Talking Points in Opposition to AB 2679 (Harman)

1.     The bill creates a costly level of bureaucracy that takes scare resources away from serving low-income Californians in need of legal assistance.

2.     Eliminating vital legal services to these immigrants will place an additional burden on the already-overwhelmed California court system.

3.     It will create significant harm to some of our state’s most vulnerable residents and workers.

4.     The bill would deny legal assistance to a broad range of legal immigrants and increase their vulnerability to abuse and exploitation.

5.     The bill prevents the peaceful and orderly resolution of disputes.

Each Talking Point in More Detail:

1. The bill creates a costly level of additional bureaucracy that would take scare resources away from serving low-income Californians in need of assistance. 
1. Complicated Screening Procedures:  It can take staff as long to determine a client’s eligibility as it would to actually help the person with her legal needs. It is often a complicated process to determine which persons are “eligible” or “ineligible,” and does not simply turn on their documentation.

                                                               i.            For example, persons fleeing persecution in their home countries may be in the country without documentation but can legalize their status so they will not be deported back to the country where they face persecution.   This is also true for victims of trafficking if they establish that they meet the immigration law definition of this term.

                                                             ii.            Up to 80% of undocumented children actually live in mixed families, where some members of the families have documents and others do not.

                                                            iii.            The federal Legal Services Corporation (LSC) regulations relating to immigration status fill almost six pages of Federal Register small print. LSC-funded programs find it can take as much as a four- to six-page checklist that they must go over with each client to establish their eligibility for services, in addition to their regular screening for subject area, need for services, and income limits.

2. Reduces funds available to serve clients in need: The added compliance costs would reduce the amount of money that goes to the actual provision of legal services, to the detriment of all eligible, low-income recipients.
3. Unmanageable burden on small legal services programs: The cost of compliance could substantially reduce the services provided by smaller legal services providers, to the detriment of their clients and the state-wide legal services delivery system. AB 2679’s burden in terms of costs relating to compliance audits and extra administrative time would prove substantial, particularly for smaller IOLTA grantees.

2. Additional burdens placed on our court system. 

Immigrants barred from obtaining assistance from legal services programs would still need to access California’s Courts, and would be forced to appear as self-represented litigants.  This would further burden our court system, which is already overwhelmed by the large numbers of self-represented litigations, many of whom are not proficient English-speakers, coupled with insufficient numbers of judges in many geographic regions to hear the number of civil cases filed.

3. Significant harm to vulnerable residents and workers.

A change to impose restrictions on use of the money to serve certain immigrants would harm some of our most vulnerable residents and workers, many of whom are victims of crime, and they would be powerless against those who would prey on them precisely because they do not have access to legal help.  A recent study by the California Judicial Council found that the kind of civil legal assistance IOLTA pays for addresses basic human needs to ensure the safety and security of children and families, protect threatened homes, maintain needed income, and gain access to required health care.

1. Low-income immigrant workers are still among the most disadvantaged workers in the country.  They are the people in our society who are perhaps the most vulnerable to exploitation and discrimination because:

                                                               i.            They generally occupy the lowest paying and most dangerous jobs with the worst working conditions;

                                                             ii.            They are often isolated from the American mainstream by differences in language and culture; and/or

                                                            iii.            They often feel intimidated by their employers and are very reluctant to complain for fear of losing their jobs and income or being reported to the INS and deported;

2. The legal rights of low-income immigrants are often not enforced, both because they fear the consequences of raising their profiles and because there is often no one to argue for their interests.
3. Immigrants often need additional protection from violence and exploitation.  Examples include:

                                                               i.            Spouses and children of abusive husbands/parents would have no place to turn for protection.

                                                             ii.            Unscrupulous landlords would be able to evict undocumented tenants without fear of legal retaliation.

                                                            iii.            Unscrupulous employers could withhold or refuse to pay wages with impunity, or force employees to work in unsafe conditions under the threat of retaliation.  

4. The bill would deny legal assistance to a broad range of legal immigrations and increase their vulnerability to abuse and exploitation.

The bill would require programs to deny services to many categories of immigrants who are lawfully here, leaving them without access to legal assistance.  The following are examples of immigrants who would be excluded from legal assistance by the bill:

·        Immigrants with pending applications for lawful permanent residence (LPR) status – the bill would allow programs to represent these immigrants only if they have a U.S. citizen parent, spouse or child.  This excludes immigrants who are applying for LPR status based on other family relationships such as being the sibling of a U.S. citizen, or the spouse or child of a lawful permanent resident.  It also excludes immigrations applying for LPR status based on employment, and those applying because they qualify under special adjustment laws, such as the Cuban Adjustment Act, and similar laws for other special groups such as Nicaraguans, Haitians, Indochinese paroles, and immigration children who have been abandoned or abused.

·        Immigrants granted temporary protected status (TPS) -  a status given to particular nationalities that allows them to reside and work in the U.S. due to civil strife or other unsettled conditions in their home countries.  Currently, nationals of Burundi, El Salvador, Liberia, Nicaragua, Somalia and Sudan have this status.

·        Immigrants granted deferred enforced departure (DED) status – a status somewhat similar to TPS status that also affords permission to reside and work in the United States.

·        Immigrants granted deferred action status – a status granted to individuals for whom authorities determine that deportation is not appropriate due to compelling humanitarian considerations.  Examples include persons with severe illnesses or disabilities and victims of domestic violence.  Immigrants granted this status are permitted to reside and work in the United States.

·        Immigrants allowed into the U.S. with indefinite or long-term parole – immigration authorities use a grant of “parole” to permit immigrants to come into the country for a variety of reasons, including humanitarian concerns and promotion of the public interest.  Immigrants who are paroled into the country are permitted to reside and work in the United States.

·        Immigrants under an order of supervision – these are individuals who cannot be deported to their home countries, generally because of problems with foreign relations, who are permitted to reside and work in the United States.

·        Immigrants who have applied for asylum, withholding of removal, and/or protection under the Convention against Torture – immigrants who fear persecution or torture in their home countries can apply for these forms of relief, and may reside and be granted employment authorization while their applications are being considered, which can take several years.

·        “Non-immigrants” – Non-immigrants are admitted to the U.S. by immigration authorities for a specific purpose (such as to study, work, or visit) on a temporary basis which, however, in many cases entails a permitted stay of several years.  LSC restrictions permit programs to represent H-2 agricultural workers in matters related to their employment in the U.S., but prohibit representation of other non-immigrants.

Currently these and other categories of legal immigrants, as well as undocumented immigrants, are not eligible for legal assistance from LSC-funded programs.  They rely on non-LSC-funded IOLTA programs for legal assistance for the kinds of fundamental problems that these programs address, such as nonpayment of wages, unsafe working conditions, uninhabitable housing conditions, denials of health care, discrimination, blatant consumer fraud, and other essential services.  The bill would make such assistance completely unavailable to these groups, creating a dual system of justice that would leave these populations more vulnerable to abuse and exploitation.

5. The bill prevents the peaceful and orderly resolution of disputes.

Meeting these vital legal needs and giving immigrants full access to the courts and other systems for peaceful dispute resolution is in society's interest. Religious, community and law enforcement representatives have supported the unrestricted provision of legal services because helping low-income people with their civil legal problems protects children, makes families self-sufficient, and decrease crimes of violence and substance abuse.