THE GRADUATES.

Gustavo and Saul

By Christopher Kerosky

[This article appeared in June’s issue of the Sonoma County Gazette. https://www.sonomacountygazette.com/sonoma-county-news/immigrant-stories-the-graduates-by-christopher-kerosky-june-2018]

This spring, young people throughout the United States are celebrating their graduations from high school and college.  Many of these graduates are immigrants or the children of immigrants, a tangible reminder that the American Dream still plays out every day in this country, from sea to shining sea.   

Here’s two such examples from our own County -- Saul Diaz and Gustavo Espinoza – who both graduated from Sonoma State University (SSU) in May.   I’m selfishly proud of these gentlemen, as they have both worked for me over the last 4 years, at the same time attending classes and earning their college degrees. 

Gustavo

Gustavo Espinoza is a native of Cotija, Michoacan, Mexico, a town most known for its distinctive cheese.  Immigrating to the U.S. at a young age, he grew up in Sonoma County, attending Kawana Elementary and Slater Middle School in Santa Rosa.  I first met Gustavo when he was still a student at Elsie Allen High School. He expressed an interest in law so I invited him to intern with us.  As a 17-year-old, Gustavo would show up after school and put in a few hours filling out forms and preparing cover letters.  Within months, we hired him.  

Quickly, Gustavo became so well-versed in immigration law that clients referred to him as "Licenciado Espinoza", thinking he was a lawyer.  He has a quiet commitment to helping immigrants through the stressful and intimidating process of obtaining status in this country.  Last month, after four years of full-time work and a heavy college load, “Gus” put on his cap and gown and was handed his degree from SSU in front of his proud immigrant parents.  That same night, he became engaged to his high school sweetheart, Karla, making for a memorable weekend indeed.

Gustavo plans to go to law school in the future.  But the law degree would only make it official: this guy is already a legal star in my book.

Saul

A native of  Oaxaca, Mexico, Saul Diaz came to the U.S. at age 3.  He attended Roseland Elementary School and Laurence Cook Middle School.  After graduating from Elsie Allen, Saul earned two associate degrees at Santa Rosa Junior College (SRJC)..  He also volunteered at the Graton Day Labor Center, a non-profit organization aiding immigrants in finding employment and protecting their legal rights.  Throughout high school and college, Saul worked weekends for his dad as a laborer and did some landscaping on the side.

DACA allowed Saul to get a professional job in 2013 and I hired him after his good friend Gustavo recommended him.  Saul started as a receptionist, but he quickly began to master immigration law. Over the years, we have watched Saul develop into a very knowledgeable and skillful advocate for immigrants, who now trains our newer staff members and handles complex cases. 

Two years ago, Saul transferred from SRJC to SSU.  And last month, Saul was awarded his Bachelor’s Degree from Sonoma State, a right of passage that left many of his family members and others like me very proud to know him.  Felicidades, Saul!

Myth of the uneducated immigrant.

The sky is the limit for both Saul and Gustavo.  It wouldn’t surprise me if they are powerful trial lawyers or sitting as judges on some federal court in the future. 

But their stories are not unlike many others from our County and communities across the U.S..  Immigrant youth – including large numbers of sons and daughters of Mexico -- are quietly obtaining degrees and professions, refuting the common myth about immigrants being uneducated and unassimilated.

The fact is that recent immigrants to the U.S. are more educated than those who immigrated to the U.S. at other periods of our history.  According to Fortune Magazine, over 33% of immigrants enter the U.S. with a college degree and 75% of recent arrivals have a high school diploma or higher.  Moreover, the number of immigrants with higher education has grown at more than twice the rate of the same population among the U.S. born. 

California has the largest number of college-educated immigrants with 2.5 million or 24% of all college-educated immigrants in the U.S.  Sonoma County has a large share: 28.8% of the student body of SSU and 30% of Santa Rosa Junior College is Latino and many are immigrants or the children of immigrants.  And this number is growing every year: a full 44% of the County’s school age population is Latino.

The accomplishments of young immigrants like Saul and Gustavo are the best rejoinder to all the myths and malicious rhetoric about immigrants, prevalent since the rise of Donald Trump.   I prefer to remember the words of a different national leader, Robert Kennedy, who was assassinated 50 years ago this month while running for President:

“Our attitude towards immigration reflects our faith in the American ideal. We have always believed it possible for men and women who start at the bottom to rise as far as the talent and energy allow. Neither race nor place of birth should affect their chances.”

THE TRUTH  ABOUT THE IMMIGRANT FAMILIES AT THE BORDER

By Christopher Kerosky

There is so much misinformation about the asylum seekers coming to our Mexican border, including a plethora of “alternative facts” put forth by Donald Trump. 

Our office has represented many families who went through the same process like those incarcerated at the border now and so I will try to address here some of the most common fallacies and provide some accurate information.  It’s important that the public understand why this is happening and who is to blame for a policy of separating children from their parents in our name.   

Are these immigrants all coming in illegally?

No, a large portion of these refugees are entering the U.S. border legally, seeking asylum through a legal procedure established by the U.S, by statute in 1980, and in accordance with the UN Human Rights Treaty.  This is true of all of those coming in the caravans of desperate refugees from Central America, organized by humanitarian organizations.  Donald Trump has condemned these caravans, but the fact is these people are following our own laws that provide a procedure for refugees to seek asylum at our border.

According to the Washington Post, some of the others who have been separated from their children were also seeking asylum but were apprehended because they went to the wrong port of entry or crossed the border in desperation when they were turned away at a port of entry.   

The majority of those seeking asylum are from Mexico, Honduras and El Salvador, all countries ravaged by violence at the hands of criminal organizations.  Extortion, kidnappings and even murder are very common in many of the areas from which these refugees come.  Virtually all of the asylum seekers I’ve met reported that their families were targets of this violence and were threatened with more violence if they stayed in their communities.

Are these immigrants able to stay forever in the U.S. just by coming to the border?

No, all applicants for asylum have to go through a rigorous interview process to establish they have a credible fear of persecution in their home country before they are ever allowed to leave the custody of the border officials.

Those who fail these interviews are deported. 

Those who succeed in proving to a DHS official that they credible fear of persecution still have to go through a trial before an immigration judge in deportation proceedings.  There, they are subject to a higher standard of proof, requiring that they prove have a well-founded fear of persecution based on religion, race, nationality, political opinion or social group; if they fail to prove this to a judge, they are deported.

Are the Democrats responsible for this family separation policy?

Donald Trump continues to falsely blame Democrats for an administration policy that has led to more than 2,000 children being separated from their parents at the U.S. border.

The family separations began earlier this year after the Administration announced a so-called “zero tolerance” policy of referring all border crossings for federal criminal prosecution, which leads to children being separated as their parents are sent to jail.

A law intended to protect children from trafficking was  passed by a Democratic Congress and signed into law by George W. Bush in 2008.  It establishes certain due process rights for unaccompanied minors .  That is apparently the law Donald Trump is referring to; however that law does just the opposite. 

Isn’t there an alternative to incarcerating them and separating them from their children?

Yes, even if the U.S. government insists on criminally prosecuting all these immigrants, I believe these families could be given electronic ankle bracelets or other devices commonly used by immigration or law enforcement to ensure a person will attend future court hearings and not disappear. 

There has never been an adequate explanation from the Trump Administration why these refugees cannot be given electronic devices to track their whereabouts, instead of incarcerating them at greater cost to our government, not to mention the cost to their children who are taken away from them.

Why Sanctuary is Important

By Christopher A. Kerosky

[This article was published in the May issue of  SONOMA COUNTY GAZETTE]

https://www.sonomacountygazette.com/sonoma-county-news/immigrant-stories-why-sanctuary-is-important-by-christopher-kerosky-may-2018

Between 2006 and 2013, hundreds of our neighbors in Sonoma County, California were arrested by our Sheriff’s Department, even though they were guilty of no serious crimes.  Some were stopped because of a traffic violation or a broken headlight.  Because they did not have a driver’s license, they were then handcuffed, jailed and detained sometimes indefinitely.  Their cars were often impounded.  In many cases, they were charged only with driving without a license or other misdemeanors; sometimes no charges were filed at all.  Yet they were not allowed to go free, even if they paid a bond.

After up to 48 hours of incarceration in our county jails, these Sonoma County residents were handed over to the Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) to commence their deportation from the United States.  They were often young, sometimes students in college or even high school.  Others were young mothers or fathers, with small children at home.  Sometimes they were driving their children to school or coming home from work. 

Our Sheriff at the time claimed he had no choice under the law but to arrest, detain and transfer these neighbors of ours for deportation.  Many were removed from the U.S. as a result, leaving behind U.S.-born children, spouses and extended family.

I can tell you this happened because I represented hundreds of them in deportation court.  I saw the way this County policy devastated many families in our community.  This occurred to hundreds of thousands of immigrants in counties throughout California and across the country.

Why did this happen?  Because our County participated actively in the Secure Communities Program run by ICE back then, and now revived under Trump. 

What stops this from happening today?  Our state and county sanctuary policies. Nothing more.

Sanctuary is a good thing.

With the Trump Administration’s constant drumbeat of verbal attacks, financial sanctions and lawsuits against sanctuary communities, many in our state are questioning whether “sanctuary” is a good thing.   As someone who has seen the trauma that our prior policies caused immigrant families here, I can tell you: sanctuary is a good thing.   

It’s vital that we don’t return to the days when thousands of our state residents were rounded up and deported; to when just driving to the store or the school created serious risk for undocumented immigrants.