Subscriber Benefit
As a subscriber you can listen to articles at work, in the car, or while you work out. Subscribe Now
As immigration-related arrests have picked up this summer in Indiana and around the country, there’s also been a corresponding rise in questions and concerns brought by affected families, nonprofits, churches and businesses to their attorneys on how to plan ahead if confronted by Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents.
Angela Adams, owner/managing attorney of Carmel-based Adams Immigration Law, LLC, said she is encouraging clients every day to come up with a family safety plan in the event they are detained or arrested by immigration agents.
That could come in the form of filing temporary guardianship documents for children, designating power of attorney or handling other family-related legal matters.
“It’s very similar to estate planning,” Adams said.
While families have lots of questions, Adams said, employers, churches and nonprofits also want to know how to be prepared if ICE comes.
Adams said immigration-related questions from schools and school districts have slowed down compared to earlier in the year.
She said some common basic legal issues that are being addressed are what an ICE warrant looks like, what legal rights people have and reminding clients they have a right to an attorney and the right to remain silent.
Adams acknowledged it’s been difficult to keep up with immigration-related questions, given the constant shifting of government enforcement priorities and frequent legal challenges raised in federal courts around the country.
Those questions can come from immigrants legally in the U.S. with visas that own their own businesses, churches providing services for members of their congregations or employers that hired Adams to do consultations on how law changes could affect their workers.
“The level of anxiety is very high,” Adams said.
Attorneys give advice on ICE encounters, planning
In response to heightened immigration concerns, the IndyBar Association’s Hispanic Lawyers Division hosted a continuing legal education seminar in June titled “When ICE Knocks: Legal Strategies for Safety and Preparedness.”
The seminar covered topics pertaining to immigrant families that included creating a child care plan, understanding immigration options and being well-versed in individual rights.
Vanessa Lopez Aguilera, a family law attorney with Indianapolis-based Lopez Law Office PC, gave a presentation during the bar association’s online event.
Lopez Aguilera told The Indiana Lawyer that families need to prepare for contingencies like who will pick up children from school if their parents are picked up by ICE and who will take care of those children if a parent is detained or removed.
Temporary guardianship arrangements and power of attorney documents are very important in these situations, she said.
Lopez Aguilera said most of her Latino clients are business owners with employees. Many of those clients are in the business of buying and fixing up homes and renting them to tenants.
The attorney said if those clients are detained by ICE, they would want to determine who will be responsible for collecting rent from tenants or providing upkeep at rental units.
While lots of clients have questions, some are afraid to open cases and appear in court.
“I have definitely seen a decline in Latino clients wanting to engage in litigation,” Lopez Aguilera said.
To be respectful of clients’ concerns, Lopez Aguilera said her firm does Zoom and phone meetings so people don’t have to come to the office.
She is also getting more calls outside of Central Indiana from places like Lake and Jackson counties, where there have been more immigration enforcement actions, and there’s also a dearth of Spanish-speaking attorneys to assist clients.
Detention numbers rise; more enforcement actions locally
Syracuse University’s Transactional Records Access Clearinghouse listed four Indiana-based detention facilities as housing ICE detainees.
As of June 23, the average daily ICE detainee population for those sites totaled more than 300.
The Clay County Justice Center in Brazil averages 256, with the Marion County Jail at 40, Clark County Jail at 22 and Clinton County Jail at 3.
TRAC’s most recent data included the following national numbers:
• Immigration and Customs Enforcement held 57,861 in ICE detention according to data current as of June 29.
• 41,495 out of 57,861—or 71.7%—held in ICE detention have no criminal conviction.
• Many of those convicted committed only minor offenses, including traffic violations.
Axios Indianapolis reported arrests of people without criminal charges or convictions by ICE surged in Indiana in June.
The publication noted that in June, 23% of the 309 people ICE arrested in the state had no criminal charge.
The number of total Indiana arrests by ICE from January to June has grown by 127%.
ICE posted on its Facebook page earlier in July that its Indianapolis team had made more than 30 arrests in less than 24 hours, with the federal agency complimenting the high number of cooperative agencies in the state.
Avon Police told FOX59/CBS4 that while conducting traffic enforcement and encountering suspected illegal immigrants on July 22, officers called for ICE assistance. That led to the arrests of 20 people.
Carolyn Grimes, owner of the Law Office of Carolyn Grimes in Carmel, said she had two clients who were on their way to work in Avon who were stopped at a traffic stop by officers.
The clients, brothers originally from Guatemala, both have special juvenile immigrant status.
U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services defines the classification as allowing certain alien children to apply for lawful permanent resident status in the United States (also known as applying for a Green Card).
Grimes said the older brother was driving the vehicle and not detained, but the younger brother was told he had to go with officers and was transported to ICE’s Indianapolis office.
She said the younger brother was eventually released from custody and felt traumatized by the encounter.
Grimes told the younger brother he was OK and should feel good that his older brother, who texted her after the traffic stop, knew how to handle the situation.
The Carmel attorney said she had not heard of any large-scale ICE raids the size of those carried out in larger cities like Chicago and Los Angeles.
Grimes has also received recent calls from clients with orders of supervision, which are documents issued by ICE to non-citizens who have been released from detention but are still subject to immigration proceedings.
She also fielded a call involving three separate families with three different types of immigration cases that were living in a home together when ICE agents began banging on their door.
Grimes said she asks a lot of her clients what the worst-case scenario would be in an encounter with ICE, and, based on their answer, works with them on a legal plan tailored to their situation.
The attorney noted that voluntary departure is an option that’s been presented to at least one of her clients.
CBS News reported the Trump Administration launched a massive push to encourage unauthorized immigrants to self-deport, offering them a $1,000 self-deportation bonus and threatening them with arrest, fines and prosecution if they remain in the U.S. illegally.
“Some people might look at that as a generous offer,” Grimes said. “Some people might look at that as a bribe.”
Grimes said the brothers she represents from Guatemala have been in the U.S. nearly five years and have no desire to return to the Central American country. But they, like others, are afraid of being forced to move back to their countries of origin.•
Please enable JavaScript to view this content.