In this issue:

•Welcome Navigators! Page 1

•Illinois’ Reach Page 2

•The Border: Perspectives Page 3

•TPS Updates: Yemen Page 4

•DACA Update Page 4

•DACA : Deciding Page 5

•Immigrants and The Military Page 6

•Know Your Rights Page 7

•Opportunities to Help Page 8

•We Want To Hear From You Page 9

•Questions? Page 9

August 2018 Newsletter Page 1

Volume I, Issue III

COMMUNITY NAVIGATORS

Welcome Navigators! A Letter From the Community Navigators Intern

Welcome community navigators to our third Community Navigator Newsletter!

My name is Blair Fernandez, and I am the Community Navigators Intern for the

summer and fall terms. I am currently a senior at Illinois State University study-

ing Legal Studies with a minor in Political Science and Civic Engagement & Re-

sponsibility. Upon graduation, I want to attend graduate school for Higher Educa-

tion Student Affairs, I am involved with a number of organizations on campus

such as Students Ending Rape Culture, Mortar Board, ISULeads, Habitat for Humanity, and the University Hearing Panel.

I chose to do my internship with the immigration Project because immigration is a heated topic with the current administration.

Around the time of looking for an internship, the Bloomington Police were providing information to ICE agents,. As a descendant

of immigrants, it is important to help immigrants know their rights and how to feel safe in their own homes. This organization

appealed to me because they are not only in line with my major, but also with my values because The Immigration Pro-

ject is committed to helping those who have no voice. As stated above, with what has been happening with the Bloomington po-

lice and with what continues to happen on a national level, it is pertinent that immigrants know their rights to continue to pro-

tect themselves. It is also important for organizations to educate the community, so they can help immigrants in their own cit-

ies. We must be educated voters in order to make a difference and I look forward to meeting the individuals who have decided

to give their time to help and educate the community!

We hope to provide you with a newsletter to update you on current events and opportunities to help the community.

Look out for new trainings in your area to expand your skills and help the Immigration Project with their mission to provide high

quality legal services!

Thank you for reading and see you all soon! -Blair Fernandez

August 2018 Newsletter Page 2

COMMUNITY NAVIGATORS

What is Illinois’s connection with the immigration deten-tion centers? In his most recent statement of economic interests, Republican governor Bruce Rauner disclosed

earnings from a private equity fund that owns Correct Care Solutions, a for-profit health care provider that has millions of dollars in government contracts with jails and prisons across the country, including immi-grant detention centers. Although he said he relin-quished investment decisions to a third party and has no direct ties to Correct Care Solutions, Rauner’s disclo-

sures indicate that he’s earning income from the group, which reports annual revenue of $1 billion. The Illinois Coalition for Immigration and Refugee Rights has for years sought to expand a moratorium on the privatiza-tion of correctional facilities to extend to civil detention, including immigration detention centers. “It doesn’t mean the issue has gone away. We’re trying to figure

out the right occasion to revisit it,” said Fred Tsao, sen-ior policy counsel for the ICIRR. “If we did revisit that issue, then certainly the governor’s financial ties could

become an issue.”

While Bruce Rauner did speak out against family separa-tions, he didn’t create as much distance from the presi-dent’s policy as several other Republican governors. Massachusetts Governor, Charlie Baker, and Maryland

Governor, Larry Hogan, recalled or declined to deploy National Guard troops in response to the policy. Rauner last month wouldn’t commit to refusing a potential re-quest by Trump to deploy National Guard troops to the

U.S.-Mexican border.

Source: politico.com

Illinois’ Reach

COMMUNITY NAVIGATORS August 2018 Newsletter Page 3

The Border: Perspectives

President Donald Trump’s administration missed a court-mandated deadline on Monday, July 9th to reunify rough-ly 100 children under the age of 5 with their parents at

the border. His solution to the government failing to meet this deadline? “Well, I have a solution. Tell people not to come to our country illegally. That's the solution. Don't come to our country illegally. Come like other peo-ple do. Come legally,” he told reporters on the White House’s south lawn Tuesday, July 10th, morning. “I'm saying this very simply: We have laws. We have borders.

Don't come to our country illegally. It's not a good thing.”

As the situation at the border remains unsure, the family

separations have prompted calls from some Democrats to abolish U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, the agency whose charges include deportations. Trump, in his Tuesday morning remarks to reporters, slammed calls to do away with ICE. “The people that are fighting ICE, it's a disgrace. These people go into harm's way. There is nobody under greater danger than the people

from ICE,” he said. “We ought to support ICE, not do what the Democrats are doing. Democrats want open borders, and they don't mind crime. We want no crime, and we want borders where borders mean something, all right?”

Meanwhile, stories have been coming out of the immi-grant detention centers and they are horrific. Some pregnant women have claimed to suffer miscarriages without being offered any medical help form officials. “When the doctor examined me, he said there were many

reasons for the miscarriage, but it was likely because of the conditions they had me in,” Rubia Mabel Morales Al-faro said. She had been pushed onto the floor by agents after being caught at the border despite telling them she was pregnant. “They didn’t believe me. They said it wasn’t important, that it wasn’t their problem,” she said.

“An official arrived and they said it was not a hospital and they weren’t doctors. They wouldn’t look after me, “ another woman interviewed said. She went on saying “I

realized I was losing my son. It was his life that I was bleeding out. I was staining everything. I spent about eight days just lying down. I couldn’t eat, I couldn’t do anything. I started crying and crying and crying.”

In the Daily’s podcast from July 6th, one mother de-

scribed the conditions of the detention center she was at in Arizona. The food given was a runny soup, just adding more water to it. The lights were always on and they would lose track of days inside of the detention center. They were packed into a cell with so many mothers it was difficult to walk around. When talking to her children, her daughter described chest pains. Her mother urged

her to just cry to let it all out, but her daughter said that if she cried she would get into trouble and they threat-ened that her case was going to take longer. The Trump administration has until July 26th to reunite all children with their families.

Sources: politico.com, newsweek.com, and One Family’s Reunification Story

COMMUNITY NAVIGATORS August 2018 Newsletter Page 4

DACA Update

At this time, U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) is accepting DACA renewal applications from peo-ple who currently or previously had DACA. However, they

are NOT accepting first-time DACA applications.

On January 13, 2018, USCIS announced that it would begin

accepting DACA renewal applications. This announcement was in response to a federal court order requiring the Trump administration to accept DACA renewal applica-tions again. The Trump administration has appealed this order and asked the U.S. Supreme Court to reverse it. But so long as the order remains in effect, USCIS is required to process DACA renewal applications.

On April 24, 2018, a federal district court in Washington, D.C. ruled that the termination of DACA was unlawful and gave the Trump administration 90 days, or until July

23rd, to better explain their reasoning for ending the pro-gram. If the administration fails to provide a sufficient

response in 90 days, then the D.C. court has said that it will order the government to accept new applications as well as renewals. However, new applications are not being accepted at this time. This information could change, pending litigation, especially as the deadline to respond is

approaching.

Source: ACLU

Secretary of DHS Kirstjen M. Nielsen has announced an

extension of the Temporary Protected Status (TPS) desig-

nation for Yemen pursuant to the Immigration and Nation-

ality Act. After carefully reviewing conditions in Yemen

with interagency partners, she determined that the ongo-

ing armed conflict and extraordinary and temporary con-

ditions that support Yemen’s current designation for TPS

continue to exist. Therefore, she has extended Yemen’s

TPS designation for 18 months.

Individuals from Yemen with TPS will be eligible to re-

register for an extension of their status for 18 months,

through March 3, 2020. Prior to the conclusion of the 18-

month extension, the Secretary will review conditions in

Yemen to determine whether its TPS designation should

be extended again or terminated.

There are approximately 1,250 Yemeni TPS beneficiaries.

This 18-month extension of Yemen’s designation for TPS

permits current Yemeni TPS beneficiaries to re-register

for TPS and remain in the United States with work author-

ization through March 3, 2020. To be eligible for TPS un-

der Yemen’s current designation, along with meeting the

other eligibility requirements, individuals must have con-

tinuously resided in the United States since January 4,

2017, and have been continuously physically present in the

United States since March 4, 2017.

Source: USCIS

TPS Updates: Yemen

COMMUNITY NAVIGATORS August 2018 Newsletter Page 5

COMMUNITY NAVIGATORS August 2018 Newsletter Page 6

Immigrants and the Military

For more than a decade, the U.S. has offered immigrants who join the military a fast track to citizenship. Back in 2009, the Pentagon launched a new pilot program to allow

thousands of foreign-born recruits, particularly those with medical skills or fluency in a critical foreign language, to join the US military. The program, called “Military Acces-sions Vital to National Interest,” or MAVNI, for short, was

designed to attract people with skills that could help the US better interact with people who speak uncommon lan-guages, or even provide dental care, for example. Around

10,400 immigrant recruits entered the military through that

program over the past nine years.

Now, some of the recruits are being discharged from the military without reasoning. Some MAVNI troops were al-ready participating in military activities when they found out that they didn’t pass the background check. Those re-cruits were discharged. However, some applicants were

never given a reason why they couldn’t serve anymore.

CBS News spoke to one Pakistani man about being dis-charged. He didn't want his identity shown in fear of repris-al if he has to return to his home country. He said that "the feeling was just like getting kicked out of your own home. I

was so shocked there was so many tears in my eyes, my hands couldn't move fast enough to wipe them." He said that on June 11, his recruiter called him and to say the 22-year-old will be discharged, despite the fact that he says he passed a military background check. He had enlisted in 2016, with hopes of becoming a legal U.S. citizen through

the program.

Last year, the Department of Defense suspended the pro-gram and announced new changes for current foreign re-cruits which included increased background checks. But

several foreign-born reservists and recruits have report-edly been discharged without any real explanation. U.S. Ar-my officials issued a statement to CBS News saying: "Any recruit, to include those recruited through the MAVNI pro-

gram, who receives an unfavorable security screening is deemed unsuitable for military service and is administra-

tively discharged."

But some legal advocates for the MAVNI recruits, like immi-gration lawyer and former soldier Margaret Stock, think the Defense Department owes all discharged recruits an expla-nation. “We don’t know why the Pentagon is doing this be-cause they won’t say why,” she told me. “You just can’t

function as a military this way.”

Stock, who also created the MAVNI program, argues the

Pentagon purposefully wants to keep these troops out, and to do so is suppressing information that lauds the MAVNI program.

But ultimately, what this means is that many of the thou-sand-plus recruits still waiting on their background check results may have to leave the military soon.

Source: Vox.com and CBSNews

COMMUNITY NAVIGATORS August 2018 Newsletter Page 7

Know Your Rights

In the event of a raid or interaction with immigration officers or the police, use this card to help you remember and ex-

ercise your rights.

On the front of this card is a statement that you are exercising your right to remain silent. If you are interacting with

immigration officers or the police, you should remember that anything you say can be used against you. It is your right

to remain silent. To exercise your right to remain silent, show officers a copy of this card or read the statement out

loud. You do not need to say the statement word-for-word but you must communicate that you are exercising your right

to remain silent.

On the back of the card you will find a list of your rights. Read them often. Be prepared.

To protect yourself, MEMORIZE the information on the card.

COMMUNITY NAVIGATORS August 2018 Newsletter Page 8

Opportunities to Help!

Peoria

Help attorney explain contract, document checklist to potential clients on Thursday, August 2nd

Springfield

Spanish Interpreter for our monthly clinic on Friday, August 3rd

Help attorney explain contract, document checklist to potential clients on Friday, August 3rd

Carbondale

Spanish Interpreter for our monthly clinic on Thursday and Friday, August 9th and 10th

Help attorney explain contract, document checklist to potential clients on Thursday and Friday, August

9th and 10th

Bloomington-Normal

Help attorney explain contract, document checklist to potential clients on Thursday, August 16th

Bilingual Navigator to help a client in getting court records

Navigator to help a client find a bilingual psychiatrist or a psychiatrist and interpreter

Champaign

Help attorney explain contract, document checklist to potential clients on Friday, August 17th

Please email tnovoa@immigrationproject.org if you are interested in helping or would like more

information

COMMUNITY NAVIGATORS August 2018 Newsletter Page 9

Questions?

• If you would like to be taken off of this email list, please email tnovoa@immigrationproject.org

• If you have questions, ideas, or concerns, please email tnovoa@immigrationproject.org

• If you have any presentation requests or would like to host a Community Navigator training, please email

tnovoa@immigrationproject.org

• If you would like to speak by phone, please call 309-829-8703x104

What do you want to learn about?

What types of trainings would you like to see?

What would you like to do with the Community Navigator Program that is not being done

now?

What would you like to see in the Newsletters?

Do you have any resources to share with us?

Any handouts you feel would help the Community Navigators and the Immigration Project?

Do you know someone who might want to be a Community Navigator?

Please email tnovoa@immigrationproject.org with your feedback!