On Wednesday, Feb. 12, the University of Massachusetts system hosted a webinar featuring Susan Church, the Chief Operating Officer for the Massachusetts Office for Refugees and Immigrants. The presentation was previously held on Dec. 6.

The event, hosted by Nefertiti A. Walker, Senior Vice President for Academic and Student Affairs and Equity, saw Church attempt to clarify the immigration system and immigration enforcement for UMass community.

The talk was “part of a larger effort by the Commonwealth and UMass to provide opportunities for the UMass community to understand how recent federal administration changes in immigration and the policies of this current federal administration may impact UMass and our community members,” Walker said.

“Although I would love to predict the future, I cannot predict the future …” Church said. “A lot of what I’m saying is really going to be based on what we saw under the last administration … Please don’t rely on that to say that this is everything that’s going to happen because we don’t know. It’s a lot of guessing.”

Church pointed to recent instances of “fear created  by people from overseas, in my opinion, just trying to sow fear and discord in the country,” as a force making visa-holders and immigrants nervous.

“Recently there was a false rumor where somebody pretended to be from the Massachusetts Office for Refugees … impersonating our office,” Church said. She described how rumors of an impending [Immigration and Customs Enforcement] raid spread through “different Hispanic networks through WhatsApp, through all sorts of different social media platforms … And people, the ESOL classes were reported to be completely empty in Springfield, Massachusetts.”

“We at the Office of Refugee and Immigrants are not going to be told before there’s an ICE raid,” Church continued “Think really critically about whether there’s any world in which that information could be true. It’s highly unlikely that you would even know about an ICE enforcement effort before it happened.”

Church also said that she doesn’t “think that ICE is really just going to be walking up randomly to people on any significant basis. I think they want people to think they’re going to do that.”

One point of focus was the expedited removal process, a procedure often used by Customs and Border Patrol to deport someone without a court hearing at a customs point. Per new regulations, this can be done to anyone who has not been in the United States for two years, including people returning to the country on the same visa.

“That is when most visa holders are the most vulnerable,” Church said.

“The largest amount of enforcement we saw against students [were] students … coming back from anything, getting stopped by CBP,” Church said. “Expedited removal can be shown … by a single CBP officer and one sign off of a supervisor so it is a hugely powerful tool in their possession, [it] doesn’t require a court case, doesn’t require a judge.”

Immigrant intent, or an intent for those on a visa to stay in the US after the visa has expired, can be used to trigger expedited removal.

“What we saw under the last [Trump] administration was people in long-term relationships with U.S. Citizens, people who had even filed for a green card based on a marriage to a US citizen traveling back and forth and getting stopped by ICE,” Church said.

“It is really important for anybody with any contact with law enforcement … you should consult with an attorney before traveling; or your school’s international’s office or both,” Church said. “If you are concerned about a long-term relationship that you’re in or a significant relationship; if you’ve discussed marriage with anybody. You should really sit down with an attorney and be completely honest with that attorney about everything and try to get advice before you travel.”

Although executive orders by the Trump Administration have expanded the process of expedited removal, the process still has limits. “You would have to completely lack any status,” Church said, “and you can’t be in front of an immigration judge seeking a benefit in front of the immigration judge, so it’s a very narrow category of people. People get very scared and think anybody here less than two years is subject to expedited removal, but that’s not accurate.”

Church also expressed frustration at the conflation of ICE raids, involving large sweeps where specific undocumented people are not previously identified, with targeted enforcement, actions that target specific known undocumented individuals

“ICE in my experience, does not like to do raids,” Church said. “They are highly inefficient. By example, the fish factory raid in New Jersey [arrested] three people out of 300, and they’re dangerous for the people involved and for the ICE officers.”

“ICE officers are also currently under a quota of 75 people per day per office,” Church said. “And you can’t get up to 75 people a day if you have 60 of your officers descending on a factory and you end up with three people.”

“We have yet to see an actual raid in Massachusetts since this new administration took place,” Church said.

Throughout the talk, Church emphasized the importance of those on visas to seek legal advice.

“If a student has any questions about their past work, whether it was legal, about a relationship that they’re in, or anything that they’re worried about in their background, I strongly urge them to please speak with an immigration attorney before traveling and reach out to your international students office and seek assistance from them and guidance about what is and is not an issue,” Church said

“I’ve said [it] a hundred times, call a lawyer, call a lawyer, call a lawyer,” Church said. “Most lawyers will do a consult with you, even if it’s an hour, for either free or a very low fee … If you are a student wondering if it’s safe for you to travel, that’s probably the best money that you can spend.”

Tejal Patel, an associate counsel at the UMass general council office, gave questions from the audience asking, “what can concerned friends, teachers do to protect students? What resources are available to help inform them?”

“Unfortunately, the answer is to donate to legal services programs,” Church said. “They’re severely underfunded and … students need access to confident, intelligent immigration legal services.”

“The other thing is don’t tell them what to do,” Church continued. “People need to understand the consequences of every decision they make within the immigration system … I think the best thing you can do is guide people to the resources that are out there, insist that they use those resources and when it’s difficult and hard to get at those resources, encourage them to be patient and wait for the resources to become available.”

Daniel Frank can be reached at [email protected].