 And as I said, welcome very much to this informative presentation on executive action on behalf of, by President Obama. We're very fortunate to have a very prestigious group of panelists here today, and I'd like to take the opportunity to present them right now. First of all, our moderator for this evening is Olga Kauffman, and she is representing the Executive Committee of the Reform Immigration, well, Executive Committee of the Reform Immigration for Texas Alliance. So a round of applause for Olga Kauffman, please. We're also very fortunate to have Joseph B. DeMott, Immigration Attorney with DeMott, McChesney, Cutright, and Admin Dotties as well. Thank you, Joseph. We're also very fortunate to have here this evening Dr. Harriet Romo, UTSA Professor of Sociology and Director of the UTSA Mexico Center. So without further ado, I'd like to hand it over to this evening's moderator, and again, Roger. Oh, I'm sorry, I'll skip one. Read about this, I'm sorry. It's also on the panel, Board of Immigration Appeals Certified Advocate, Bolivia Licensed Attorney, and with Garitas Legal Services of Catholic Charities of the Archdiocese of San Antonio. So again, without further ado, I'd like to hand over to this evening's moderator, none other than Olga Kauffman. Thank you. Thank you, Professor Enriquez. I will be moderating this panel, and we're very fortunate to have this gentleman and an attorney, a well-known immigration attorney, and also a well-known female immigration attorney, and of course Harriet Romo from UTSA. And what we're going to do is discuss some of the basic issues around DACA and expanded DACA and DAPA. I know there's a lot of questions about what is that. First there was only DACA, now there's expanded DACA, now there's DAPA, so I don't know which is which. So, and then we'll have a more refined question and explanation from Mr. DeMond, and then Dr. Romo will give us an overview of immigration in the U.S. and how it affects young people and families, not only this country but across the world. The very first thing I want to do is go over some etiquette. Immigration is a super-charts subject right now, so we just want to go over some rules of etiquette that we all learn in kindergarten, but I just want to remind you. Please allow the speakers to finish their presentation before asking questions. We're going to have plenty of time at the end to have a question and answer session with each of the speakers. So, if you have questions, write them down and then you can ask them. There's a microphone right here, and you can walk up to the microphone to ask your question. Be respectful. There's different opinions on immigration and everybody has an opinion, so just be respectful of others when they're speaking. Call on the speaker again once they finish answering a question and just a reminder that there will be plenty of time afterwards for question and answer. So, our first speaker is going to be Ms. Valdez. Rita Valdez, she's a board of immigration and appeal certified advocate and a Bolivia license attorney. And she works with Caritas Legal Services, which is part of Catholic Charities and the Archdiocese of San Antonio. Now, Ms. Valdez, by the way, the speakers have been very gracious and have provided me with a lot of the most common questions that they hear when they're out in the community or in their practice, and also issues that they've researched. So, I'm just going to go over very briefly on some of the questions and the first set of questions are for Ms. Valdez. And she has only approximately 10 minutes to really answer a lot of these questions, so I've been appointed as also a timekeeper, so I will let the speakers know when they're running out of time. Okay. Ms. Valdez, working as she does in a very grassroots setting, here's a lot of questions from the public about the President Obama's new executive order on immigration. There's questions about who's eligible? Who can apply? So, why should I apply? What are the benefits? And do I have a pathway to citizenship if I apply? When can I start applying? Everybody wants to know, when can we start making those applications? And what kind of documents do I need, and how much is it going to cost me? So, Ms. Valdez, if you can sort of take us down that road. Thank you very much Olga. I'm honored to be here. Thank you everyone for coming. Well, basically the parents of children, either if they are U.S. citizens or lawful permanent residents, would be able to apply for DAPA. And there's some benefits and some limitations for this program. One of the benefits would be they're going to be able to remain here in the United States and be able to work. They're going to get, they can obtain an employment authorization document, which can be renewed every three years if there's no changes. They have to be leaving here continuously since January 2010 up to the date that they're going to, they can file the application. They also have to not be a priority of removal according to the memo, the last memo, the executive memo that we just been participating in November 2014. And they have, they have to have no legal status in United States. Please excuse my grammar. I hope everybody's understanding what I'm saying. And then, as I said, the benefits would be those in some states are going to be able to obtain a driver license, a social security card, which is going to let them be a file taxes. The limitations would be that it's going to be very discretionary. It's not something that we can, it can be revoked at any time. There's no assurance that it's going to be continuous. It's not a, it's not a law. It's just a memo. It's not a regulation. They also, there's some priorities, as I said, for removal. And it's very advisable for anyone who has been, who has entered illegally in the past, after January 2014 or before. If they have some criminal background, if they have been caught by immigration anyhow, if there is any convictions or charges of domestic violence, let's say, or some significant misuse matters like driving under the influence. Those would be some issues that they really should be looking for advice and go to a professional before filing the request. These applications can be made in May 20th, 2015. So the specifics are not out yet, but we're going to have some information, more specific information later on before this date. And then also it would be advisable for them to start gathering documentation to be able to apply to show continuous residents here in the United States physical presence at the time that they're filing the application. And also when this memo came out, that's November 20th, 2014, we are, we have a reason to believe that documents that it can be put in together would be birth certificates, proof of identity, you know, to prove the parent-child relationship, bank statements, school records, financial records that may be helpful for them to prove that they have been continuously living in the United States. Anything that would prove that they just, they were living right here in our country. So that would be the most important information and general information I can give you right now. The government fees are going to be 465 with very limited waves. And then basically, as I said, everybody should be able to file and begin May, mid-20th this year. Thank you. I hope it's 10 minutes. I don't know really how much I take. Thank you. Speaker is Mr. Joe DeMonte. And he will address some of the more, some other questions like can I travel with a DACA permit? Okay. Here's some of the questions that Mr. DeMonte will address regarding this new executive order. When I get my DACA permit, will I be able to travel? Would this affect the immigrant visa petition my relative filed for me? What happens in three years when my DACA permit runs out? And what if I have a record like a DWI? How has the DACA program for childhood arrivals been expanded? Or why do they call it expanded DACA? And what other changes have been made in the immigration law? And then my favorite is, will the Republicans be able to stop DACA? Mr. DeMonte. Okay. Thank you very much, Olga. Maybe we take the last question first. A lot of people say what President Obama did on June 15, 2012 when he announced relief for the Dreamers. Anybody here know a Dreamer or met a Dreamer? I'm just curious. I think there's a lot of them out there. And boy, they're great, hardworking, ambitious. They've really bought into America the land of opportunity and they want to be a part and President Obama gave him a chance. But people hollered, said, no, you can't do that. But this has been something that has been around in immigration law for a long time. I've been practicing immigration law in San Antonio for 39 years. And for years if we had a client, for example, that had a child that was suffering from cancer, we would go to immigration and said, hey, this is really a sad case. You need to give this person a special benefit. And they would do that. They called it deferred action status. Well, the President took that benefit, that power that the executive branch has been using for decades and expanded it to a whole class of people. The students that got here before age 16 grew up in the United States. So now he's expanded it for, they say, 5 million more people. And as Rita has described, been here five years and you have a son or daughter who's a U.S. citizen or green card holder. So you present the birth certificate. I'm the dad, and this is my child, a born in the USA, U.S. citizen, or we're not sure, as Rita said, we're waiting for instructions to come from the government, the specifics. But we're thinking that if you have a daughter that's, for example, an adult who got married to a U.S. citizen, she's got her green card. You can say my 24-year-old daughter is now a permanent resident, so I qualify for this DAPA program. Mail the application in, they're thinking like the 20th of May, they'll be able to start accepting applications six months after the President announced the program. When we mail that application in, then probably takes six months for them to make a decision. But the government said we're not going to come out with specific instructions until a day or two before we start receiving the applications. They're not giving us a whole lot of time to get ready, but as Harriet described, we kind of know the different sort of documents that we apply for. When you apply, if you're approved, you get a work permit, looks like this. On the work permit is your picture, is your fingerprint, is your name, and your birth date. With this work permit, you can get a Social Security card, as Rita mentioned, a driver's license. You can travel throughout the United States. If you want to go visit your cousins in California, no problem, and a lot of people without papers here, that's a real fear. But you can go to California, go visit your grandmother in Florida, go see your rich uncle in New York. Probably a good idea, go visit him. You can go throughout the United States. Can you leave the country with this permit? No. What happens if somebody takes their DACA work permit or their student, the dreamer DACA work permit and goes down to Mexico, they try to present this coming in. No, you can't come in. But it worked for the students, and I hope it's going to work for the parents too. Once you get this approved, there's a separate step by which you can apply for a travel document. It's about this size, and it comes with your picture, again, your name, and it says, valid for reentry to the United States on a specified date. So you can go to Mexico, you turn around, you show this, and you can come back in. There's an additional benefit. There's an additional benefit. There's a lot of times, if you enter the United States, we ask, ¿Cómo entró a los Estados Unidos? How did you come in to the United States? You say, well, con ayuda de Dios, with God's help. That's all I had. Well, that's a more difficult case. But if you can go out and come back in with an established legal entry, oftentimes that's a tremendous immigration benefit for you. So the parents hopefully can apply for this to get a work permit that's valid for three years. What happens after three years? Well, we don't really know. But in my experience in practicing immigration law, when the government gives people a benefit, it's hard to take it away. Does anybody know somebody with TPS, Hondurans, Salvadorans, TPS? What is that? TPS. The T stands for temporary. But listen to this. They gave Hondurans temporary protected status after Hurricane Mitch just ravaged the country of Honduras. The United States government said, we can't deport people to Honduras. There's nothing for them to do down there. The country was ruined by this hurricane or severe damage, I should say. Still wonderful things in Honduras. So the government said, we're going to give you Honduran. We're going to give you a permit to stay here and live and work legally temporarily. That hurricane was, who remembers it? I think it was 1998. So for 16 years, Hondurans have been renewing their permits every so often extending their permits. I think the same thing will happen for the parents. So I think this is a tremendous program and encourage people to apply for that. What if you're in the process of getting your green card based on your marriage to a U.S. citizen husband? Say a young woman here falls in love with, gets married to a United States citizen. We have some wonderful men in this country. I'm sure right here, ladies. That's the best kind of immigration case you can have. Married with a U.S. citizen spouse. You don't have any immigration problems. Hopefully you don't have marital problems either. But you can get married. You get married to your citizen and you can fix your papers. Well, if I'm in process of getting my papers fixed on account of my marriage to a U.S. citizen, is it a good idea to apply for this permit? Well, I mean, you can do it. There's no conflict, but is it a good idea? That's probably a waste of money, huh? Why apply for a three-year work permit when you've got a U.S. citizen spouse that can get you your permanent residence status, your green card, and you can stay here forever and you're on the path of citizenship? This is just temporary deferred action. What are they deferring? They are deferring any kind of removal proceedings, any deportation proceedings against you. So hopefully this will go on and it'll turn into something better. I encourage people to apply for it. If you're in the process of fixing your papers based on your marriage to U.S. citizen, you should probably forego doing this. But maybe talk to a lawyer about that. What's the best way to do? If you're an adult son or daughter of a U.S. citizen, your dad has filed a petition to immigrate you as an adult. Well, that line to fix your papers based on an petition by your adult as an adult by your U.S. citizen dad, that line is about 20 years long. And let me tell you a secret. It's not moving. It might take at 60 years to move 20. So if you're in that line based on a petition filed for you by your dad and the line's not moving, well in the meantime, you might as well go get a work permit and tightly be living and working legally in the United States for the next three years and then maybe you can also get the travel document. The travel documents are usually issued for educational, humanitarian, or business reasons. We had a student from UTSA in the office. He got his DACA Dreamer work permit and he said, I want to travel and because the course I'm taking, I think it was Anthropology or something, they're going to go do some kind of a dig in Mexico and he wanted to be part of it. Sounded like a good reason to me. We sent that in. They approved it. He was able to go to Mexico on this project while he was there, visit family he hadn't seen in years, and then come back legally to the United States. Before that, he was kind of trapped inside the U.S. That's a wonderful benefit to that program. Just one other thing, maybe I know if this pertains to people, it's a tremendous benefit. There's two kinds of people who can fix their papers in the United States without leaving. We talked about you're married, for example, to a U.S. citizen. If you had legal entry or if you're entitled to pay the fine, you can't pay the fine if nobody filed for you by April 30th, 2001. You don't want to get too technical. It used to be everybody, if they couldn't fix their papers here, they'd have to go to Ciudad Juarez Chihuahua or go to Tegucigalpa Honduras or go to the United States Consulate in their home country. But President Obama in June of 2012 said, if you're married to a U.S. citizen, we're going to let you apply for a pardon for your unlawful presence before you leave. Because previous to that, people would go to Ciudad Juarez Chihuahua. They'd say, we can see you have a valid marriage, but you're unlawful in the United States, you need to apply for a pardon. And they'd file a pardon application, wait six months, wait a year. Meanwhile, the wife and kids are back home, the bills are piling up, et cetera, et cetera. President Obama changed all that and said, if you're married to a U.S. citizen, you can apply for that pardon before you leave the country. Now they've expanded that, not just to the family members of U.S. citizens, but also to permanent residents. So if your spouse is a green card holder, a lawful permanent resident, you can now also apply for that pardon for your unlawful presence before you leave and be back to your family in two or three weeks, rather than be a year waiting for your pardon to come through stuck outside the country. Am I still good, old lady? I got a minute to go. Maybe I yield my time to Dr. Kaufman. Dr. Romo. Thank you, Mr. Demont. Our final speaker is Dr. Harriet Romo from UTSA, and she's going to address the sociological issues involving immigration and the separation of families and just the big picture regarding our immigration issues here in the U.S. and abroad. So she'll address such issues as what is happening globally and nationally in immigration trends affecting youth and families. Why are President Obama's executive order important for unauthorized youth and their families and for unauthorized parents with children who are U.S. citizens? What are some of the barriers youth and families face in applying for DACA and DAPA? And there are efforts to overturn Texas law that permit undocumented youth to pay in-state tuition at public universities. How will this affect youth and families if that passes? And I think we're talking about the Texas Dream Act, which provides in-state tuition for undocumented youth, and that law is in danger of being reversed by the current session of the legislature. And then finally, what can we do to voice our opinions on these immigration issues? What can we do as activists, as community members, as voters to make sure that immigrant families are not separated and are treated justly? Dr. Rommel? Okay, it's really a challenge to talk in 10 minutes about immigration and all these important issues. I'm teaching a class this semester on immigration, so it could take many, many hours to talk about it. But I want to hit some highlights. Following in the news, immigration and citizenship are issues throughout the world. There are a lot of people being displaced because of violence, natural disasters, the European Union that has pretty open work borders is also talking about what kind of restrictions because they have people coming back and forth who want to improve the lives of their families or their children who don't have documents or don't have the appropriate work authorities. So it's not just a U.S. issue. But in the United States, there's been an increased attention to border control and deportation of non-citizens in the name of national security, especially since 9-11. An increased number of families and unaccompanied youth who leave their home countries because of these disasters and security or violence or work opportunities are having a difficult time with the youth transitioning into adulthood into another country. They're in a completely different culture. They don't have the documents to work to get driver's licenses to do the things that other youth have opportunities to do who are citizens in that country. Some of the statistics are amazing that because of the militarization of the U.S.-Mexico border, many more families are bringing their families. Many more workers are bringing their families because it's more difficult to cross back and forth. We used to have workers who would come and work and then go back and spend time with their families, then work another six months and go back. But because of the increasing militarization and the cost of crossing back and forth, if you have to pay a coyote, they're not going back. So they're trying to bring their family members here. So we've had an increasing number of unauthorized youth and families in the United States. Some of the figures in 2003, there were 2.7 million female migrants and children in the U.S. and in 2008, there were 4 million. So a big jump. Nearly 400,000 people have been deported from the United States each year in 2010 and 2011 and that's more than twice the number who were deported in 2001. And those most adversely affected in the United States have been Mexicans because they are most of the largest population of our undocumented people here living in the United States. In 2011, more than 5,100 children were in foster care after the parents had been deported or were in detention. So for many of those youth, when the families are separated because of deportation, this creates financial hardships, emotional hardships, trauma for the youth that stay or the wife who's here trying to become the sole wage supporter if a husband is deported. So why are DACA and DAPA important? These deportations affect millions of children and their families. When the families are dissolved or broken up because of deportations, there have been a number of sociologists who've written about the difficulties that these families face. I mentioned one, you know, if the main worker is deported and the other person, the wife or the spouse who's not working, is left with children, that's a severe economic hardship. If both parents happen to be deported at work, you know, they went off to work and there's an immigration sweep and they're picked up, their children are left without someone to take care of them. And just the ongoing fear in your family, if you don't have documents of possibly going to the store and being stopped and deported or incarcerated, this is something that children and the families live with on a daily basis. These, you know, all of these issues raise the questions about what's going to happen about these 1.5 generation, this is what we call in sociology, the young people who are brought by parents who are undocumented and they've grown up here. They don't know their country of origin. They may not even speak the language anymore very well in their country of origin. So if they get DACA, and I think it's very important because that allows them to get a driver's license to possibly, you know, to work for a three-year period, but it's only temporary. It's something that has to be renewed every three years and it's very precarious because some people might take it away if they get the support. There's already been initiatives in our legislatures nationally in our Congress to stop DACA and President Obama's executive orders. So it's a temporary status for them. And at the Mexico Center, we've done some interviews with people who live transnational lives. San Antonio is an example of a city that has always said people who go back and forth and have family here, family in Mexico. And we've also interviewed a number of dreamers, young people who were active in the Dream Act movement. And they've told us that even with DACA it's very difficult. What do you tell an employer? You know, how many employers are going to hire someone in a really important prestigious job that's going to pay well because you're only going to be here for three years and you don't know whether you're going to be able to renew that DACA permit. So it still leaves them in a very liminal kind of status. And the fact that there's no route to citizenship, you know, we're going to have a large group of people here with temporary documents. They can't participate fully. The advantage is they will be working in a way where they can pay their taxes up front. They can tell employers, you know, they have a legal right to drive and work and they don't have to worry when they go to the grocery store or they take their parents to the doctor that they're going to be stopped and deported. So it's a very, these are very important pieces of legislation. But my point is that it's not a permanent fix. It's not something that's going to solve our immigration issues for the future. We've still got to have comprehensive immigration reform and do much more. So I think I mentioned that even if they're not experiencing deportation, just the stress and the anxiety about having your parents be deported or incarcerated can be extremely traumatic for children. The question about the barriers that they face in applying for this. Can you imagine trying to go back now and find your birth certificate and find your proof of living in various situations to prove your status? Many of these young people don't have those documents. It's going to be very difficult for them to pull it together. So our attorneys that work like you do are very important to help them gather that information and be sure that they have the right documents to go forward to apply. They're also very concerned about who to tell that they are undocumented. At the university, our students in our high schools don't know, can they trust their counselors? Can they trust their teachers? Can they trust a person who comes up to them or who advertises on television that they can help them solve this problem and help them apply for these legal documents? They have to know the right people or they can be easily exploited or identified and then deported. So it's a difficult situation for them to know who do they tell and how do they tell them and who can they trust. They're often exploited by people who say they can process papers and they can't. So again, your work as official agencies are charities that are well known and respected is extremely important for these young people. Okay, still in some states they face barriers of getting driver's license or even going to public universities. Georgia, for example, says no undocumented youth can apply to their public universities. We've been fortunate in Texas to be one of the states that does have in-state tuition, allows youth who are undocumented to pay in-state tuition and there's a big difference in cost. I'm going to give you some examples of that. If you're enrolling as an undergraduate in-state full-time student taking 12 hours, your tuition is $3,728. The same enrollment if you have to pay out-of-state tuition is $8,253. It's a difference of $4,525. Now that's a lot for someone whose parents might be in construction or might be a housekeeper or might be working in a restaurant. It's difficult enough for them to come up with the money to pay in-state tuition, but if they have to pay out-of-state tuition, it's an exorbitant difference. And the majority of them have lived here long enough to be residents. Under the requirements of the state as a resident, they have been residents and have gone through our public school systems. We've invested in them from K to 12. Why not allow them to continue? As he mentioned, the dreamers that we've interviewed are wanting to be doctors and lawyers and teachers and people who work in nonprofits. They want to give back to the community and do it legally and pay the taxes that they would earn on that higher salary. These youth have very high motivation, dedication to success and high aspirations, and they've overcome many obstacles of being unauthorized and still demonstrated high levels of achievement. And these are the type of students and citizens that we want in the United States. DACA and DACA allow their family to work legally and allow them to pay the tuition that they need to pay to go to school. The lack of a higher education means that many of these young people who have very high skills and can do very well are fulfilled in their opportunities to move ahead. Many of them have... Well, okay, what can we do? They have done their job if they've gone to college and done well and finished in high school and succeeded. What can we do to help them? We can, as institutions, make them aware of the resources that we have to help them. There are organizations that the students themselves in the United We Dream is a very active one at the national level, and one of our own UTSA graduates who graduated from the Honors College, I was on her Honors Thesis Committee, is a very active member. She has her DACA, and she's working for United We Dream and organizing some of these publicity events that make people aware of the issues the young people are facing that's important. And there's going to be an event that they are organizing on... It's called a Coming Out Day, and they're going to have a toolkit that will help you understand better some of the issues that unauthorized youth are facing. And this is going to be made public on January the 30th, very close, at 4 p.m. Eastern Standard Time. And I have the website. You can also go to United We Dream and find the website and get more information there. Another thing you can do is to contribute to some of these organizations. Many of them are nonprofits. You can contribute to the scholarship funds for these youth because they can't apply for financial aid. So there have been some groups that have set up scholarships, particularly for unauthorized youth. You can stay informed, know about the legal aspects of who's eligible and what you need to apply and how to apply, and help pass on that information to people who need that information. You can voice your opinion by writing and calling your legislators and telling them that the importance of this for our young people and voicing how you feel about these issues. And you can vote. So check out those candidates. Ask them questions about what their opinions are and what kinds of support they are providing or disagreeing with. And then you make your decision about who you're going to support, but go and vote. Thank you, Dr. Romo. Let's have a round of applause for all our panelists that were gracious enough to give us our time. And we also have a variety of information at the registration table. Each organization, I know, brought information from their organization, including my organization, which is the Reform Immigration for Texas Alliance, or RITA. We work not from a legal standpoint, but as activists, and we are having a rally February 11th at 11 o'clock at the state capitol to urge this session of the legislature to not repeal the Texas Dream Act, to not try to pass anti-immigrant laws like they did in 2011, and to provide educational resources for some of our children. So if you can make it, please, there's a website you can go to register and we can connect you to a carpool or a caravan. And so the only way that we can stop some anti-immigrant laws if we're right there, where the laws are being made. And I know that it's hard to go for a lot of people, but a lot of people do sacrifice. And it's a difficult time in the state legislature for activists, but we all need to do our very best to make sure that we don't go backwards instead of forwards in immigration laws in Texas. Next, we're going to have questions from the audience. So there is a microphone here. If you want to use it, or you can just raise your hand and we'll stand up if you want to ask a question. Yes, sir. Over here. You. Non-profit organization. Yes, sir. Could you give us some guidelines as far as when people are thinking about how much is this going to cost me besides the fee? What is a reasonable cost that a private attorney might charge in an organization like Cardenas? In our office, we are charging for the DOP application for the parents to assemble the documents to show you've been here the last five years. Complete the paperwork, make sure they meet all the requirements, study the case, and their fingerprint appointment comes. If they have criminal issues, investigate all that. We charge $1,000. We usually want, there's a payment plan, so you don't have to pay that up front. We can work that. We can't submit the applications until May the 20th. So some people are signed up already starting to make payments. They can get it paid off. So as soon as the government's ready to submit the applications, we can send them in. Talking about Cardenas, we go by the federal poverty guidelines. So we serve mostly low-income families, and you are welcome to come for a consultation. There's a consultation fee that we charge, $35. But as I said, it's going to be according to the income. It's going to be a very nominal fee. Like let's say for DACA, we were charging $350. And for renewals, way less than that. And so anyone is welcome to just walk in. There are also legal clinics. St. Mary's Law School has a legal clinic where some of the law students and faculty and student volunteers, we have one of our sociology students, Jonathan, who's doing an internship over there. And they help provide advice and as much as they can legal help there. There's also a similar legal clinic at UT Austin that has worked, has very involved attorneys. Barbara Hines has been involved in work with undocumented youth for many, many years. And she heads that clinic at UT Austin. Are there any other questions? Yes, ma'am. Do you have a particular statistic about... Micro please. Oh, microphone. For any of you that, maybe you have a statistic of local families. Do you have maybe a statistic of local families here in San Antonio that can qualify for this grant? Like a certain amount of families estimated amount? Would you tell me, Harriet, how many of you thought were in San Antonio? I think Dr. Romo had those statistics. Well, those were general figures. And as you know, it's very hard to count people who don't want to be counted or identified. So that's the issue of trying to know how many unauthorized people we have in any location or in the whole country. So the statisticians do estimates based on how many people are apprehended and how many people might cross at a certain time. And they use statistical figures to calculate that. But I don't have specifics about the San Antonio area. We know that Texas is second to California in terms of the number of unauthorized immigrants in the whole country according to states. I would say four million, but in the whole country. So, yeah, four million, about four million for DAPA. Okay. In the whole country. In the whole country, yeah. You hear that four million, five million people would qualify in the country for that program. Okay. Another question, and I kind of want to address this to you guys. I am writing a story for the Revard Report. I don't know if any of you would like to talk to me a little bit. If any of you have used this program, I will use your name Anonymous if you want. You can be anonymous. But if any of you have used this program and have a family member, something that's done it, if you all can maybe talk to me a little bit and tell me how it's affected you, I would really appreciate that too. What is the program you're writing for? Revard Report. It's a local newspaper online. It's Bob Revard, who's a former UTSA graduate, outstanding alumnus, has started the Revard Report, which is an online newspaper. Yes, sir. Can you go to the microphone? Absolutely. Thank you. I know it was addressed in the beginning that there would be some statements made about the question about if there's a criminal history involved. So I wanted to know a little bit more about that. But specifically, Dr. Romano, you said in your class of research, you said that there's general fear that exists of families being pulled over and then deported. And I just wanted to dispel that a little bit. If you could, maybe in your classes or in qualitative stories, law enforcement here in the city anyway does not worry about that in any form. Now, if they're arrested and taken to jail and they've committed a serious felony, perhaps, they do get an interview on ICE every morning. But the fact that you would mention that people exist here with UWIs and they're still here and need to work through that would also be suggestive that they don't need to worry about that. So I don't want them to fear the police or feel the criminal justice system, per se, because of that. And we do stop people all the time. They don't have a license. They have an obviously fake ID. We don't know it from here. But law enforcement does not concern themselves with those matters. So my question was about what happens next in the system if they do have a criminal history. In San Antonio, that we have that good relationship with the police department. Chief McManus, I think, kind of set the tone for that years ago. It's not that way in every community. But San Antonio, the police, law enforcement is the main thing. They try to be in contact with the immigrant communities. And they're often victims of crime. And if they start picking them up, they're not going to report the criminal activity. And we're very happy that we have that in San Antonio. Thank you, officer. Yes, sir. Hello. I'm a lawyer. I work with an organization called Mexicans and Americans Thinking Together. And on the issue of identity, we have a program that we have an agreement with the Mexican government for people to come to our office and print a certified copy of their birth certificate, marriage license, all that a nominal fee. And those are only right now. It's only for if you're from the states of Guaulia or Jalisco. But we're looking to expand it in the future. So that's one available resource that's available. Well, thanks. That's good news we can use. Thank you. Yes, ma'am. Yes. I would like to say that I saw in the news yesterday that this was going to go on like Arizona. Police were going to be stopping a lot of people. Mainly brown. But why just brown? Ain't white also immigrant? And also I want to say too after they, what if I were to leave my wallet at home, like you said, went to the store and they would pick me up. They would take me to this immigration whatever, you know. And I really am a U.S. citizen. They would still take me over there. And I hope everybody is aware of that because they will take you no matter if you're from here or not. There were a lot of deportations in the 1930s and 40s. And there were Mexican-American citizens who were deported. And that kind of fear and anxiety and kind of mass deportations occur when we have a heightened anti-immigration climate. And I think that's why a lot of us are trying to dispel that kind of fear and that all immigrants are not undocumented. All people who are brown are dark-skinned are not undocumented. And many undocumented folks are long-term residents and contributors to our communities and very much a part of our community. So that's why we need more public forums and more discussion about immigration and what's happening and why. Do you want to say something? While this man is going to the microphone, I'd just add if immigration, the San Antonio Police Department, says they don't get involved in immigration enforcement. If immigration picks you up, they give you a piece of paper with a signature line at the bottom. They say, sign this. We're sending you back to Mexico. Sign the paper to send you back. Who are those two people? You yourself or the judge? If you don't sign, they have to take you to the judge. You can say, judge, I'm a U.S. citizen. And it's up to the government to prove that you're not. So, uh... Well, Noah... The government has... You don't have to prove it. The government has to prove it. The burden is on them. Whatever... I think a lady like you, talking to... Exactly. And if they do that, you let us know, we'll sue them for unlawful arrest. Sir, you have a question? Yes. I do appreciate all your comments and I support DACA for the students that are here. But I'm as an activist for Indigenous peoples and our identity. When she brought up the brown skin is that we still look like our ancestors, which are the original people. And so the... the colonial movement to take our lands is still ongoing. So to force us to be nationalized to... nation states created by colonialism is the movement. And so these band-aids that are, I guess, addressing the injustices because of our appearance still as the Indigenous people, won't help us until we are recognized as who we truly are and allowed to work anywhere on this continent and educate ourselves anywhere on this continent, work anywhere on this continent as we should be, at least have that after having been displaced for these past 500 years. That is true justice and hopefully one day we'll see it. Otherwise, these are just band-aids. Thank you. You had a question? Yes, ma'am. Are there any resources for dreamers who are currently enrolled let's say here at UTSA whose parents have already been deported and who are perhaps now faced with being a young adult with very limited income no familial support and having to raise their siblings who were left behind here and were deported? Wow. Well, we do have counselors here that can help any student who's having difficult times with their families or going through very traumatic experiences so that would be available. Would you suggest that they speak up to their professors if they're having difficulty in school because of emotional issues regarding this? Yes, I would think most professors at UTSA but this was my issue that it's very hard for youth to know who they can trust and who they can speak out to. So you think the counseling department would be the appropriate referral source? Sometimes and sometimes not. Again, depending on who that youth feels most comfortable and confident with or to go to Catholic Charities or some of the legal centers that might give them advice about their situation would be very helpful. All right, thank you. If they are in need of clothing or financial support they could go to us. There's the Guadalupe Community Center that they're welcome to go and they're going to receive some help. Yes, sir. Okay, question. We got deported to Venezuela. They have two years kids here. What are their chances of ever coming back? When the children turn 21 they can petition for the parents. They're not 21, they're minors. How old are they? One is 16, the other one's 12. In five years I guess the child turns 21, the 21st birth they can file a petition but other than that come usually to immigrate to the United States someone has to file a petition for you either relative or an employer four kinds of relatives of competition mother, father, citizen and green card holder, a spouse we talked about that and adult, son or daughter, child born turns 21 or brother or sister that's U.S. citizen. Even if they have been deported. Yes, sometimes you have to apply. Yes, sir, you have to apply for a pardon for your deportation. I'm sitting in front of the judge and I guess from Venezuela they probably were deported a lot of people from Mexico are sent back what they call voluntary departure as I was describing earlier they just sign the paper and they're on the bus and that evening they're in Mexico. But to Venezuela they probably went through a formal deportation but yes you can apply for a pardon or once you've been out ten years then a pardon might not be necessary. I see. You can also immigrate for your job that's more difficult. If you have U.S. workers for the job you would do so you don't go to immigration to go to the Department of Labor try to convince them we can't find a U.S. worker to do this job. How do we convince the Department of Labor? Put an ad in the paper. We're looking to hire a specialty chef. We've got a Venezuelan restaurant. We want somebody who knows how to prepare these typical food of Venezuela. If U.S. worker Joe Smith shows up and says we're great for the job. Thank you sir. Yes sir. As in a document and student here at UTSA I wanted to thank you guys for creating the space where you guys can share information about the issues at hand not only to us but to our parents and our communities and I was hoping that you guys would bring it up but I wanted to ask if each of y'all could speak about the issues that are happening in really Texas with the for-profit detention centers their housing families mothers and childrens so if you could please talk on that issue and bring some knowledge to us. Thank you. Well I know there's been a lot of controversy about those detention centers people being abused at detention centers I know the Archbishop was saying a jail is a jail kids shouldn't be in jail with their parents so yes I guess ideally that people would be released they wouldn't be incarcerated I think there's a big push on now from the government there are so many minors coming up with their mothers over the summer and word was getting out it was having a snowball effect so to stop that they started picking those people up denying them bond putting them in jail for the word to filter back to they don't go out there and get a work permit you go there they put you in jail and they process you for deportation so really kind of trying to throw some cold water and all this enthusiasm for coming up to the United States and turning yourself into Border Patrol so I know from a policy point of view a sociological point of view what should I contribute should these people be in jail I think they're refugees I think it's a humanitarian crisis and we should accept them in I guess the government says hey if you go up the ante make it more difficult for them I sometimes think if I were picked up and put in jail I'd be worried about my kids and in a sense wouldn't it be nice to have your kids kind of there with you I mean it's a it's a jail but on the other hand if you're not going to be released then at least I could keep an eye on my kids make sure they were okay on the other side of the argument several sociologists are writing about the criminalization of immigration for a long time we talked about immigrants as workers if they were picked up by the immigration authorities they'd just be sent back to the border and they'd come back and work again they weren't incarcerated they weren't identified or put into some kind of prison like situation so increasingly the whole system talking about people as illegal and criminalizing people by incarcerating them or putting them in centers or run by prison companies is a phenomena that is is increasing and that's sociologists are concerned about that if I just comment please I am a member of the local interfaith coalition that has been organized to attempt to draw attention to everything that's happening in or not happening good in Carnes so there are three parts and in fact I'm one of the visitors who goes to see the mothers and children and in fact tomorrow we're making a trip and I learned that there's a new UTSA student who's going to join us and hopefully she'll come back to your campus and try and organize because there's a lot of room for advocacy to bring the public aware of these issues to advocate against the politicians who are against all of the acceptance of these mothers and children as human beings and then there's the visitation that we regularly have volunteers going to visit these mothers so that they're not standing alone and isolated there are a lot of pro bono attorneys who are helping to try and get these people out and then there's another group of the part of the coalition that they are going down to the bus station because Carnes the geo people when the person is released the mother and child very little clothes in the cold weather and they're dumped at the greyhound bus station so part of the coalition volunteers go down there to the bus station so there's a lot of opportunities that I just wanted to appreciate you letting me announce about the existence of this coalition thank you I have a question about babies born in America they're saying for example if you're born in Puerto Rico you're a US citizen well what happens if your parents and your Mexican parents cross the border with the intent to distribute cocaine and they have a bad criminal record but some of the baby is born in America what happens to the baby and how long does the baby stay or wherever the deportation well the baby is a US citizen if born in the USA that's how I fix my papers I just born here that's the easiest way to do it so any child born in the United States is a US citizen whether it be the state of Puerto Rico or the state of Texas the only exception if you're an ambassador so if the parents are picked up arrested put in jail deported what happens to that baby well the parents have to make some arrangements you're going to have the baby stay with an uncle you're going to take the baby with you when the baby grows up has that US birth certificate can come back to the United States they're citizens forever in the United States thank you sometimes parents have argued you can't deport me because you're going to automatically deport this child who's a US citizen the court says no we're deporting the parent but the child gets to stay yes sir your next after this yes it's good to see you all again there were a couple of questions that were asked we didn't get right to it on Carnes and Dilly the big issue is how these prisons were constructed okay we need to address the issues of Alec American legislative executive committee and we need to learn how to boycott all the corporations that are supporting that kind of movement when the correctional corporations of America come into Texas no bid and come in and build a facility in Dilly with all under the auspices of Elgin out of Arizona or Elroy whatever the name of that little city is they're getting $485,000 a year as an override that's an illegal or a very suspect contracting procedure and I think we need to hit them it's about economics it's about racism and it's about fear they push the fear of race but they're making money hand over fist off our folks and since we've got over a trillion dollars in buying power because a lot of our folks don't go to vote we need to excite them to get out to vote those that can but everyone here can buy let's start speaking with our wallets if Walmart or Exxon is supporting Alec then let's boycott Walmart and Exxon but let's bring that out let's find out how the correctional corporation of America can come into Texas with no bid and build these prisons let's not let's not be afraid to confront them Alec is a very very strong organization but we have the numbers and we've got the dollars in our pockets to address those issues through a boycott thank you it always breaks my heart that the cost of incarcerating someone is so much more than paying for their full college education okay you're next sir recently I had a cousin of mine he was held in the detention center I think it was like up in Milwaukee, Wisconsin but the police is actually working with the immigration system so they looked up his record he had a criminal record and somehow they said well you're also wanted by the Department of Homeland Security so police to pick up detainees or people who have criminal records and one of the things he had is visa expired so due to that they picked him up put him in the detention center and they're calling me because I know a little bit about what to do in regards to finding where he's at so I went to the Department of Homeland Security so this is basically what you do you look them up using their alien registration number and you'll find out which detention center they're located at so then they'll tell you where the visiting hours are at what times you can go ahead and visit them and they're very strict rules and this is a cousin of mine that grew up all in America and I thank you for the panel for talking about those natural disasters people leaving their countries and then coming to the USA and then there's they have nothing to do with their homeland anymore now they're living in the United States and this is a cousin of mine that actually lived here all his life so he has four children and they just bought a new home living happily and then this happened he had a previous criminal record it was just a small drug charge however they used that against them to actually force the deportations so now their families everybody's up in Milwaukee protesting this happened just a few months ago and I just want to point out that you know there's no real legal assistance but they said the best way is to hire a lawyer what's your advice on what we should do in regards to the status of my cousin who can't who doesn't know his homeland this is his homeland those are tough cases when they say we're going to send you back to Mexico or whatever you say back to Mexico I haven't been there since I was six months old you know well there's some relief on the law you're getting from the judge in deportation proceedings the judge says instead of being deported is there any kind of relief from deportation you want to apply for one thing you can sometimes apply for is called cancellation of removal saying I can show you three things judge required on the law number one I've been here for more than 10 years number two I'm a person of good moral character now I'd have to look at that drug conviction how serious was the drug conviction good moral category requirement number three it would cause extreme hardship to these four children who are US citizens if you deport me the father from the United States and that might be a pretty strong argument if for some reason we can't do that because of the type of conviction we can't establish good moral character required by the law sometimes we can ask for prosecutorial discretion so look what's it going to benefit to deport this man put these kids on welfare the taxpayers have to support them the father taken care of me has got this old conviction come back to haunt him don't prosecute this case there's other people causing problems in the community you should go after them leave this guy alone sometimes that argument works so you really need to sit down and study the case carefully and see what the best best option is and just looking at your DACA and DAPA it says right there if you had a criminal record of drug charges or something they're not going to grant you that DACA or DAPA for the DAPA you're exactly right so we have to show you Ben here five years you have US citizen child he's got four of them and then that you don't have a serious a felony or a serious misdemeanor serious misdemeanor for the students the DACA students meant DWI that knocked you out of it is it going to be the same thing for the parents I don't know so we have to look at his conviction when was the conviction we wait for those guidelines to come out from the government in the middle of May and see can we qualify him for DAPA and hopefully we could and on another note I guess the Republicans are talking about reversing President Obama's executive action so I figure that this next election is going to be won by Republicans because I think they're tired of Democrats in office and how Obama said that you know he won twice already so this next president wherever it may be might be a Republican Libertarian Green Party but I doubt it's going to be a Democrat and just due to President Obama's executive action if that does get reversed how does DACA and DAPA fit in well generally when the president establishes this kind of program the successor will keep it up I mentioned earlier the Hondurans here on TPS that's been going on for many administrations it's tough to take those benefits away once you give them to a group of people my hunch is it's going to continue despite all the blustering and people trying to garner support from the Tea Party group I think it's going to continue well thank you my question is about the citizenship for those people who already holds a green card and they are permanent resident how long it takes after they become permanent resident to apply for citizenship and what are the process for that yes thank you sir well it depends if the person is married to a U.S. citizen it would take three years they can apply within three years and if they are not they could file an application within five years learning knowing English because they have to pass a test in English basically especially those who work for U.S. government abroad and they were granted special immigrant visas they were brought here as a special immigrant and they got the green cards in a month so they were already permanent resident accepted as permanent resident how long they will wait for the application to be a citizen those are the guidelines for three years or five years those under special visas they can get a residency earlier depending on the program that they are in but for the naturalization that would be with knowledge of English because most of those people who were working for U.S. government they already speak English, they read and write so that's why they were brought here and they were granted a special immigrant visa program so they wouldn't have any problems in taking the test of civics and history but those would be the years that they should be waiting so it's five years would be so even if you speak English and you already got your residency that's my understanding Mr. de Mol you have a different opinion five years with the green card as Rita said unless you're married to living in marital union the law says with your U.S. citizen spouse number three they're going to ask you some questions, I got the manual here I'd be happy to give you one if you know somebody wants to use this there's a hundred questions I wonder how many in the audience how many of these we could get what is the last day you can send in federal income tax forms everybody knows that one April 15th what was one important thing that Abraham Lincoln did well anyhow there's ten questions in here they're going to ask you ten of them you don't know which ten you got to get six of those questions right then you have to be able to write a sentence you have to read, write and speak English so they'll have you read a question which state has the most people and then you have to write everybody knows California California has the most people to show you're writing but I'm happy to give you this booklet if you know somebody wants to study for that we've been working on a manuscript about immigration and the immigration laws are so complex and the types of visas, the requirements it is very very complicated so I appreciate the work that these attorneys do and their knowledge of the law because it does take a very specialized knowledge to be able to deal with some of the more complicated cases thank you anybody else that had a question yes sir it was more of a comment if anyone is interested in working with Interfaith Coalition I along with another student will be organizing and coordinating so if any UTSA students or even if you're not a UTSA student just feel free to come up and talk to me afterwards and we can share information thank you are there any other questions that are scheduled to be here this is a very important topic and again I remind you we need to stay active we need to raise our voice and we need to vote thank you those folks from the Interfaith Coalition the other groups if we can ever be of help to you please let us know we try to support those efforts