Legal panel offers advice and answers questions on travel ban, immigration issues
New London — At first, it seemed like only a few people might show up.
Four or five people sat in a room in the Connecticut College community center shortly before the panel, arranged by the college and the Connecticut branch of the Council on American Islamic Relations as an opportunity to answer people's questions about recent White House executive orders affecting immigration and travel from several Muslim-majority countries.
But just after 2 p.m., when the panel was scheduled to start, people began to fill the chairs. Eager to receive any advice or updates from the two Yale Law School students and the immigration lawyer who came to New London Sunday, teachers, politicians, clergy members and students sat intently listening and asking questions about the implications of the wide-ranging orders that have come out of the Trump administration’s first month.
Rachel Wilf and Yusuf Saei, both third-year Yale Law School students, and Ellen Messali, a staff attorney at the nonprofit New Haven Legal Assistance, tried to answer all the questions lobbed at them during the session, the second event that the Council on American Islamic Relations has organized across the state.
But all three admitted that with challenges to the administration's efforts to stem immigration to the United States making their way through legal proceedings and a new executive order predicted any day, definitive answers to any questions will be hard to come by.
The panel was billed as opportunity for the three legal experts to give advice about White House-issued travel orders banning travel into the U.S. by refugees and people born in seven Muslim-majority countries, and the legal challenges of that ban that have put the administrations efforts on hold for now.
But many of the audience's questions also centered on Trump administration memos that expand the scope of law enforcement agencies targeting undocumented immigrants, many reflecting a growing anxiety among area residents about how the various Trump directives will affect them and their neighbors.
They asked about the status of green card holders, the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program and the United States' policies on refugees. They asked about what to do if they are unfairly detained at airports, what to tell children worried about their parents and whether customs officials have the authority to open travellers' laptops.
The advice the panelists did give, both for immigrants who or U.S. citizens or visa holders, and for those without proper documentation, was simple.
For those who are in the United States illegally, the panel advised, staying silent if confronted by law enforcement is usually the best option.
"It's just important for people to remember, it’s a crime to lie to a law enforcement official, but it’s not a crime to remain silent and protect yourself," Saei said.
People who are in the country illegally should be prepared if they are targeted by immigration enforcement agencies with a plan for who will care for their children, a plan to access their important documents and even rehearsal for what to say when speaking to law enforcement. And if they are confronted by ICE agents, Messali said, they should only ask to see a lawyer and say nothing else.
The memos on immigration enforcement have mostly affected large cities with significant immigrant populations. But local experts said they began noticing an uptick in Immigration and Customs Enforcement activity in Connecticut in the last month, including the detention of people with all kinds of pending criminal cases rather than only those with serious criminal convictions.
Parents may even want to consider giving someone else power of attorney to make decisions for their children if they are detained, Messali said.
"It's a heartbreaking thought," she said. "At the same time, it is a good idea to be advising people to have a plan ... if they come home from school and there's no one there, or there’s no one to pick them up from school."
Church of the City Rev. Aracelis Haye, who is also a member of the New London Board of Education, said Sunday that she would pass on the advice to her congregants.
"I can go home at night and see my children," Haye said Sunday. "That might not hold true for the people in our church."
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