Goal Post: Interview with a Fairly Important Person

I can’t believe it’s already the middle of November. It is literally Thanksgiving next week (yay, turkey!), and I feel like I just finished my October assignment. For this month, I hopefully will be able to get an interview with James Milstein. He used to be Albany county’s public defender until he decided to become director of the just-opened Albany Regional Immigration Assistance Center in 2016. This center is literally the center that helps train the immigration officers and assists immigrants with any legal difficulties within the immigration process. They also give advice to lawyers who help the non-citizen population with legal matters. For example, the penalty of a minor crime may result in a non-citizen having their visa or LPR status taken away if he/she pleads guilty; many lawyers and immigrants within the state are unaware of how severe some of these penalties are, and this center hopes to change that. You can see a quote from Milstein in a Times Union article about the opening of the center below:

"Let's say you're talking about someone who is illegally in the country. Somebody might go, 'Well, that person has no rights,' " Milstein said. "Sometimes, you have to look deeper into why the person is here. They may be a victim of human trafficking. They may be a victim of labor trafficking. In these 14 counties, we're not going to have people that are just working at Nanotech. We're going to be working with large agricultural populations, so you may have people entitled to rights that people might not think they are."

The center covers 14 different counties in New York, and Albany is where the central office is located. It is devoted to helping not only legal immigrants, but also undocumented immigrants. Below is its reason for existence, according to its brochure:

“Changes to immigration laws have dramatically raised the stakes for array of crimes, including many minor offenses and violations. Consequently, criminal defense attorneys are now required to advise noncitizen clients as to the potential immigration consequences of a criminal conviction pursuant to the Supreme Court ruling in Padilla v. Kentucky, 559 U.S. 356 (2010). This advice must be affirmative, individualized and accurate. noncitizens to be subjected to deportation and removal from the United States for a wide array of crimes, including many minor offenses and violations. Consequently, criminal defense attorneys are now required to advise noncitizen clients as to the potential immigration consequences of a criminal conviction pursuant to the Supreme Court ruling in Padilla v. Kentucky, 559 U.S. 356 (2010). This advice must be affirmative, individualized and accurate.”

So although this may be a little off from my original plan, my most recent SDA brought up some questions about what its like being on the other side of the table. What it's like being someone who administers the test, someone who helps immigrants when they are in a tough legal spot. In order to fully understand the process, I need to see it from all perspectives. But right now, I'm super duper excited, and he responded to my email today with a yes, so I just have to set up a time and write some fairly fantabulous questions.

If something comes up, and I am unable to interview him for a long time, I have a backup plan, which is further interviewing the students who indicated that they had a strong opinion about immigration. However, this is the tentative plan. Now that my life is a little bit on track (and I discovered that I won't be losing my license for 60 days due to a traffic court disaster), I am about to send off a volunteer form to another immigration association; hopefully they will accept my application, and things will go from there.

I almost forgot. The advisers want questions at the end of my journal, so I'll post a couple that I thought of while listening to a podcast Bott sent me a while ago.

Can you be afraid of change without even being subject to it?

How much is "fake news" influencing the public opinion? Within the podcast, many told of stories that were misleading or false, and they gave the readers the wrong idea about a certain event or ethnicity.

Should I read up on more alt-right pages (like Breitbart) and analyze a couple articles for a journal?

What are the main factors that create fear of immigration? Is it the stories from Europe, a phobia of change, or simply a fear of the unknown?

How hard is it to acknowledge our own "glasses"?

Sources:

http://www.timesunion.com/tuplus-local/article/Albany-based-Regional-Immigration-Assistance-7223868.php#photo-9740650

https://www.ils.ny.gov/files/RIAC/Region%203%20Brochure%20Albany.pdf