If they're detained by ICE, even though it's not a criminal, proceeding, they have the right, to speak with their attorney. And unless an ICE agent has a warrant signed by a judge, a person has the right to refuse entry refuse them entry into his or her, home. They they still need a a warrant to enter that home. They have the right to refuse, to assert of their belongings, and they have a right to decline any sign any documents without first speaking to their attorney. And people have a right to an attorney in removal proceedings, although it's at no cost to the government, is how it reads.
So they have so they don't have the right to an attorney, or and an attorney won't be appointed to them as it would in a criminal proceeding. They they do have to come up with their own attorney, either paying for them or finding a nonprofit that can provide them with free legal services. So based on on all these changes and what was going on, mayor Carter did make a statement early on in January talking about how our city workers and firefighters investigate crimes, fill potholes, and provide safe spaces for youth with, no regard for citizenship status. We've never had a role in enforcing federal immigration laws or ask for papers as
a condition to receive city services, and we never will. So that's it's basically our separation ordinance, and we continue to follow the separation ordinance. But there's been a lot of, mistrust. It was I was it's been very interesting to see how quickly the level of mistrust in community rose when when things changed. Question? Yep. Just to interject quickly, we've got, a quick question. Thank you. I noticed we just have five minutes left, so I did want to ask, a question here. And I I really appreciate you having this slide about legal rights that immigrants have. This is definitely a common question that I get.
And a question that I have for you is based off, you know, on comments that I've heard from from, from residents and just people who have questions regarding legal rights. I mean, sometimes there there is a fear of authority, and, and I often hear, well, if you even if you have these legal rights, you, if you are not complying, then you're gonna get get into more trouble, you know, for lack of better words. And so I'm wondering, like, what is your what is your response to that, for for people who often are are getting,
you know, that sort of hearing that sort of fear mongering rhetoric? Sure. Well, I I tell them, first of all, I'm I am an attorney for the city, and I can't give them legal advice. So I say they need to talk to, an immigration attorney and understand their rights because enforcing their rights is not, something that, should get them any any worse position than they're in when they when they get detained. And they need to be able to understand what's going on. They need to be able to defend themselves. And in order to do that,
they need to understand their rights, and they need to and they need to have an attorney or at least have consulted with an attorney. So I try to really emphasize that they need to talk to an attorney and that they have rights and they shouldn't be afraid to to to to, you know, enforce those rights or use those rights to protect themselves. Thank you. I really appreciate that. Yeah. And, I do I do think that the education piece is so important, so I wanna say thank you for all the work that you're doing. Oh, thank you. Appreciate it. And then and then I just want to also talk about resources and organizations that
exist in our community. You know, we've created a really good web page for the immigrant refugee program, and we created a QR code that we give out to people so they can just zap it on their phone and and go right to the resources. And the web our web page, which you, you know, you're welcome to take a look at and utilize and give and give to constituents that may have questions, includes resources related to food, health care, housing, legal assistance, education, transportation, some of our programming around citizenship and the legal defense fund where we we provide,
funding for legal defense organizations to provide, legal assistance, and and a lot more resources. And and people are welcome to either reach out, to me directly through my email or or or call call the office. And with that, if there's any other questions, happy to answer them. It looks like if you can, in the next hundred and twenty seconds, it looks like you have one additional slide around what should immigrant communities in Saint Paul know and how can they best protect themselves in this moment. Sure. You know, the most important thing I think for for families right now is to is to
develop an emergency plan, because if they feel or believe that someone in their family, may be at risk at detention or removal, they need to have a plan. It's it's it's it's kinda like, you know, having a will or or or having a plan should someone in your family pass away. And each person's situation is unique, and the advice is usually has to be individualized. So what what a lot of the legal, service organizations are doing are are are giving consultations to folks to help them kind of come up with an emergency plan, also to prepare documents,
such as, called a a DOPA, a declaration of parental or delegation of parental authority, which would give, someone they designate, authority over their children about school decisions, doctor decisions, should that parent be taken into custody and detained and not able to make those decisions for the child. There's also what's called a limited power of attorney, which has a little bit more authority over those children because some people decide if they get removed, they're gonna they're gonna leave the children here who may be US citizens, to to get educated and and and have family members or friends helping with those
children. So those are individual decisions, but the the the family also has to think about, you know, do we have a mortgage? Do we have a a lease? You know? Do we have all our passports? Do we have our path our birth certificates? Do we have our marriage and and really collect the whole documents. Keep them in one place, just being ready to have someone be able to pick them up and say, here's everything that's important, immunization records, all kinds of things that people, you know, don't sometimes they you ask them, I don't know where that is, but, you know, they need to get it together. And and what we have found is that if if people are developing an emergency plan, while they may still be afraid of being removed or detained,
they at least have some level of, of, reduction of anxiety because they're doing something positive and they're kind of preparing, And I think that helps quite a bit. So that I just wanted to mention that that we we are working with some of the legal service providers to in the in the near future, we're gonna be doing some sessions where the providers will be out and people can come and talk to them about how to develop their plan. I really appreciate that. Sure. I think just the last thought I will, suspect that there'll be council members that are very interested in supporting those sessions in in our wards and in community.
So please keep us posted. I will. And we so appreciate your time, and all the work that you've put in both, again, presenting to the council. It's one thing to sort of culminate all the information in a way that we receive it, where we can make decisions as policymakers, and then it's another thing to then continue to do to do the hard work of the city. So thank you so so much for your time, and, I think your tenure at the city as well. Just it's Thank you. Very, deeply appreciated. So thank you so much. And with that, the org committee of the Saint Paul City Council is adjourned.
Thank you.