Lifting the Lamp
DC 37 assists members and their families in negotiating our government’s complicated and contradictory immigration regulations.
By Susan Ellen Holleran
NEW YORK CITY
It’s wonderful when friendship blossoms into love. Just ask John Restrepo. The Local 2627 member has known his wife, Luz, since he was 10 — meeting her when his family returned to Colombia for summer visits.
Restrepo helped Luz get a student visa in 1998 to study English in U.S. schools. In time, he says, "liking turned to love." They married in May 1999.
Every fairy tale has a villain. For the Restrepos, it was the U.S. Immigration and Naturalization Service (INS) and its regulations. Marriage to a U.S. citizen no longer confers automatic citizenship. To stay in this country, Luz needed to become a permanent resident. It had been difficult to get her student visa; Restrepo didn’t want to make mistakes. Immigration lawyers charged thousands of dollars — far beyond his budget. He went to his union.
The legal team from DC 37’s Immigration Program took over. They accompanied the Restrepos to the final interview. Luz was granted permanent residency. A special benefit of her new status: She can visit Colombia to see her parents, confident that she won’t be detained on her return.
WELCOME HOME. In 1996, the 125,000- member council established a citizenship committee to encourage members from other countries to become U.S. citizens.
"There were a lot of DC 37 members from various parts of the world," says Local 374 Pres. Jacob Azeke, who chairs the council’s Citizenship Committee. "I have benefited as an immigrant [from Nigeria] and know what America has to offer to immigrants. I decided it was my responsibility to inform the members what is out there for them."
Volunteer attorneys helped members through the application process — with classes on citizens’ rights and political action. The program was very popular.
It proved to apply only to the tip of an enormous iceberg, however. Union members, including those who were already U.S. citizens, faced problems trying to bring parents into the United States or adjusting the immigration status of family members currently residing here.
DC 37’s officers quickly realized that they needed a permanent office, with full-time staff. Today attorneys Sylvia Hinds-Radix, Sylvia Ash and Sharon Toussaint run the Immigration Program. Although the central labor council and a number of individual unions are now working more closely with the city’s immigrant population, AFSCME’s program is unique. Over the past five years, it has helped 8,500 members and their families. Its attorneys have also conducted workshops at area churches to advise immigrants.
MY SON. Magdalene Kumalo and her husband came to this country on student visas in 1981. Their son, Henry, was 4 months old when they arrived.
In 1986, the U.S. government declared an amnesty for immigrants who were in the country illegally. "We applied for permanent residency," says Kumalo, a member of Local 371. "The government approved our petitions, but not Henry’s. They said he didn’t have enough documentation."
Over the years, Kumalo kept trying to adjust Henry’s status, with no success. His brothers and sister were all born here — all U.S. citizens. When the family traveled abroad, Henry couldn’t go: The INS might not allow him to return. It was hard to explain to Henry why he was different — and even harder to make him understand why he was left behind.
As high school graduation neared, Kumalo became desperate. Without permanent resident status, colleges might not accept Henry; he would not be eligible for college loans.
At a citizenship committee meeting, Kumalo learned that the applications had not been filed correctly. DC 37’s team took over for her. It filed the appropriate paperwork, represented Henry at his Nov. 23, 2000, hearing, and got a refund for the excess filing fees she had paid.
Now Henry will have the freedom and privileges the rest of his family enjoy — including the ability travel. First on the agenda: his birthplace, London.
RETROACTIVE LAW. Nandranie Jagdharry came to the Immigration Program to keep her husband, Jagdesh, from being deported.
Although they had both lived most of their lives in the United States and were permanent residents, they had never applied for citizenship. Returning from a visit to relatives, they were stopped at the Canadian border. A computer check turned up information that Jagdesh had been arrested and served probation for a youthful offense.
He faced being sent back to Guyana because of a retroactive 1996 law calling for the deportation of non-citizens with criminal records. Jagdesh was allowed to return to New York where they began the fight to keep him here.
"I was looking through the Public Employee Press [DC 37’s newspaper]," says Jagdharry, a Local 1549 member, "and there, on the back page, was a story about the citizenship program." The legal team saved her husband. Now they have both applied for citizenship.
The innovative program doesn’t just fight bureaucracy; it also provides a strong support system for the members it helps. The lawyers stay close to the families, and celebrate each milestone and victory. Strong bonds grow between the immigrants and the staff.
"They make you feel like family," says Jagdharry — the AFSCME family.
‘The Enforcement System Is Broken’
Last February, the AFL-CIO Executive Council — of which AFSCME Pres. Gerald W. McEntee and Sec.-Treas. William Lucy are members — adopted a resolution calling for the restructuring of U.S. immigration policy.
The resolution represents a change in the AFL-CIO’s historic policy, which had supported sanctions against the employment of undocumented workers.
In recent years, however, unscrupulous employers have used those sanctions to exploit the undocumented, threatening them with deportation when they spoke up for their rights on the job.
"We proudly stand on the side of immigrant workers," said McEntee, hailing the resolution calling for a new amnesty program and the elimination of employer sanctions as a nationwide policy. "Immigrant workers are an extremely important part of our nation’s economy."
"Throughout our country’s history, immigrants have played a vital role in building democratic institutions and vibrant new communities that enrich our lives," said AFL-CIO Exec. Vice Pres. Linda Chavez-Thompson. "The current system of immigration enforcement in the United States is broken. If we are to have an immigration system that works, it must be orderly, responsible and fair." — S.E.H.
