual to preserve their

[1:07:21] immigration status, to avoid the worst possible immigration consequences.

[1:07:26] And in these cases, I think it's also important to stress that, you know, we don't, we can't

[1:07:32] always sort of wheeled a silver bullet, but we can certainly be helpful in trying to

[1:07:42] ameliorate or avoid the worst possible immigration consequences while still

[1:07:50] taking into consideration the needs of the community in terms of public safety, in terms of

[1:07:55] rehabilitation, in terms of supervision or probation. All of those things I think are part of

[1:08:02] that of this process and in equipping our trial attorneys with enough of that technical

[1:08:10] knowledge about the immigration consequences in those cases to be able to then exercise

[1:08:18] their discretion in a way that's well informed and where the mitigation can be effective for

[1:08:24] that individual.

[1:08:25] Now, I know that was in very general terms, but that's very typical of the kind of work

[1:08:30] that we do in considering immigration consequences and collateral consequences and in trying to craft

[1:08:36] a resolution that accounts both for our obligations as prosecutors and to the community

[1:08:42] and to the individual circumstances of that person. So that person then can remain in the community,

[1:08:49] can continue to be with their family and connected to employment or the other resources

[1:08:57] the community that they're part of. Thank you very much and just the last is I am

[1:09:03] as the commissioner district 5. I'm very proud that we've got what side is here leading to charge.

[1:09:10] Thank you everybody. Yeah, thank you all again Madam Chair. I just like to just add just some additional

[1:09:17] comments to what Jorge had shared. You know specifically I'll talk about my own personal experience

[1:09:23] with collateral consequences with my brother's specific case and with us working with Ramsey County because his case originally came the conviction came out of Ramsey County, and so what we did and so I'm extremely thankful that Jorge is in the position that he is at Ramsey County because

[1:09:41] with Jorge's position as Vina mentioned earlier is what helped G to be able to now, you know,

[1:09:48] be another like be a green card member again or card holder as well as working his way towards

[1:09:53] citizenship. And so ultimately our family during the release of Minnesota 8 campaign, we then filed

[1:10:00] what was called post-conviction relief. And this was the first time from my understanding is when

[1:10:06] and Ramsay County was able to actually see that this collateral consequences were happening to our immigrant community with us bringing up bringing or shedding light on my brother's case.

[1:10:18] And when we did that, it was really hard. And that's why Minnesota aid along with Cal and other partners at the decriminalizing communities coalition is working on this PCR post conviction release bill.

[1:10:29] It was very challenging for us during our campaign.

[1:10:34] We were able, though, ultimately to be able to get my brother

[1:10:37] to get post-conviction relief because it was still up to the

[1:10:41] discretion of Ramsey County to then be able to kind of

[1:10:46] agree to that two-year time limit, right?

[1:10:49] And so at that point, John Choi's office reviewed my brother's

[1:10:53] post-conviction relief and then allowed him...

[1:10:58] Actually, I think I believe in Jorge, correct me if I'm wrong, but I've been sharing it this way, and if not, then I'm wrong.

[1:11:04] But like the shorty is the first person in the history of Ramsey County, right, to be resent tense or, you know, after after after he completed probation, because so his conviction was in 2009.

[1:11:18] and then when we filed the post-conviction relief,

[1:11:21] they resentenced him from the 365 days to 364,

[1:11:25] which then led him to be released from ICE's detention.

[1:11:29] And then he was no longer considered an aggravated felon

[1:11:33] and they couldn't deport him.

[1:11:34] So now my brother, for those of you who don't know

[1:11:37] on June 30th of last year, he got his citizenship.

[1:11:41] And now he has a U.S. passport.

[1:11:44] And it was because of the support that we got

[1:11:46] from Ramsey County.

[1:11:47] and so the collateral consequences that happened just for simpler

[1:11:52] verbiage like how I understood it was that individuals like our immigrant

[1:11:57] community faced these charges that they were sentenced you know on the state

[1:12:02] or criminal level or I'm sorry state or county level and then for immigration

[1:12:08] purposes so like my brother's conviction was breaking a couple windows at a bar

[1:12:12] But because the amount for the property damage was over $500, that was considered a felony.

[1:12:21] But because he completed his time, had good time, etc., his public defender said if you

[1:12:28] don't, you know, commit the same, same or similar, etc., then it'll be reduced to like

[1:12:32] a gross misdemeanor.

[1:12:34] For federal purposes, that doesn't matter.

[1:12:36] He was sentenced to a year.

[1:12:38] So because of that, he was considered an aggravated felon for immigration purposes and thus causes him to be deportable.

[1:12:46] So the collateral consequence is that once it leaves the jurisdiction like the state or county jurisdiction, it goes to the federal or immigration system.

[1:12:55] And then they will then come in and do what they need to do, which in this case they were going to deport him. So it's actually worse than double jeopardy because they're exiling them to a different state or to a different country.

[1:13:06] And Jorge's position is so important to like organizations like Minnesota 8 and our and partners that we work with to really help you know them to Jorge helps look at like well, I guess maybe I'll have you explain that.

[1:13:21] But we're just so thankful for that position and we know that Jorge's position came out of the work and so that's what we're really we're really proud of is providing that or making that systemic change.

[1:13:31] range where Ramsey County was able to see like oh my gosh this is happening to our community

[1:13:36] when it leaves our jurisdiction and had no idea until our campaign had happened. So I just

[1:13:41] wanted to add to that because my brother actually wouldn't still be here if John choice office

[1:13:49] didn't actually like want to give him a chance right and so so I'm just so thankful that they

[1:13:54] looked past that and then saw how there could be so much support to our immigrant community by

[1:14:00] just having an immigration attorney help them to mitigate those collateral consequences, so

[1:14:04] so thank you for allowing me to just add that like extra.

[1:14:09] You're more. Madam chair, Madam chair, if I may. Go ahead.

[1:14:15] Madam chair commissioners, Manta's brothers case I think really stands for two things.

[1:14:21] One of them, I think it was a recognition and it certainly was the first time, but a recognition

[1:14:28] of how profound collateral consequences can impact an individual, their families, sometimes

[1:14:36] an entire community. And I think historically, prosecutors have ignored collateral consequences.

[1:14:47] And that's not a criticism necessarily of prosecutors. It's because the law has not always required

[1:14:53] prosecutors to look at that. But the development and the progression of the case law

[1:14:58] and the law and the law is

[1:15:05] And so, I think that was really, I think, a such a strong signal because Montez's brothers' case was such a profound example of that. And that's a case where everybody, including the folks who suffered the broken glass, we're saying the consequences that this individual is suffering as a result of this conviction are completely disproportionate, completely unjust.

[1:15:31] And as Manta indicated, in many of these cases, you know, the difference of a day in a sentence can make all the difference in the world in terms of the technical triggers that it trips under federal immigration law.

[1:15:46] So those two propositions, I think is what that case really stands for and I think that the work that we've been doing since that case, I think really reflect our commitment to taking those things into consideration and contributing to results that are truly just where we can say that we're both taking

[1:16:07] the community and public safety and the concern or into consideration, but getting results

[1:16:14] that are working for individuals and we're not having these outcomes that are just a

[1:16:18] completely counter-intuitive.

[1:16:21] I've got to say thank you to commissioners for your questions and to staff for taking

[1:16:28] that's deeper. I don't want to talk about for your personal story here that has been

[1:16:36] likely to see more so I see that as Mundo has kept hand up and I know that we are at the end

[1:16:42] of our time to be here. I'm going to call on a window for your final comments before we close.

[1:16:50] Thank you Madam Chair. I'll be very brief. I just wanted to add that the complexity of this issue

[1:16:55] even reaches our office. The same Paul City Attorney's Office. Our jurisdiction is over

[1:17:00] or misdemeanors that occur in the city of St. Paul.

[1:17:04] And you think misdemeanors, those aren't very serious.

[1:17:06] Well, there are several misdemeanors that'll

[1:17:08] and get you into removal proceeding and get you deported.

[1:17:11] So this complexity goes beyond,

[1:17:13] is it a misdemeanor of felony?

[1:17:16] It goes to all kinds of crimes that are not very serious,

[1:17:20] but it have very serious exiled results.

[1:17:23] So I just wanted to add that.

[1:17:25] Thank you so much.

[1:17:27] I need to say a very quick thank you

[1:17:29] for such comprehensive information and for the engagement over a time that has led to these

[1:17:36] results and the prospects of work on sustainability and effectiveness, again the partnerships and

[1:17:42] support that we need. But thank you to our partners who are on the line here for all that you're

[1:17:48] doing. We're going to conclude the workshop and know that we will hear more about the building work

[1:17:55] in coming months. The work is continuing and we are

[1:18:00] appreciative of that. Our workshop.

Board Workshop / Discussion on 2022-03-01 10:30 AM

Transcript