Update on the VT-NH Asylum Seekers Network Activities
How do we treat asylum seekers? What problems can we solve? CVRAN joins with others to advocate.
In October 2023, CVRAN hosted a workshop for organizations providing service to refugees and asylum seekers. The text that follows below is an update on activities and advocacy from the VT-NH Asylum Seekers Network.
(Read about the original meeting here.)
PROGRESS IN ADVOCACY GOALS (Dec. 2023/Jan. 2024)
THANK-YOU! As a result of our advocacy effort, some action is in the works. We learned that the first step in advocacy is naming the problems (with examples and stories!), and you have all helped with that. We especially thank the service providers who contributed from their own experiences. We showed the following list of problems to several state representatives who are also members of some of our local asylum action networks – Reps. Leonora Dodge (CASAN), Ela Chapin, Anne Donahue, and retired Rep Janet Ancel (CVRAN).
TOPICS WE BROUGHT TO LEGISLATORS, ALL MEMBERS OF OUR NETWORKS – FROM OUR REVISED BARRIER LIST FOR VERMONT LEGISLATORS (11/29/2023, DETAILS AT END OF ARTICLE)
- HOUSING
- CULTURAL BROKER IN SCHOOLS
- MORE ENGLISH CLASSES
- DAYCARE AND AFTER SCHOOL CARE
- MEDICAL ACCESS
- SIMPLIFYING FORMS
- COMMUNICATION WITH WHATSAPP
- LEGAL ACCESS
- CENTRAL WEBSITE
VERMONT LEGISLATORS AT WORK
Representatives Leonora Dodge, Rebecca Holcombe, Esme Cole, Anne Donahue, Ela Chapin, and retired Representative Janet Ancel are keeping an eye on what might be done this year, also suggesting that next fall when the new biennium begins, a bigger multipronged package can be offered. Areas of interest are:
- Housing: HOME vouchers (available to asylum seekers as well as other renters)
- Childcare: childcare subsidies regardless of immigration status
- K-12: translated forms and interpretation when students enroll
- Higher education: financing eligibility regardless of immigration status, including in-state tuition and VSAC loans
- Trades/professions: elimination of immigration eligibility for professional licensure
- A measure to allow renters to present an alternative ID rather than a Social Security Number on their rental applications.
- To add “actual or perceived immigration status” to the listed protected classes of the Vermont Fair Housing and Public Accommodations Act
FEDERAL CONNECTIONS: SENATOR WELCH
Senator Welch’s and his office staff have visited 3 of our networks individually (Central Vermont, Rutland, and Burlington), and earlier met with representatives from our statewide consortium. Problems that need addressing at the federal level were raised by our groups. Some are already being worked on, and some others interested them:
- Expediting the asylum process by increasing the number of circuit rides in Vermont for working with asylum applications
- Shortening the time before work permits are granted
- Checking whether HIPPA rules could be tweaked so that texting with clinics could be allowed (allowing translation apps which are not possible on phone calls)
- Allowing electronic check-ins with ICE or with the court rather than driving to the venue
- Exchanging an official copy of a passport for use as an ID when a passport is confiscated at the border
- Financial support for: a bank of lawyers, more primary care doctors and dentists, better housing, more daycares, cultural brokers in schools
STATE HOUSE PRESS CONFERENCE WITH MIGRANT JUSTICE AND OTHERS:
2 BILL ADDITIONS BROUGHT TO THE LEGISLATURE
Friday, January 12, 2024 – Jan Steinbauer (CASAN) and Leonora Dodge (CASAN and state rep) and Rachel Cogbill and Pam Walker (CVRAN) attended a Migrant Justice press conference to support 2 legislative asks, one for housing and one for education. The texts are based on making immigration status a protected category so that landlords or universities would not treat immigrants differently from other Vermonters. Landlords can require alternative ID to Social Security numbers, so that migratory status is no longer a criteria for discrimination. Social Security numbers would not be required for scholarship applications.
BARRIERS ENCOUNTERED BY ASYLUM SEEKERS & PROPOSED SOLUTIONS
From The VT-NH Asylum Seekers Network, with Input from Other Service Providers
REVISED BARRIER LIST FOR VERMONT LEGISLATORS (11/29/2023)
HOUSING: Representative Leonora Dodge (and CASAN member) is working on proposal about having proportional housing funding for asylum seekers, perhaps thinking of more money for HOME vouchers, one program available to those without a particular immigration status, perhaps in other areas. Housing is a huge issue!
CULTURAL BROKER (School Family Liaison): We propose a cultural broker for each school with an immigrant population. This person would serve as a go-between for the family and the school, and help the family navigate all the support systems needed to get the children to school ready to learn (such as food, medical care, housing, social connections.)
MORE ENGLISH CLASSES: Students need English classes more than the once a week that Adult Basic Education provides, and at more flexible times, such as evenings and weekends when they are not working. ABE has wonderful resources, such as job placement help, but more classes are key.
DAYCARE & AFTERSCHOOL CARE: We propose subsidies for childcare so that the workers can work and children will not be in isolation. New arrivals do not currently qualify for the usual subsidies. The parents work long hours, and the children are often isolated at home instead of absorbing English, socialization, and important educational stimulation.
MEDICAL ACCESS: We would be glad to put our names as interested parties on any bill that encourages Medicaid for all or expansion of IHIP to cover more than children and mothers, as well as any bill that supports increasing the number of primary care providers, dentists, and dental hygienists.
SIMPLIFYING FORMS: We propose simplified universal forms within schools, and within the medical field, with the questions translated at a central location into different languages. Fewer forms would lead to many fewer hours of help from service providers. One option would be to have these forms digitized, and pressing individual questions could be custom added for a particular institution If needed.
COMMUNICATION WITH WHATS APP: We propose that each clinic and school would have one phone with WHATSAPP access since most new immigrants do not have a paid phone plan, and their free app phone number cannot be accessed by the provider over a standard phone line. Further WHATSAPP access would allow texting as a mode of communication, a huge benefit since written words can be translated easily by the recipient instead of the difficultly of comprehending an oral phone call in another language.
LEGAL ACCESS: We propose a central referral office with a bank of trained legal workers to help immigrants. Navigating the rules of our legal system without help is almost impossible. Legal help for filing asylum paperwork is desperately needed. For instance, immigrants must file paperwork within the first year of their arrival, or lose their pathway to stay here legally and build a new life, yet many do not even know this fact or how to go about it. We believe others are advancing this idea, but we whole-heartedly support it!
CENTRAL WEBSITE: Using the money the legislature allotted through Tracy Dolan, we hope to be developing a pilot website that allows not just our organizations, but also any helping group, to access relevant information about the steps for immigrants to apply for services. While this website will be a prototype, it will need longer term funding to be maintained and kept up-to-date. Could this be co-housed under a state agency after the first year?