Local lawyers speak to immigrant fears, the rights they have — and what they should do right now

Para leer el artículo en español, haga clic aquí.

Ajla Azevedo-Husic, the immigration defense attorney with the Santa Cruz County Office of the Public Defender, has had her phone ringing off the hook with clients living in fear of the Trump administration’s aggressive approach to immigration. That intense fear, she said, is the biggest difference between her job now and before Donald Trump was elected to a second term as president.

“I have clients who are literally afraid to go to their criminal court case hearings,” she said, even if the conviction is getting dismissed. “There have been a number of people who stopped sending their kids to school, too.”

Azevedo-Husic knows the immense stress her clients are going through better than most, as she immigrated to the United States from war-torn Bosnia in the 1990s. Now, she works in an office whose clientele is more than 12% non-citizens, with potential immigration issues related to their criminal cases. Those people find themselves in a precarious situation, as they are not entitled to an attorney in immigration court, a right they would typically have in a regular criminal proceeding.

What’s also unique about immigration law, said local immigration lawyer Matthew Weisner, is that deportation court has both a lawyer and a judge who are from the U.S. Department of Homeland Security and Department of Justice. “In a way the prosecutor and the judge are on the same team,” he said. “So, it always feels like they’re both representing the interests of the federal government.”  

Still, Azevedo-Husic and Santa Cruz County Public Defender Heather Rogers say that despite the fear so many are feeling, they still have rights that are vital to know and exercise. That is especially important, given that even these experienced attorneys aren’t entirely sure how U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) is finding people it’s targeting.

Rogers and Azevedo-Husic said their best hypothesis is that the agency is matching fingerprints to those taken during an arrest. Rogers explained that when someone is booked into the county jail, no one knows their citizenship status, so they believe ICE is linking that fingerprint to an existing hit in federal immigration databases to find who to go after.

“The way [ICE] might know about you, for example, is if you come across the border and you’re not arrested, but you’re simply sent back, which happens a lot – if they have a criminal record,” Rogers said. “They do fingerprinting, so the federal database is full of all the fingerprints of anyone who’s ever touched an ICE agent.”

Rogers and Azevedo-Husic said that fingerprinting can happen for a wide range of reasons, including if one was removed from the country, voluntarily left or applied for any status — refugee, tourist visa and more.

“The people they wouldn’t know about is if someone was brought in in the middle of the night across the desert,” said Azevedo-Husic. “But that number is small.”

Rogers said that a way to break that cycle seems relatively simple: don’t book people. She added that plenty of cases see people get booked, yet no charges are ever filed.

“What I think we can do as a community is stop using incarceration and prosecution as our knee-jerk answer to everything, and start to be really mindful of the reality that just the very act of taking someone to the sheriff and taking their fingerprints can literally destroy their lives,” she said. “You think about life without parole or capital punishment, and deportation and removal to the person who is experiencing it and their family is, I think, on par with a lifetime in prison.”

But while that is a possible path forward to another layer of protection, fears of deportation continue to loom large in immigrant communities every day. Azevedo-Husic points to “expedited removal,” a fast-track process that immigration officials can use to deport noncitizens without a hearing, typically those who entered the country without proper documentation.

“If they arrest somebody who they think has been here for less than two years, that person can get put on a bus tomorrow and [be] sent back to their country,” said Azevedo-Husic. “They don’t get a judge, they don’t get the removal hearings in immigration court. They can just be removed from the country.”

Weisner said he believes the use of expedited removal will become more common. “We’ll probably see expedited removals used to quickly deport people who have more recently arrived,” Weisner said. “And I do expect that to go up.” 

In comparison, voluntary removal is when an undocumented individual agrees to be removed from the country on their own volition. This is why it’s important to not sign any documents until reviewing it with an attorney, said immigration lawyer Lizett Rodriguez Peña. She added that voluntary removals are common because sometimes the individual is pressured to sign or they don’t want to wait months, sometimes years, for a hearing in a detention center or jail. 

Both Weisner and Rodriguez Peña noted that the recently passed Laken Riley Act is dangerous to all undocumented immigrants. The law, signed by Trump last month, requires ICE agents to detain undocumented residents who commit certain offenses, like theft, larceny and burglary. The law is extremely harmful on a lot of levels, said Weisner, especially when it comes to due-process rights. 

Misdemeanors that would not be considered deportable will now be considered under this law, said Rodriguez Peña. And even if a person is innocent of a crime, said Weisner, they might be placed in a detention center or jail. 

“The lack of due process, the lack of import for whether or not they were guilty of the crime, and other components of the bill is bad policy,” he said. “It’s a harmful policy. It’ll hurt people in our communities.” 

How can an undocumented person deter that action? It might be cumbersome, but Azevedo-Husic said that keeping physical documents that show one has been in the country for longer than two years could be a good idea.

“That could be your utility bills, your school records or other things that show that you’ve lived in this country for over two years,” she said.

Azevedo-Husic added that it’s vital to remember the rights that one has in the United States. While each immigration case is specific, the Fourth Amendment — the right of the people to be secure from unreasonable search and seizure — applies to everyone.

“ICE can’t just bust into your house and say, ‘We’re going to search your house and arrest you without a warrant,’” she said. “They need a judicial warrant just like local police officers.”

Azevedo-Husic noted that ICE might use misleading tactics as well. Agents could write their own warrant and have an ICE officer sign it. While those are not valid, many do not know that. If ICE agents do something they are not supposed to, they can be fought in court.

Given the uncertainty and frequently changing approach to immigration, what can people do? Azevedo-Husic said that one should have a plan in place for their family and do their best to consult with immigration attorneys.

“If you are not a U.S. citizen, find a nonprofit or private attorney if you can afford one and have a consultation where you tell them your status and situation, and they can advise each person on their specific circumstances,” she said.

The county’s Human Services Department website contains a slew of resources, including the American Civil Liberties Union’s “Know Your Rights” information and ways to locate free or low-cost immigration legal services. Sus Derechos is a site that seeks to provide immigrant communities in Santa Cruz, San Benito and Monterey counties with information about their rights and connections to legal assistance and answers to common questions. The county website lays out resources, too, as does Pajaro Valley Unified School District.

Rogers pointed to out-of-county information, too, including the National Immigration Law Center’s information on warrants and subpoenas and Fresno State University’s webpage for helpful resources. 

Rogers said that ICE officers are likely being told to push as far as they can, but community members need to remember that their reach is not limitless.

“We need to do our job and tell our community members that [ICE] can only push so far, and you do not have to meet them halfway,” she said. “You can vindicate your rights and your humanity and protect yourself and your family without violating the law.”

If an ICE agent comes knocking at the door, there are a few things an undocumented individual should do, said Rodriguez Peña, whose practice is based in Hollister but has clients in Santa Cruz, San Benito and Monterey counties. Always verify that whoever is at the door is an ICE agent first, she said; people don’t have to open the door, either. People should also ask whether or not the immigration authorities have a judicial warrant. 

“Generally, [ICE agents] say, ‘Yes, we do,’ even though they might not,” Rodriguez Peña said. “If they do [have a judicial warrant], you want to verify that the judicial warrant is valid.” 

There’s no need to allow the ICE agents inside to verify the warrant, she said; just getting the judicial warrant through a window or barely opening the door is enough. Rodriguez Peña added that there are differences between a warrant issued by a federal or district court and one issued by Homeland Security. 

An official warrant should have the district or supreme court listed at the top and is signed by a judge. In comparison, a notice to appear from the Department of Justice has Homeland Security written at the top. It’s also important to check the date on the warrant and ensure that it’s current, said Rodriguez Peña, because it’s possible for immigration authorities to present one that’s a few years old because that would make them outdated. 

Rodriguez Peña recommends families create an emergency plan. It’s a tough conversation to have, she said, but they can become habit by having them more frequently. Preparing for a natural disaster and creating an emergency plan in case a family member gets deported are almost the same, she said. 

Gathering all necessary documentation — such as birth and marriage certificates, valid identification and even utility bills — in one place makes things a lot easier if one parent is deported, said Rodriguez Peña.

Weisner urges people in the community to rely on credible, trustworthy sources, and added that a lot of his clients are sending him inaccurate TikToks or Facebook posts that are misleading and fearmongering. The spread of misinformation and panic is causing a lot of harm, he said. 

If people have very specific questions, said Rodriguez Peña, the best option is to go to a DOJ-accredited representative, who are generally under a nonprofit, like Community Action Board of Santa Cruz County, or an immigration lawyer. 

“Do not go to a notary or a tax preparer. This is not the time to make those mistakes,” said Rodriguez Peña. “They don’t have a legal degree. They know how to fill out forms, anyone can, but they’re not going to be able to get you out of removal proceedings.”

Have something to say? Lookout welcomes letters to the editor, within our policies, from readers. Guidelines here.