Panel offers support for immigrants facing ‘gut-wrenching decisions’

UNION CITY — As chairwoman of the Lowenstein Center for Public Interest, lawyer Catherine Weiss meets immigrants and families in crisis and sees how situations can have long-lasting effects.

“A 4-year-old girl from Texas was separated from her father and held in New York City,” she recounted as an example during the recent New Jersey Re-entry Corp.‘s  Immigration Conference. “They have been reunited but are traumatized by the separation. Now they panic whenever they are apart.”

Ways parents can protect children in the case of detainment, she told the audience, include placing children in the care of another adult.

Ex-Gov. Jim McGreevey of the NJRC  said he was deeply affected by Weiss’ words.

“I thought about that as a father, like what would I do?” he said during the evening panel earlier this month. “Who would I assign the responsibility of
raising my daughters? Those are gut-wrenching decisions that I wasn’t fully
aware of until I heard her presentation.”

McGreevey and the Rev. Bolivar Flores, also with the NJRC, hosted the conference, which they hope to make an annual event, at St. Anthony of Padua Roman Catholic Church on July 19, at the request of Mayor Brian Stack.

The conference focused on immigration enforcement and the law, health, finance, social services, and children, families and visitation.

Other panelists included Sue Fulton, chief administrator of the state Motor Vehicle Commission, who said the MVC supports immigrants trying to get driver’s licenses.

“It is a point of pride for us that we represent one of the most diverse states in the union and we treat every individual as worthy of dignity and respect,” she said. “I never want to take your service for granted, nor the cultural, social and economic value you bring.”

Erin Knoedler, director of operations for Union City, talked about the city’s
identification program, letting the audience know that any one of them could pick up a free ID from her office on the second floor of City Hall.

The conference came to a close with immigration rights advocacy speaker Ravi Ragbir of the New Sanctuary Coalition of New York, who is fighting his own deportation. He urged the audience to not be scared into giving up their rights. Everyone, he said, is entitled to go to court.

McGreevey noted that the situations are very real.

“It’s important that people understand that this isn’t an academic question,” he said. “These are real families. These are people trying to do the right thing; trying to get a driver’s license so that they legally can go to work, trying to provide for their children’s health care, and trying to live the American dream.”

The NJRC plans similar events in Essex, Union and Middlesex counties. For information, visit www.njreentry.org.