Page 3 - Sonoma County Gazette September 2019

Our Immigration
• Lastly the suggestion that the majority of these asylum seekers do not show up for court and “just go underground” is incorrect. Recent data shows that asylum seekers continue to appear for immigration court proceedings at high rates. In fiscal year 2018, Department of Justice (DOJ) figures show that 89 percent
of all asylum applicants attended their final court hearing to receive
a decision on their application.
When families and unaccompanied children have access to legal representation, the rate of compliance with immigration court obligations
is nearly 98 percent. https://www. humanrightsfirst.org/resource/ fact-check-asylum-seekers-regularly- attend-immigration-court-hearings
Experience
(Wellness Corner, Sept Gazette)
Dr. Pace,
Thank you for your efforts to observe
and report on the crisis at the border. I read your columns and felt they were very helpful, informative and well-balanced.
I have been represented asylum seekers actively since 1988. Currently, my staff and I represent hundreds
of these families who have been released from detention and put in the immigration court system. As such, we have daily contact with
the families and part of our work is
to interview them and assist them
in presenting their testimony about the reasons why they left their home countries (most of our asylum clients are Mexican, Salvadoran, Honduran or Guatemalan).
In case you’re interested, here
is a link to a column I wrote for
the Gazette that addresses some
of the misunderstandings about asylum-seekers. https://www. sonomacountygazette.com/sonoma- county-news/immigrant-stories-by- christopher-kerosky-august-2018
Your columns were powerful and on the whole, I agreed with your insights and suggestions. There were a couple small points I would take issue with:
Thank you again for devoting your time and your writing to this important issue.
• You mentioned the change in
the nature of migrants coming to
the border over the last two decades from single adults to parents with kids, but you implied this was related to “bringing children as part of a strategy”. I disagree. The fact is that these Central American countries and parts of Mexico (Michoacan, Oaxaca, Guanajuato, Veracruz, etc.) were much more tranquil in the last decade; there was not the widespread violence and extortion that exists there now. In the year 2000, when
the Border Patrol detained almost twice the number of immigrants entering the border illegally than now, migration was mainly economic —single men coming to work.
While there are still undoubtedly some economic motivators in
the migration, there is also the widespread phenomenon of families escaping violence and terror.
• Also, bringing their children is not so much part of a “strategy” using “loopholes in the law” as some have suggested; but rather a result of the human need to remove your loved ones from harms way.
Christopher A. Kerosky
Easements
(Barrister Bits, Sept Gazette)
Tthank you so much for researching this for me and publishing it! I’ve been checking
each issue carefully since I posed
the question. I’m sure it’s of great interest in West County where lots
of easements exist. I’m also working hard with Fire Safe Occidental to find secondary egress routes and some of these easements are helping us locate previous “roads” that might help
us in times of evacuation, and/or as potential places for fuel breaks.
Of course I was sorry to hear that mostly I have the responsibility to clear my neighbor’s path, but this is exactly what I needed to know. I’ll see what magic I can work to get him to help to some degree with the project.
We *so* love the Gazette! --Carolyn Sell
LETTERS cont’d on page 4
9/19 - www.sonomacountygazette.com - 3