The Golden Door: July 2021
Legal and Policy Issues
We are closely monitoring state and federal immigration law and policy. Please check our social media accounts for more frequent updates.
Federal Court Blocks New DACA Applicants
This month, a Texas federal judge ruled that the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program is unlawful, and blocked the government from granting initial applications to the program.
What you need to know about the effect of this cruel court decision:
If you already have DACA, nothing has changed, and you can still renew your status.
If your renewal DACA application is still being processed, it will continue normally.
If you were eligible for a first-time application for DACA, the government is still accepting initial applications, but cannot act on them for the time being.
If you already sent in your first-time DACA application and it has not been granted yet, the court decision means that the government cannot approve it right now.
The Biden Administration is appealing the decision and is also exploring a different way of preserving DACA through rulemaking.
CALL TO ACTION: Contact Maine’s Congressional Delegation To Demand Pathway to Citizenship
The recent DACA decision reinforces the need for a pathway to citizenship for our community members without permanent status.
Back in March, the House of Representatives passed the Dream and Promise Act with bipartisan support, which would provide a pathway to citizenship for those eligible for DACA and Temporary Protected Status (TPS). The Senate has not acted on this bill, but does have a pathway to citizenship in a proposed reconciliation package.
Call Maine's Representatives and Senators and urge them to support a pathway to citizenship for people who do not have permanent status, including Dreamers, TPS holders, essential workers, and farm workers living in the U.S., without including criminal bars to status.
Call:
📞 Sen. Susan Collins: (202) 224-2523
📞 Sen. Angus King: (202) 224-5344
📞 Rep. Chellie Pingree: (202) 225-6116
📞 Rep. Jared Golden: (202) 225-6306
If you live outside of Maine, you can find your representatives here.
Somalia Temporary Protected Status (TPS) Extended and Redesignated
Great news! The government has extended and redesignated Somalia for Temporary Protected Status (TPS). TPS is a temporary status granted to individuals from certain countries that the government has designated as being unsafe for return.
The extension of TPS for Somalia allows current TPS holders to retain TPS through March 17, 2023, and the redesignation of TPS for Somalia allows Somali nationals who have been continuously residing in the United States since July 19, 2021, to file initial applications to obtain TPS. Eligible Mainers will be able to obtain work permits and live in Maine without the fear of deportation.
Marijuana & Immigration Awareness Campaign
While Maine and other states have legalized medical and recreational marijuana, it remains illegal under federal immigration law. This means marijuana can lead to serious immigration problems for noncitizens.
If you are not a U.S. citizen, you CANNOT have, use, grow, or work with marijuana in ANY state.
Noncitizens who are found to have used marijuana, worked in a marijuana business, grown marijuana, or helped another person use marijuana can face serious immigration consequences. Noncitizens may even be barred from getting a green card or U.S. citizenship and may be deported. This is true even if they were never convicted of a crime and marijuana is legal under state law.
ILAP now has multilingual information available about the dangers of marijuana for noncitizens and how noncitizens can protect themselves now that marijuana is legal in Maine.
You can help ILAP spread this information by sharing it with your networks.
Here's how:
Share ILAP's posts on Facebook. We have been posting helpful information and tips in many languages all week!
Download ILAP’s Marijuana Awareness Campaign: Social Media Toolkit that includes sample posts along with multilingual graphics and PDFs for you to share
Jennifer Bailey of ILAP Receives Thomas P. Downing, Jr. Award
This month we celebrated the selection of ILAP's Jennifer Bailey, Esq. as the recipient of the 2021 Thomas P. Downing, Jr. Award from the Maine Justice Foundation! The Award was established in Downing’s memory to recognize legal aid staff for their dedication to access to civil justice for vulnerable Mainers.
“In addition to her decades of devoted work on behalf of immigrants, refugees, and asylum seekers around the world, Jennifer led ILAP’s asylum program through an extremely turbulent period in asylum law,” said Executive Director Sue Roche.
“I’m honored to be selected as this year’s recipient of this award," reflected Jennifer. "And it’s an honor I share with my remarkable colleagues, our tenacious volunteer attorneys, and the countless others advancing justice for immigrants in Maine.”
Alongside Jennifer, Charles F. Dingman of Kozak & Gayer and Sara A. Murphy of Pierce Atwood were recognized as being champions of civil legal aid in Maine.
Read the full award announcement here and join us in congratulating Jennifer!
A Closer Look
This section of the Golden Door takes “a closer look” at immigration using an intersectional lens based on a monthly theme. Let us know what you think!
Disability Rights & Immigration
July is Disability Pride Month, marking the anniversary of the passage of the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA), legislation that provides critical (yet incomplete) protection against discrimination for individuals with disabilities.
It is clear our country's immigration system is rooted in racism and unsurprisingly, our laws and practices are built on ableism as well. The reality for immigrants with disabilities includes violence and neglect in immigration detention, lack of accommodations during court proceedings, lawful exclusion through immigration policies like “public charge,” and insufficient access to and quality of healthcare, education, economic opportunities, and housing. These barriers became even more acute during the COVID-19 pandemic, as illustrated by this global survey completed by people with disabilities and their advocates.
Conchita Hernandez, who identifies as an immigrant with a disability, writes about their experience moving to the U.S. at just five years old: “There was always a fear of deportation back to a place that I vaguely remembered, where ‘people like me’ didn’t go out in public alone.”
Disability advocates have continually pushed for more accessible and inclusive communities. When we actively work to create a better world for some – whether people with disabilities, immigrants, Black people, the LGBTQ+ community – we are creating a better world for all of us.
Keep Learning:
Disability Visibility Project: Disabled Immigrants: Living on the Edge of Barbwire
ImmPrint: The Rights of Undocumented Immigrants with Disabilities Needs to Be a Priority
Leah Lakshmi Piepzna-Samarasinha: Care Work: Dreaming Disability Justice
ILAP is learning alongside you. Do you have other resources to share? Thoughts about ways ILAP can be more accessible? We would love to hear from you!
We Met Our Match: Thank You!
This month, ILAP celebrated the end of our spring fundraising campaign.
A big thanks to Noel Paul Stookey for honoring ILAP with his recent Just Causes album, to the George J. and Theresa L. Cotsirilos Family Foundation for their $10,000 match challenge, and to ALL of you for helping us meet our match - and beyond!
Thank you!