Alaska officials who help resettle immigrants say they’re facing a lot of uncertainty amid the Trump administration’s crackdown on legal and illegal immigration.
Issa Spatrisano is the refugee program coordinator for Catholic Social Services. During an appearance on Talk of Alaska on Tuesday, she said a large group of immigrants in the state come from Ukraine, and are classified as having humanitarian parole. However, she said a pause on certain federal programs has prevented those people from keeping their paperwork up-to-date.
“I don't know how many Ukrainians I've spoken to that we serve who have bought land and are ready to buy houses, who were enrolled at UAA and questioning if they should go,” Spatrisano said. “I mean, people are at a loss of what to do.”
Spatrisano said the Trump administration has rolled back a number of Biden-era refugee policies that have left people who entered the country legally now told that they need to leave the country.
For asylum seekers, immigrants and other noncitizens currently in the country, immigration attorneys have been working to clarify what rights people have. Nicolas Olano is an attorney with Nations Law Group. He said some of that outreach involves telling people that they have a right to an attorney and that there’s a difference between the kinds of orders that law enforcement might issue to them.
“The judicial and administrative warrants that we're talking about permit you to do different things,” Olano said. “The administrative warrant that ICE issues does not let you go into a house, for example, versus the judicial warrant that would allow the officers to go into the house and search for either people or certain specific things that they're looking for.”
Cindy Woods, a senior immigration law and policy fellow for the American Civil Liberties Union of Alaska, said her organization has been hosting Know Your Rights presentations to combat rumors and misinformation around deportations, and she encourages noncitizens to reach out if they are concerned about their immigration status.
