Local citizens learn about complex US immigration laws

By Sam Brown

An experienced Maine lawyer who practices immigration law presented a basic introduction to the topic to about 30 concerned residents at the Thompson Free Library in Dover-Foxcroft, Tuesday afternoon Oct. 21. She was asked to speak on the subject because of increased Immigration and Customs Enforcement and Border Patrol activities in the area, which have alarmed many friends of recently arrested people.  

Bringing her decades of work and observations to the curious audience, the lawyer explained that federal laws regarding immigration are not simple and easily understood but in fact need a 3,000-page annually-updated reference book to contain them. Compliance is therefore difficult and time-consuming for everyone involved. The federal laws apply across the country while each state can set its own legal attitudes about immigrants and immigration, such as the availability (or not) of driver’s licenses, work permits, educational opportunities, etc. 

Immigrants come into the US for many reasons, including seasonal agriculture and tourism workers that many Maine employers urgently need these days. Do they seek asylum, are they refugees, are they hoping to better their situations or just escape bad ones? Every immigrant has a unique situation in relation to these intricate laws. In her job as an immigration lawyer, she has to ask many questions and spend lots of time with each client in an attempt to determine the best path for that person through the confusing maze of both the state and federal policies.  

Immigration law is not the same as criminal law in the way it treats its subjects.  Detained persons in criminal courts have more rights, under criminal law, than in immigration courts, under immigration law. As a significant example, under immigration law a detained immigrant does not have the right to free legal representation (as does a defendant in criminal court) and therefore must provide it on his or her own. The complications of detention often make this a difficult task, especially when English is not fully understood by all parties.

Many printed documents were made available to the attendees, outlining some of the various actions local residents can take to help their non-citizen friends when faced with the increasing and often frightening possibilities of arrest. Knowledge is one of the antidotes to fear.

Further information can be found at the Immigrant Legal Resource Center at ilrc.org and the National Immigration Law Center, nilc.org.