[00:00:00] Speaker A: The American immigrant show with Dr. Spert is a space where immigrant stories become American stories, challenges become inspiration, and real life experiences fuel, hope, opportunity and transformation. This show isn't just about surviving immigration. It's about thriving, contributing and redefining what it means to be an American foreign.
Welcome to the American immigrant show. I'm Dr. Dennis Burke. On this show, we talk about the real immigrant journey, the decisions, risks, resilience and opportunities involved in building a life in the United States.
And while entrepreneurship, careers and economic mobility are important parts of the story story, there is another foundation that can determine whether those plans remain possible, legal and stable for immigrants.
One legal problem can reach far beyond the issue that first brought someone into a lawyer's office.
A criminal case may affect immigration status.
A family dispute can raise consequences about children, residency, or long term stability.
A decision that appears narrow in one legal system can have consequences in another.
My guest is Elizabeth Trefones, an attorney with more than two decades of experience in criminal law, immigration law, and family law.
She has served as an assistant public defender and as an appellate defender before the Wyoming Supreme Court. And she brings a rare perspective on how these systems intersect when the stakes are highest.
Elizabeth welcome to the American Immigrant show.
[00:02:14] Speaker B: Good morning, Dr. Burke. I'm so glad to be here with you. We're in our separate places, at least. I'm in Jackson Hole, Wyoming this morning and it's good to visit with you.
[00:02:23] Speaker A: I appreciate your time and coming on the show with me. We have a lot of ground to cover and some interesting topics.
The first thing I'd like to ask you, Elizabeth, is what led you to build a practice that sits at the intersection of criminal law, immigration law, and family law?
[00:02:43] Speaker B: Well, it was really a fluke. I was in San Diego and I was in a genetics lab and I wasn't enjoying that very much.
The law school happened to be across the street from my apartment, really, and so I committed to applying and thinking that maybe I'd do patent law. As I was in San Diego, I started to work with an attorney as his paralegal doing immigration work along the Tijuana, San Diego border.
Eventually, I made my way out to Jackson Hole to ski and I fell in love with the place here.
When I was looking for what I might do out here in the Jackson Hole, Wyoming area, it became rather apparent that being bilingual in Spanish and English in a place where over 30% of our community speaks Spanish and there was no attorneys at that time that spoke Spanish in the region, it was proved to be very necessary.
When I first moved here in 2005. We did have active ICE enforcement, detentions and deportations.
And really nobody understood where people were going or how we could bring them back or pay their bond or reappear in court later on.
And so that expertise that I had earned and gathered down at the border very quickly was exactly the same thing that was happening in the interior of the United States, just with longer stretches of travel for people and longer ways to get people back home. But it naturally just flowed from being a Spanish speaker and coming from a place where that's always been important to my community and certainly is important in Jackson Hole, Wyoming, and Wyoming at large in the Rocky Mountain west out here.
[00:04:25] Speaker A: So I would say, Elizabeth, that the local immigrant community were blessed to have you show up when you did and to be a resource for them and help them get through the many challenges they face, especially now, these times.
What are some of the most common misunderstandings immigrants have about how the US Legal system affects their status and their families?
[00:04:52] Speaker B: Couple number one, I think there's this myth that overall, people believe that an immigrant might be here, undocumented, because that's their intent, that somehow there's some benefit to remaining undocumented. And I truly have never found that the majority. And maybe that's because people are coming to me to fix their status, of course. But I have yet to meet someone who would say to me, I'd prefer to stay undocumented.
I've always only met someone who said, I can find the resources, I can make it work. I can find the support, help me do this the right way.
Unfortunately, I do about four new case consults a week, and the majority of them are explaining how there's not a way that I can fix the situation, and it's not a matter of time or money. It's that the system is really, truly a broken system.
And even with individuals having very good support and the intent to do things the right way, the right way just very often no longer exists. From really in 1997 through 2005, 2007 to present, we've seen it become incredibly difficult, wait times become decades, and the process to actually get through and get the benefits that people are seeking to be incredibly difficult. We know right now, too, that the sentiment with the benefits department, or uscis, really, and the directive at this point in time is to deny an application where they can find a basis to deny, whether that's a typo or piece of evidence that might be missing or simply discretion of the officer. The programs are becoming incredibly harsh, difficult, unable to navigate. And so when someone like you, even Dr. Burke, who did come the right way, and we're so grateful for that, did that before all of these changes, to say that you did it the right way and everybody else should too. I very much appreciate that sentiment, but folks really just need to know it's not how it works anymore. It hasn't worked that way for a long time.
The other thing people really need to understand is even small traffic citations, small misdemeanors, if you find yourself in criminal court, they have extremely impactful consequences. With your immigration status and simply walking into a criminal case and thinking if you just accept responsibility and plead guilty and pay your fine, that that's going to be the end of it. It's likely not. Talking with an immigration attorney who actually understands how those downstream impacts are going to flow is critical.
Slow your criminal case down. Ask for time, Ask to see an attorney, be prepared so that you know what the downstream consequences are, if any.
[00:07:44] Speaker A: And so, Elizabeth, would you agree that 911 changed an awful lot in America, considering all the security initially that we see at airports is still very prevalent and aggressive today. Today, at 25 years later, whether that actually intensified the effects on immigrants across the board, and even the best of the best immigrants with good intentions and good financial means here in America or even outside of America, they still get tarred with the same brush essentially, as people who are criminals.
[00:08:25] Speaker B: Yes, 100%. The U.S.
patriot act changed the dynamics, the security things at the border, the numerical caps to who we were letting in and why.
Vetting, whether you consider that extreme vetting or vetting generally, vetting since then has been extreme, whether you call it that or not.
And really to no fault.
I was there in 911 and not in New York, but I was part of this country then and we were frightened and rightfully so. And being secure in our borders, we actually all agree on that.
Even my undocumented individuals who are here for asylum purposes, they're here for safety, too. We actually all agree we want to live in safe communities and have secure borders and have a way to come into the United States in the, in a lawful way. The problem right now, however, is that we know that security is not perfect. We know that there's an influx of drugs coming into our country that are dangerous for all of us, undocumented or documented alike. And we also know that there are no doors or very, very few doors and very limited circumstances that take years, three, five, seven years to get through to come in the right way.
It changed the landscape phenomenally with the U.S. patriot Act. And I'm not saying that at the time our intent wasn't perfectly good to keep ourselves safe. But this is a made up imaginary system.
It's not functioning well by any means.
And if we made it up, we can make up something better. And currently we have to ask ourselves, why keep it this defunct? Why make it this difficult? What are our real goals?
And frankly, I think if we're honest with each other and visit with each other face to face, we'll find our real goals are well aligned. It's to be safe. It's to help others who need safety. It's to have strong economies and communities.
And for me, diversity surely makes Wyoming far more interesting than it is with just plain old cowboys. So I think it's changed a lot and I think that we can do better. Dr. Burke,
[00:10:45] Speaker A: so when legal uncertainty enters a family's life, and from what you've been saying, there's a lot of uncertainty at the moment, how can it affect work, financial planning, relationships and the ability to make long term decisions? That's for the people that are involved in those circumstances.
[00:11:08] Speaker B: Right. So we do a lot of advanced planning of what happens when you're detained.
And we can certainly talk more about that here, the next segment. But how do you put together a plan if you are stopped in a traffic stop in Wyoming, that Wyoming Highway Patrol agent and often the sheriff of whatever county you're in, they are ICE agents and there's a good likelihood you're being put into detention and deportation proceedings.
So having that plan on how we're activating, who's being called if you're detained, who's picking up your children, who's notifying your employer, how is the employer going to respond? And be prepared. Those are all things we talk in advance with our community with.
[00:11:50] Speaker A: So we have some real challenges therefore, in the system. And there's no one size fits all. Would you agree?
[00:11:58] Speaker B: That's very correct. Everybody's situation is unique.
[00:12:02] Speaker A: Yes. Because you'd wish you'd have a more level playing field. It's just not so. It's very unfortunate and you bring the matter to its forefront in this conversation and messaging that you have. We need a better way to operate from such a broken system.
[00:12:24] Speaker B: Great.
[00:12:28] Speaker A: So this is the American Immigrant Show. I'll be right back with Elizabeth.
Just a minute.
Before the break, we talked about why immigrant families need to see legal issues as connected rather than isolated.
Now we are focusing on particularly important examples. A criminal case that may carry immigration consequences beyond the immediate court proceedings.
Elizabeth's background in both criminal defence and immigration law gives her a perspective that is not always available when these matters are handled separately.
The goal of this conversation is not to give case specific advice, but to help viewers understand why the full legal picture matters before critical decisions are made.
And welcome back, Elizabeth.
We have some additional interesting questions for you.
And so I'd like to start again by asking you why can a criminal charge, plea or conviction create immigration consequences that may not be obvious to the person facing the case?
[00:14:41] Speaker B: Right. So unless you're a citizen, naturalized citizen like you, Dr. Burke, or born here as a citizen, of course, criminal consequences can impact whether you are deportable or whether you find yourself inadmissible. The deportability codes under 237impact permanent residence and there's various categories of crimes that will render your green card or your permanent residency revocable. It is not a permanent, permanent status. It is a privilege that people earn to be a permanent resident or be here as a temporary visitor, either as a tourist, a student, a U visa recipient, those types of things. And so having a criminal charge can make you inadmissible and deportable. It can make you deportable from the country. And if you were to leave the country, say on vacation and wish to come back and seek admission again, those various criminal convictions can be, can impact your ability to return to the country and they're not necessarily large ones. You know, when we think about criminal immigrants, I think our brain naturally goes to what we are, have been told are the worst of the worst. We don't want rapists, criminals, drug traffickers, human traffickers in our country. Actually we all quite agree about that, but smaller crimes, actually criminal citations can be crimes. Reckless driving, speeding, minor traffic violations generally won't impact an immigration status, but they can being charged with a dui, whether or not you're found innocent of it. The charge alone can impact student visas and revoke tourist visas, temporary visas, like student visas, just by being charged.
And so those have heavy implications. One of the ones that we see the most coming into Wyoming, interestingly being surrounded by states that have made marijuana lawful by a state law, certainly still not lawful from a federal perspective, is people coming through to Yellowstone or Grand Teton national park on vacation, they've come through, say, Denver on their way, they're with family and friends and someone may have purchased something lawfully in a dispensary. Well, that's still unlawful federally and it is very much unlawful in the state of Wyoming, but often someone might be in a vehicle where there might be some marijuana found. And to make things go easily, the immigrant might get a citation. They might just pay that citation, $100 fine and they think that they're okay.
This happens very often here in our region where someone gets a ticket like that, a marijuana possession ticket. They pay the fine, they think they're done.
Marijuana possession is a conviction when you pay the fine, and that conviction will render your permanent residency revocable, deportable.
There are ways that we can shore up and fight that deportation under certain circumstances, but you've put your permanent residency at risk. Also. We have a lot of folks that come through on H1BS, very high level specialty occupation workers that are traveling through Wyoming might be in a car with other people where there was lawfully purchased marijuana from another state and find themselves with their H1B completely revoked. Or they find themselves visiting home. Maybe they return to their home country for Christmas and then want to come back and have found themselves completely inadmissible to return to where their home is in the United States because of a simple marijuana citation that they paid.
Those things are small. They can have hugely impactful consequences. And you really do need to talk with an attorney who understands them before you make any next steps on any citation that you might receive so that you're aware of it.
[00:18:31] Speaker A: So what I understand is that there's a lot of risk associated and that if you leave for holidays to see your family, even if you're in an interim status situation trying to become legal or have an attorney facilitating your legality through getting you a new visa, that you could still be stopped at the border, you would be denied entry. And therefore the question is like, what happens, Your stuff, your car that you own in America, your clothes, your bank account that you may have, the lease you have on, the apartment that you have.
And so maybe you could comment on some of those common, common sense, practical things that the immigrant then has to figure out.
[00:19:20] Speaker B: Right? So it's a really good idea for all of us, immigrant, non immigrant, undocumented, documented alike, to have what's called power of attorneys. They're letters that allow someone to act as your substitute or to be in your shoes just as if you were standing there, whether you're at the bank, paying your apartment rent, picking up a paycheck, power of attorneys letters, they're very much. You can list out whatever you would like your substitute person to be able to do or not to do on your behalf and for how long?
We spend a lot of time advanced planning for Individuals, their power of attorney. So if they are detained by ICE or if they can't come into the country, there's a management in place for that property.
Property that you own is yours, whether you're documented or undocumented or in the country or out of the country.
Under the fifth Amendment of the US Constitution, there's no taking of property without just compensation for everybody. So even if you're deported, you own that home, you own that land, let's say in Wyoming, that still belongs to you. How you manage it and how you're going to give somebody else the power to manage it and interact with banks and other people or contractors or service providers or the county to pay your taxes, that becomes a question. Power of attorneys can be creative with you out of the country. They're much easier to do when you're sitting next to your property and you can identify it all and put the VIN numbers down and the addresses down and get a copy of that power of attorney to your lawyer, to the person that is your substitute. The have it on file so that the moment you need it, it's ready to go.
And it's a very practical step. We should all have a power of attorney because life can be complicated, whether you're detained by ICE or you just got in a car accident or your flight got rerouted and you know, customs and border patrol are saying you're not coming into the country.
[00:21:16] Speaker A: And so I fully understand what you're saying because it's a roll of the dice. It definitely is, whether you're coming into New York or you're coming into Miami from Europe, or you're coming in from the southern, over the southern border, flying in this case, that you could put yourself at unnecessary risk. And so oftentimes people have to forego going to family funerals and in their homeland, and have to forego major events like parents 75th birthday parties and a lot of different things and miss out on a lot of stuff that they have opted not to take the risk for.
And it can be quite saddening in this case.
However, I do have another question that, you know, may be beneficial to the listening audience, and that is that what can be lost when criminal defense strategy and immigration strategy are treated as completely separate issues.
[00:22:23] Speaker B: Right.
And I deal with this with local criminal attorneys as well. Often what might seem like a good deal from a prosecutor say, I'm going to plead guilty to that dui, but the agreement is that a guilty plea will be set aside, and if I do really well in my rehabilitation or my Treatment and we call it a deferred adjudication. That conviction is not entered against me. That sounds great. Most criminal attorneys would probably tell their immigrant client that that's what they should do.
Unfortunately, deferred adjudications, judgments held in abeyance and those types of things are convictions in the immigration context and under the federal law.
It's actually not a helpful resolution. We had a DUI that we took to trial where the client very much had made a mistake. We took that to trial and we were successful in an acquittal. And that did protect our client from being deported.
So just taking the deal, if you don't understand how that deal impacts your ability to remain in the United States, that's a significant consequence. I've had clients where it was better to sit longer in jail in exchange for something different than to simply just pay the fine.
You really have to know the client's circumstances, how they came in and out of the country, how many times, for how long, with what status, with what permission, how long it's been expired or not, what their criminal history background is, who their family ties are that might be able to sponsor them in the future, what is their employment situation.
All of those things come into play when we're actually asking is it good today to resolve the criminal case and what does that look like when they have to run their biometrics on their permanent residency card before it expires in 10 years? We need to know those answers both for the short term and for long term permanency and security.
[00:24:18] Speaker A: So Elizabeth, it sounds like a decision made in a criminal courtroom can sometimes reach far beyond that courtroom.
And for immigrant families, understanding the full legal impact before major decisions are made can be critical to protecting stability and future opportunity.
Next we will widen the conversation to family work and the human cost of legal uncertainty and why protecting the immigrant future often means looking at the whole person, not just one case case file.
And so we're back with the next segment to discuss family stability, work and the human side of the law Again with me today is the fabulous Elizabeth Trefonas, expert in family rights, stability and advocacy. And she speaks amazing and has great messaging about immigration and the current day issues.
So welcome back to the American Immigrant Show.
[00:26:11] Speaker B: Good to be back Dr. Burke.
[00:26:19] Speaker A: So we have been talking with with you, Elizabeth Trefanas about the intersection of criminal and immigration law.
Now I was in, in the system myself 40 years ago when it was, we was way pre 911 and it was sort of different times in the 80s and then the 90s even though there was still a legal process to follow.
However, I faced those certain challenges at that time and got past all of those.
Now I want to bring the conversation back to the people behind the legal issues.
Spouses, children, workers, business owners, and families trying to build stable futures. Because as we know, everything has changed in the last 25 years, maybe even in the last 10 years.
[00:27:26] Speaker B: Right. And it changes depending on administrations as well, particularly. Right. We have a legislature or Senate and Congress, and under our Constitution, they're charted with creating law.
And when that is not happening, if they're not creating laws, or they're not creating the laws that we've asked and voted them into office to do, or when there's that gridlock and deadlock of things other branches of the government have to try to interpret laws or executive orders. Right. And so what we see a lot of the time is that executive orders from the administration depend on the administration, and then the judiciary does its best, hopefully, to interpret those. But that puts a lot of uncertainty into situations. The argument that, say, a deferred Adjudication of Childhood Arrival or a daca, that program exists by executive order, not by congressional law.
If one president can grant it, one president can take it away.
Those things become very unstable for people to try and families to try to plan what their life looks like. If you're only told you have two years of status every two years, and that program may not exist depending on how votes go, because it's not created law, it's executive order, that's a very unstable situation for people.
We know that when folks are safe, secure, and communities are safe and secure, we thrive together. It's one of the reasons why we have the U visa program where we say if you're a victim of a crime and if you're undocumented here and you report that crime, that we will actually use that as a basis to fix your.
Your place here and give you a U visa and permission to be here. Because we know if we report crime, we are all safer. Unreported crime is what makes us unsafe because the person who is committing that crime can continue to do so. And so you know this idea of how do we get permanency and stability and groundedness.
You're threatened that you might be removed at any time.
That necessarily trickles into your spouse and your children and your employer and your community and your daily interactions.
[00:29:45] Speaker A: I also want the audience and viewing viewers to know that Elizabeth also practices family law, which means she sees how legal conflict can affect relationships, parenting, finances, and the day to day stability that allows people to, I guess you might say, work, pursue opportunity and go about their normal movements.
This is where law becomes deeply personal.
So with that, I have some additional questions for you and I would like to start by asking you how do family law issues become more complicated when immigration status is also part of the picture?
Sure.
[00:30:46] Speaker B: So family law, things like divorce, child support, child visitation, marriage, those are all state law based, whether or not you're here with federal permission as a documented or undocumented immigrant, as the case might be, your ability to parent, marry, divorce, child support, visitation, those are all things that are run by your state. In Wyoming, you're actually a lawful resident of the state of Wyoming after you've been here 60 days and courts have jurisdiction over your children after they've been here six months.
That's irrespective of your federal legal status status.
But when we have a parent who may be detained, may be deported, may not be able to come back into the United States, or when we have people that are traveling for visitation with a parent that's outside of the country, those things become pretty large questions on how we're going to navigate a family.
How are we going to navigate child support if dad is deported? How are we going to navigate visitation if I have a US citizen child and an immigrant parent who is no longer in the country?
Those are all state law questions.
But we know that if parents can co parent well, even with the addition of an immigration situation, all children need to feel like they're safe and secure to thrive. Otherwise we're just perpetuating a cycle of instability and poverty and lack and scarcity and just continues that cycle.
[00:32:24] Speaker A: So I hear you're loud and clear in this case. And so there's no, I would say, happy balance really in this case, because it's complicated, wouldn't you say?
[00:32:39] Speaker B: It is complicated. And I think really speaking with an attorney who knows what your goals are, what your family dynamics are, is essential. What may work for my family in, you know, visitation or support may not work in somebody else's.
Particularly if I've got a parent that can't just come in out of the country as they wish. What does that look like for a child? Are we doing summers in El Salvador or are we doing winters in Romania?
Those are things that become very specific to a case.
What people should know is that your immigration status in the United States does not impact your rights to your children as far as having them and being able to assert them. It does not impact your ability to request Child support.
Those are state law matters. And you should talk with somebody who you can be candid about, a representative who can understand the difference between federal immigration status and your unique circumstances, but also that your children and you are entitled to support and the benefit of a court order that says when you have your children and when you don't.
[00:33:50] Speaker A: So I understand that. Or what I understand is that you do everything in your power to protect the rights of the immigrant in this case. So you get the best outcome for them, you present in a great manner for them to get the best results. And I think that's awesome.
I do have one or two more questions for you, and I'd like to know, you know, in high, high conflict cases involving children or family stability, what does good legal advocacy need to protect beyond the immediate legal dispute?
[00:34:31] Speaker B: Often we're starting with protection orders. Sometimes there might be a violent situation that needs to be protected very quickly. Protection orders can be done ex parte with our local judges.
So those protection orders and not kidnapping people or moving them about becomes essential.
Then we try to slow the timeline down once we're protected and safe and really address the needs of our clients or their individual circumstances.
And when it comes to the family law piece, some of the best advice I've ever received and that I try to pass on is you really need to, number one, if there are children involved, they need to be first.
If people can really decide that the children in the situation are the priority, make decisions from that lens, it's going to be a much better outcome.
And the second thing is triage your battles. We can't fight everything as human beings. You have to pick those battles that are most important to you and put your efforts into those.
If you're battle is the protection of your child, we need to address that first. If it's who gets the truck at the end of the day, maybe, maybe we let that go because that's not our battle to contend with.
So really focusing on the priority of the children, if there are any, if there aren't children involved in priority of your safety, safety of our clients.
The amount of times particularly that an undocumented person that becomes a way to abuse them through power and control and that instability, the very first thing we're going to do when we step in is make sure our client is safe and they're not being harmed and they're certainly not being threatened in that manner.
[00:36:20] Speaker A: And so, Elizabeth, I think you make a tremendously great point about picking the battles and what matters most for the client in this case, the immigrant who's trying to secure their position.
And with that, we will just take a little break and be right back.
Sam.
Welcome back to the American Immigrant Show. I am Dr. Dennis Burke and we are closing today's conversation with attorney Elizabeth Trefanas.
We have talked about the intersection of immigration, criminal justice and family stability.
In this final segment, I want to focus on on the practical leadership that people can bring to their own legal lives, asking better questions, seeking the right representation, understanding the stakes and acting before a problem becomes harder to solve.
For immigrants, building a future in the United States, legal clarity is not separate from opportunity.
It can affect the ability to remain with family, pursue a career, plan financially, and continue building the life that brought them here in the first place.
So welcome back. ELIZABETH I have some final questions for you today.
I'd like to start off by asking when a legal issue touches more than one area of law, what should someone look for when choosing an attorney or a legal team?
[00:39:06] Speaker B: Sure.
First of all, no one size fits all. And folks should be encouraged to actually talk to more than one person, more than one lawyer and get a sense for that person who you trust and why.
I would also suggest if you have immigration concerns, that you work with an attorney that's associated with the American Immigration Lawyers Association. It's a nationwide group of lawyers with expertise and specialty in immigration law. And check the licensure of your attorneys.
Every state has a bar that maintains or maintains disciplinary actions or our licenses.
Check and see how your attorney is with their standing with their bar.
Don't be afraid to ask questions of your lawyer. You don't know what you don't know. That's the very point of talking and asking questions of them. And also, if it's needed, please ask for a translator. It's very important that you be able to communicate with your lawyer in your native language. And don't be afraid to ask for that help. We often use language lines, translation apps, things that can assist with that. If we can't directly communicate in your language. But come and prepare to ask questions and seek the advice of multiple people until you settle on someone who you feel understands your unique circumstances.
[00:40:27] Speaker A: And so I think it's absolutely great advice when you say you don't know what you know. So you need to ask the right people, people the right questions.
What mistakes do you see people make when they wait too long to seek qualified legal advice?
[00:40:46] Speaker B: Right. The biggest mistake we see often, we know in Wyoming that most of our interactions with ICE is through a traffic stop, people driving to work People taking their kids to school. None of us drive perfectly, even though we try.
I just got pulled over myself for a headlight out. Officer Kari pulled me over in Kemmer on my way leaving the court.
I thought it was fine. I'm glad that I have my driver's license and everything else in order. But you can be surprised. So the biggest mistake people make is not getting that power of attorney and that plan in place before you need it.
Calling your loved one from the jail and not having a plan on what steps are happening next is very stressful. It's very fearful.
Having a plan will make that fear much less. And having the plan of who you're calling if you're detained, who they're calling thereafter, who's picking up your children, how someone's accessing your bank account to pay your bond. These are all very important things that if you have in place can take that emergency situation from. Yes, it's important and we need to get you home and out of custody and back with your family. But when there's a plan, it can be executed in a matter of weeks instead of months or even years. And so just have that conversation with a loved one. Listen, when I call you from a 1-800-number, please answer the phone and this is how you're going to access that bank account or this is who you're going to call next.
[00:42:18] Speaker A: So you're so correct. Having a plan ahead of time so people you trust go into action and take care of the kid, picking them up from school and take care of other things that are necessary in the event things go sideways during your status redefinition maybe, or trying to find a new status with your attorney's direction, what do you feel like, should immigrant communities understand about the importance of informed representation and asking questions before signing agreements, entering pleas are making major legal decisions.
[00:43:03] Speaker B: In any vulnerable situation, there are going to be people that are taking advantage.
So being careful with a representative who promises that they can fix things just because of a certain amount of money is a pretty big red flag.
Somebody who's not been in the community for very long as a representative to me is also a bit of a red flag really knowing your resources in your community and who to access and who has that support, for example, in trying to put together your plan. In our area we have groups not for profits like 122, the Hispanic Resource center, the ACLU, the Wyoming Immigrant Advocacy Project, Immigrant Hope. These are all long standing community organizations that also work with our churches in various capacities. Reaching out through those channels Those are trusted sources and they all have packets that have been put together to put together your family emergency plan. Reach out through your church to those not for profits, to those representatives that are working with those organizations that are trusted and have been in your community with you.
[00:44:15] Speaker A: So essentially, no matter what community you live in, whether it's Wyoming, Florida, New York, California, you basically are saying that immigrants in those communities need to network within the Catholic churches or other church groups and basically with people that they trust in the community, especially their immigration attorney, if they have one. And if they don't have one, they should receive legal, proper legal guidance from an attorney. Would you agree?
[00:44:48] Speaker B: That's right. I would agree.
You know, we're here in Wyoming as an immigration law. An immigration lawyer can represent anybody in any other state as long as they're licensed in one state. We do appear in courts in Florida and Texas and California and Oregon. I do regularly.
My home court right now for immigration deportation is Aurora, Colorado, Denver, Colorado, Salt Lake and Boise, Idaho is where I'm the most.
But reach out to those organizations through your church and those trusted, not for profits, that know the uniqueness of your community and your situation, and check the American Immigration Lawyers association and those bar associations to establish the license and the background of your representative meets those qualifications and has that expertise. And if they don't, don't be afraid to reach out to somebody else who might.
You're entitled to have safety as a human being and to reach out for that safety when you need it. I like to always say we only have rights if we know what they are and if we assert them, and that part's on you to reach out and figure out where, what your rights are, how you assert them, and to lean into that and level up with it. We are safer as a community together. We know that statistically we're safer with an immigrant community. We have better economies and we have better foundations if we support one another.
[00:46:18] Speaker A: Would you like to tell the viewers how they can get a hold of you, the name of your law firm and the phone number?
[00:46:27] Speaker B: Yes, Troponus Laws in Jacksonville, Wyoming. But we represent people all over.
I travel all over.
We can be reached at our
[email protected] you can also give us a call. The phone number is there on the website, should be on the screen. It's 307-203-9019. We actually do our best to answer the phone with a real person.
Melasa is usually the person on that phone.
Please be polite to her. She's working really hard and taking lots of different questions all the time. And give us, if it's not an emergency, at least two business days to get back to you. Emergencies for us are ICE detentions. So please know that we are fielding those calls every day.
We have several every week in Jackson where we have a member detained during a traffic stop. So give us a chance to triage our battles as well.
What you're calling us about is very important and we'll do our best to get back to you as soon as possible.
[00:47:25] Speaker A: So, Elizabeth, I want to say from the bottom of my heart, because immigration, the immigrant problem in America, is a big issue and I feel bad for so many people. And I'm grateful that you've come on our show, the American Immigrant show, to share your knowledge and expertise and that you are acting in such a valid as a resource for people to help them on their journey. Because as we've agreed, and this is not simple, this is a complicated problem. And while we might be able to have simpler solutions in the future, at least at the moment, it's fairly complicated. But I want to thank you especially for your knowledge, your expertise and your desire to share with the viewing audience, and not only that, to be willing to help people and travel if that's what it took to get to help them. And I want to thank you very much for that.
So I will sign off now and say I appreciate you very much.
