Today marks the first day of the new U.S. administration. Incoming President Donald Trump has vowed to put into place policies on Day One that include deporting “illegal” immigrants in grand sweeps. In a time of anti-immigrant rhetoric and uncertainty about the impact the new policies will have on our local immigrant communities, many migrants are anxious about what the future holds for them.
Representatives from the Philadelphia Legal Services organization (pennsylvania-farmworker-project), together with the Justice at Work Legal Aid organization (Justice at Work Legal Aid), both headquartered in Philadelphia, met last week at Gettysburg College to present a workshop for local Hispanic/Latino migrants in Adams County.
Roughly forty participants, mostly local immigrants and family members, attended the workshop, which is designed to help the community know their rights in case they are approached by ICE or local law enforcement. Based on past experience, law enforcement is not always prepared to distinguish between legal and non-legal status of migrants; therefore, residents, regardless of their immigration status, may be faced with being approached by ICE or local law enforcement agents.
The premise of the workshop was to educate the audience about their basic rights under the U.S. Constitution. These rights apply to both documented and undocumented immigrants.
Lerae Kroon, supervising attorney at Philadelphia Legal Services; Kate Berson from Justice at Work Legal Aid; and our local representative for the Pennsylvania Farmworker Project, Marcos Garcia, presented various scenarios where individuals might be approached by the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) or other law enforcement at home, on the street, in the car, or anywhere else.
Those rights include, among others:
- The right to express their desire to remain silent;
- The right to refuse disclosure of place of birth, immigration status and how the individual entered the US;
- The right to speak to a lawyer;
- The right not to open the door and allowing ICE to enter the home, unless the agent shows a warrant signed by a judge and carrying correct name and address of the individual;
- The right to refuse a search of one’s car or home, if the agent cannot prove probable cause;
- The right to refuse signing any documents without their lawyers present.
Other important advice provided by the presenters included, for example:
- How to behave properly if approached by an agent at home, in the car or elsewhere;
- How to document all details after the encounter, including officers’ badges and patrol car numbers, agency, etc.
The workshop also advised the audience to develop emergency plans, including care for children, medication, important contact information, and gathering all important documents in one place that is quickly accessible.
Since language barriers often lead to an individual giving up their constitutional rights unintentionally, it is important to provide non-English speakers with the proper phrases to use in case they are approached. The team handed out wallet cards with the appropriate phrases to give to an agent, regarding the wish to remain silent or not to sign any documents; denying permission to have the agent enter a home without a warrant signed by a judge; and to not give permission for a search based on 4th Amendment rights.
The workshop was sponsored by Adams County Casa de la Cultura, in collaboration with Gettysburg College. Other representatives providing valuable information about local migrant services included:
- Harriett Mintz, a volunteer for the Adams County chapter of the Pennsylvania Prison Society, advising participants of certain basic human rights if incarcerated; and
- Donate Gardner, News Communicator for Pasa La Voz, a non-profit text-based news service providing vital information regarding health, education, legal resources, and local events to the Adams County Hispanic/Latinx community.
Some basic information regarding local Hispanic immigrants:
According to the National Center for Farmworker Health and Center for Rural Pennsylvania, an estimated 45,000 to 50,000 migrant farm laborers come to Pennsylvania each year to work. As of a 2022 study, Adams County has roughly 7,000 residents of Hispanic/Latino heritage.
County residents, farms and industries rely heavily on the help from migrant workers living in our community, providing labor and valuable services. Many of the jobs are hard-to-fill jobs in industries that require significant amounts of manual labor – jobs that many regular local citizens would not want to perform.
As noted by various sources, since the passing of the Immigration Act of 1965, immigrants have had fewer paths of entry, including green card status, into the US. This has resulted in a pattern of either unlawful entry, or – more commonly – unlawful overstay of temporary visa status for large numbers of immigrants, referred to as “undocumented immigrants.”
These undocumented immigrants pay federal, state, local and sales taxes. The American Immigration Council has reported that undocumented immigrants in Pennsylvania paid an estimated $428.1 million in federal taxes and $238.3 million in state and local taxes in 2018. The report said Consideration of Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) recipients and eligible individuals paid an estimated $17.4 million in state and local taxes in 2018”.
Further, the Migration Policy Institute in 2022 asserted that “DACA holders contribute nearly $42 billion to U.S. gross domestic product each year and add $3.4 billion to the federal balance sheet.” Research has suggested that, if undocumented immigrants had been granted legal status, they might have paid $51 million MORE in Pennsylvania state and local taxes in 2017 alone.
According to political scientist Wayne A. Cornelius, “it is difficult to envision a realistic scenario for reversing the incorporation of Latino immigrant labor into the U.S. economy.”
Featured image caption: From left to right: Carly Auchy, Center for Public Service, Gettysburg College; Brenda Reyes-Lúa, Center for Public Service; Marcos Garcia, Pennsylvania Farmworker Project; Lerae Kroon, Philadelphia Legal Services; Kate Berson, Justice at Work Legal Aid [Donate Gardner]
Donate Gardner is a freelance writer and journalist who came to Gettysburg in 2021 from Montgomery County, Maryland. A former linguist-turned-legal professional, Donate recently retired from the corporate world and is eager to support her new community in a variety of ways.
She currently serves as the news communicator for the Adams County migrant outreach program, Pasa La Voz.
As an immigrant born, raised, and educated in Germany, Donate still maintains a strong connection to other languages, both as a writer and translator. Donate is an active musician, multi-instrumentalist and songwriter. She and her husband have two daughters and three grandchildren.
Thanks for this terrific article.
Thank you very much! These are difficult times for our community.