Mexico Consulate in Little Rock offering legal aid to fearful citizens

Jose Aguilar Salazar, deputy Mexican consul in Little Rock, said Wednesday that the consulate will “be very attentive” to the new policies’ impact.
Jose Aguilar Salazar, deputy Mexican consul in Little Rock, said Wednesday that the consulate will “be very attentive” to the new policies’ impact.

Expecting new immigration-law enforcement policies, the deputy Mexican consul stationed in Little Rock said the consulate has enlisted legal aid for Mexican citizens facing deportation.





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The deputy, Jose Aguilar Salazar, said immigration enforcement in Arkansas under President Donald Trump so far has been similar to recent years. But the consulate, sharing in aid from the Mexican government, is redoubling efforts to ensure its citizens receive fair treatment in the judicial process as more immigrants become eligible for immediate arrest or detention.

Aside from legal help, consulate staff members are traveling across the region more frequently to meet with Mexican citizens in their communities, offering updates on changing policies and tips on handling encounters with law enforcement officials.

"Deportations are not new in the United States, but these are new times," Aguilar Salazar said. "What we are going to do is be very attentive in the way things happen because all of these migratory control measures are along the lines of the respect for due process of law. Any person -- not only Mexicans -- any person has the right to due process of law, respect of their dignity [and] safe custody once they are into those proceedings."

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The U.S. Department of Homeland Security on Tuesday issued sweeping changes to immigration policy, formally replacing a three-tiered priority system developed by former President Barack Obama's administration, as it wrote Trump's Jan. 25 directives into instruction for its immigration-related agencies.

The policies, laid out in two memos, will expose a larger portion of the estimated 11.1 million illegal aliens -- and 70,000 in Arkansas -- to arrest and deportation.

Not all of these foreigners are Mexican. An estimated 64,000 Mexican citizens live in Arkansas, some legally and some illegally, said Sarah Medrano Gonzalez, the consulate's community and cultural affairs coordinator. The state's total Mexican population, including U.S. citizens, was an estimated 138,000 in 2010, according to the Census Bureau.

One memo says federal agents should prioritize not only aliens convicted of crimes but also those charged with any criminal offense and those who "have committed acts which constitute a chargeable criminal offense."

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The U.S. "no longer will exempt classes or categories of removable aliens from potential enforcement," excluding only protections offered to childhood arrivals who have been processed through a special government program, it says.

The Obama administration focused its enforcement efforts on recent immigration-law violators, people convicted of felonies or three or more misdemeanors, and people deemed to pose a threat to national or border security. Of 65,000 people apprehended inside the U.S. and deported in fiscal 2016, 92 percent had been convicted of crimes, according to federal data.

U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement is to hire 10,000 additional agents and officers, plus support staff, at least a 50 percent increase to the 20,000 people the agency employs worldwide. Trump also has urged the agency to forge more partnerships with local law enforcement agencies through which police are deputized to enforce federal immigration law.

Tom Byrd, an Immigration and Customs Enforcement spokesman based in New Orleans, declined to comment on the memos but said the New Orleans field office, which has jurisdiction over Arkansas and other states, remain focused on aliens with criminal backgrounds.

"Everything right now is resource-driven," Byrd said. "We are still going to go after the [aliens] that pose the greatest threat in our community."

The Mexican Consulate in Little Rock has not recorded a surge in arrests of Mexicans living in Arkansas since Trump's election, Aguilar Salazar said.

"So far, things have been normal," he said.

The consulate, one of about 50 nationwide, covers all of Arkansas as well as eastern Oklahoma and western Tennessee. It provides Mexican government identification cards, passports and other documents to Mexicans and keeps them informed of changing laws and their rights.

That mission has not changed since Trump's election, but it has "intensified," Aguilar Salazar said.

Mexico's president in January announced the government would earmark $50 million for consulates in the U.S., primarily to provide money for lawyers to assist people facing deportation. Aguilar Salazar said the consulate in Little Rock also is sending staff members to places like Northwest Arkansas, Oklahoma and Tennessee to meet more Mexican citizens directly.

The consulate on its road trips is advising people not to run from or resist law enforcement officials. It also offers guidance on the information they must provide to arresting officers and what they are not required to volunteer.

Whether local or federal, law enforcement officers who arrest Mexicans must notify the consulate under the terms of the Vienna Conventions, a 1963 treaty.

"We make sure they have a lawyer," Aguilar Salazar said. "If they don't have one in particular, we can refer them to the services of a good lawyer, a person we know is going to care for them."

Aguilar Salazar, who said the trauma of deportation rivals that of a death in the family or a serious accident, said the feedback the consulate is receiving shows that people are on edge.

"Some people feel emotionally distressed," Aguilar Salazar said. "They feel rejected, and they feel they have no way out of this situation."

Homeland Security Secretary John Kelly, who signed the memos explaining new policies, and U.S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson arrived in Mexico City on Wednesday for a two-day visit with top Mexican government officials, including President Enrique Pena Nieto.

Relations between the neighboring countries are as tense as they've been in at least 20 years, Aguilar Salazar said. The deputy consul said he wants to see a "sound dialogue" that looks at immigration broadly in the context of migrant trends and workforce needs rather than border security and law enforcement.

"In this case, a sound dialogue will contribute not only to the respect of our nationals being here but also to make a very objective assessment of their contribution here to the United States," Aguilar Salazar said.

A Section on 02/23/2017

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