Overview of Legal, Health and Mental Health

Issues:Immigrants, Refugees and

Survivors of Torture

Denise Michultka, Ph.D.

Liberty Center for Survivors of Torture231 N. 63rd StreetPhiladelphia, PA 19139215 747-7500 x 249soft@lcfsinpa.org

Overview

Entering short term Entering Long term

– Family sponsorship– Employment sponsorship– Refugee

Exclusion (Inadmission) Removal Citizenship

Sources of Law

Law Implementation Interpretation

Congress(Before 9/11)

After 9/11 DHS Policy

Dept of Homeland SecurityBICEBICSBIBP

Courts

Non immigrant methods of entry

Non-immigrant Short term visas Temporary visas

Short Term Non Immigrant Visas

(A) an ambassador (B) visiting temporarily for business or

temporarily for pleasure (C) transit through the United States, (D) crewman   (E) treaty of commerce

Short Term Non Immigrants Visas

(F)bona fide student qualified to pursue a full course of study

(G) principal resident representative of a foreign government

(H) temporarily to perform services in a specialty occupation  

(I) representative of foreign press, radio, film, or other foreign information media,

(J) student, scholar, trainee, teacher, professor, research assistant,

Short Term Non Immigrants Visas

K) fiancée or fiancé of a citizen of the United States   (L) employed continuously for one year by a firm or corporation (M)full course of study at an established vocational or other

recognized nonacademic institution   (N) the parent of an alien accorded the status of special

immigrant (O) extraordinary ability in the sciences, arts, education,

business, or athletics which been demonstrated by sustained national or international acclaim or,

Short Term Non Immigrants Visas

(P) artist or entertainer or with such a group   (Q) international cultural exchange   (R) religious denomination having a bona fide

nonprofit, religious organization in United States

Short Term Non Immigrants Visas

(S) critical reliable information concerning a criminal organization or enterprise

T) Victims of sex trafficking, complied with reasonable request for assistance in the investigation or prosecution of trafficking

 U) crime victims who have suffered physical or mental abuse as a result of rape, torture, trafficking, incest, domestic violence; possesses information concerning the criminal activity (214(O)

V spouses and children (unmarried and under the age of 21) to come in or stay in the U.S. once a petition filed by a permanent resident spouse/parent was filed more than three years previously and was approved or is still pending

ENTER WITH NO VISA

Summary Short Term Visas

Tourists Students Fiance(e) Temporary Workers

Immigrant Visas:Long term

Sponsored by a Family Sponsored by a Job Sponsoring yourself (Asylum) Sponsoring yourself (Abuse) Sponsoring yourself (Adjudicated Dependent

Juvenile) Sponsoring yourself (Lottery)

Long Term:Immigrant Visas

Immediate relatives First: Unmarried Sons and Daughters of Citizens: 23,400 plus any numbers not required for fourth preference.

Second: Spouses and Children, and Unmarried Sons and Daughters of Permanent Residents: 114,200, plus the number (if any) by which the worldwide family preference level exceeds 226,000, and any unused first preference numbers:

A. Spouses and Children: 77% of the overall second preference limitation, of which 75% are exempt from the per-country limit;

B. Unmarried Sons and Daughters (21 years of age or older): 23% ofthe overall second preference limitation.

Third: Married Sons and Daughters of Citizens: 23,400, plus any numbers not required by first and second preferences.

Fourth: Brothers and Sisters of Adult Citizens: 65,000, plus any numbers not required by first three preferences.

Visa BulletinAll Chargeability Areas Except Those Listed

India Mexico Philippines

1st

Unmarried Sons and Daughters of Citizens

01MAR99 01MAR99 U 15OCT88

Spouses and Children, and of Permanent Residents

15NOV96 15NOV96 22 Oct 94 15NOV96

2B

Unmarried Sons and Daughters of Permanent Residents

22JUL93 22JUL93 22OCT91 22JUL93

3rd

Married Sons and Daughters of Citizens

15MAY96 15MAY96 01JUL92 15JUN88

4th

Brothers and Sisters of Adult Citizens

22JAN90 01FEB89 22JAN90 15JAN80

Long TermImmigrant Visas

Employment Based First: Priority Workers: 28.6% of the worldwide employment-based preference level, plus any numbers not

required for fourth and fifth preferences.

Second: Members of the Professions Holding Advanced Degrees or Persons of Exceptional Ability: 28.6% of the worldwide employment-based preference level, plus any numbers not required by first preference.

Third: Skilled Workers, Professionals, and Other Workers: 28.6% of the worldwide level, plus any numbers not required by first and second preferences, not more than 10,000 of which to "Other Workers."

Fourth: Certain Special Immigrants: 7.1% of the worldwide level.

Fifth: Employment Creation: 7.1% of the worldwide level, not less than 3,000 of which reserved for investors in a targeted rural or high-unemployment area, and 3,000 set aside for investors in regional centers by Sec. 610 of P.L. 102-395.

Visa BulletinAll Chargeability Areas Except Those Listed

India Mexico Philippines

1st

Priority WorkersC C C C

2nd Members of the Professions Holding Advanced Degrees or Persons of Exceptional Ability

C C C C

3rd Skilled Workers, Professionals, and Other Workers

C C C C

4th Certain Special Immigrants

C C C C

5thinvestors in a targeted rural or high-

unemployment area,

C C C C

Violence Against WomenINS 204(a)(1)

Spouses and children of U.S. citizens or Legal Permanent Residents who are victims of domestic violence can self-petition for permanent residency

Special Juvenile Immigrant

    8 U.S.C. 1101(27)

(i) who has been declared dependent on a juvenile court located in the United States or whom such a court has legally committed to, or placed under the custody of, an agency or department of a State and who has been deemed eligible by that court for long‑term foster care due to abuse, neglect, or abandonment;

Juveniles

(ii) for whom it has been determined in administrative or judicial proceedings that it would not be in the alien's best interest to be returned to the alien's or parent's previous country of nationality or country of last habitual residence; and

(iii) in whose case the Attorney General expressly consents to the dependency order serving as a precondition to the grant of special immigrant juvenile status;

Juveniles

(I) no juvenile court has jurisdiction to determine the custody status or placement of an alien in the actual or constructive custody of the Attorney General unless the Attorney General specifically consents to such jurisdiction; and

(II) no natural parent or prior adoptive parent of any alien provided special immigrant status under this subparagraph shall thereafter, by virtue of such parentage, be accorded any right, privilege, or status under this chapter;

REFUGEE

Any person who is outside any countryoutside any country of such person's nationality or, in the case of a person having no nationality,is outside any country in which such person last habitually, and who is unable or unwilling to return to, and is unable or unwilling to avail or herself of the protection of, that country because of persecution or a well-founded fearwell-founded fear of persecutionpersecution on account of race, religion, nationality, membership in race, religion, nationality, membership in a social group, or political opiniona social group, or political opinion.

Persecution

Serious violations of human rights Discrimination Punishment Torture Agents of Persecution:

– Government– Non Government forces that the government is

unable or unwilling to control

Venues for applying for Asylum

Asylum Office

ImmigrationJudge

BoardImm

Appeals

FederalCourts

Lay definition of Torture

Designed to produce pain or suffering Volitional/Intentional For a purpose to extract information With consent of government

Convention Against Torture

Article 1. any act by which severe pain or suffering, whether physical or mental, is intentionally inflicted on a person for such purposes as obtaining

from him or a third person information or a confession, punishing him for an act he or a third person has committed or is suspected of having committed, or

intimidating or coercing him or a third person, or for any reason based on discrimination of any kind, when such pain or suffering is

inflicted by or at the instigation of or with the consent or acquiescence of a public official or other person acting in an official capacity. It does not include pain or suffering arising only from, inherent in or incidental to lawful sanctions.

Convention Against Torture

Article 2No State Party shall expel, return (refouler) or extradite a person to another State where there are substantial grounds for believing that he would be in danger of being subjected to torture.

Article 3For the purpose of determining whether there are such grounds, the competent authorities shall take into account all relevant considerations including, where applicable, the existence in the State concerned of a consistent pattern of gross, flagrant or mass violations of human rights.

Location in Pennsylvania

Applying for asylum In detention: York, Berks, Lebanon, Carbon

County Jails Non-detention: with friends, family

Working while applying for asylum

Apply for employment authorization Eligible for certain social services Community Legal Services for info on public

benefits and immigration. Sofia Memon: 215 227-2400 x 2436 sof74@hotmail.com; smemon@clsphila.org

Summary of Immigrant Visas

Sponsored by a Family Sponsored by a Job Sponsoring yourself (Asylum) Sponsoring yourself (Abuse) Sponsoring yourself (Adjudicated Dependent

Juvenile) Sponsoring yourself (Lottery)

Grounds for Inadmission

1. Health-related grounds.- 2. Criminal and related grounds.-

(ABUSE)

3. Security and related grounds.-4. Public charge5. Labor certification6. Illegal entrants and immigration violators 7. Documentation Requirements. An alien present in the United States without

being admitted or paroled, or who arrives in the United States at any time or place other than as designated by the General, is inadmissible.

8.  Ineligible for citizenship9.  Aliens Previously removed10.  Miscellaneous (Polygamists; Abductors)

HIV Waiver Asylees, refugees:

– family unity,humanitarian purposes or public interest" concerns

Lawful permanent residents– husbands or wives of US citizens or lawful permanent

residents; – unmarried sons and daughters of US citizens or lawful

permanent residents; or parents of US citizens or lawful permanent residents.

1.Minimal danger to the public health, 2.Minimal possibility of the spread of HIV, and 3.No cost to a government agency without that agency's prior

consent

Grounds for Removal

1. Inadmissible at time of entry or of adjustment of status or violates status.- Any alien who at the time of entry or adjustment of status was within one or more of the classes of aliens inadmissible by the law existing at such time is deportable.

2. Criminal offenses.-(Abuse)

3. Failure to register and falsification of documents.-

4.  Security and related grounds.-

5.  Public charge.-

6. Unlawful voters.-Any alien who has voted in violation of any Federal, State, or local provision, statute, ordinance, or regulation is deportable.

Citizenship

Citizenship by parentage Citizenship by birth in US soil Citizenship by application

Permanent Resident vs.Citizen

Lawful permanent resident = Green card holder = Permanent resident

Different from

Citizen =

Naturalized citizen

Citizenship by ApplicationNaturalization

citizen of the United States upon his own application who cannot demonstrate- (1) an understanding of the English languageunderstanding of the English language, including an ability to read, write,

and speak words in ordinary usage in the English language: Provided, That the requirements of this relating to ability to read and write shall be met if the applicant can read or

write simple words and phrases to the end that a reasonable test of his literacy shall be

made and that no extraordinary or unreasonable conditions shall be imposed upon the

applicant; and (2) a knowledge and understanding of the fundamentals of the historyfundamentals of the history, and of

the principles and form of government, of the United States.

Requirements Exception

The requirement of subsection (a)(1) shall not apply to any person who, on the date

of the filing of the person's application for naturalization as provided in section 334 ,

either-  (A) is over fifty years of ageover fifty years of age and has been living in the United States

for periods totaling at least twenty yearstwenty years subsequent to a lawful admission for permanent residence, or

  (B) is over fifty-five years of agefifty-five years of age and has been living in the United States for periods totaling at least fifteenfifteen years subsequent to a lawful admission for permanent residence.

Summary

Entering short term– Visitor – student – Temporary Worker

Entering Long term– Family sponsorship– Employment sponsorship– Asylum (Refugee)/Torture

Exclusion Removal Citizenship

Non-profit agencies

Directory of Non-Profit Agencies that Assist Persons in Immigration MattersPublisher: National Immigration Law CenterTelephone: (213) 938-6452

Philadelphia1. Community Legal Services(Language Access Project) 215 981-3700

2. Phila Legal Assistance 215 981-3837 (Violence Against Women)

3. Nationalities Service Center, Joe Hohenstein1300 Spruce Street 215 893-8400

4. Hebrew Immigrant Aid Society & Council Migration ServiceJudy Bernstein Baker2100 Arch Street, 3rd Floor 215 832-0900 5. Lutheran Children and Family Services: Joy Van Berg231 N 63rd Street 215 747-7500 202 6. Catholic Social Services, Immigration ProgramPhyllis Forman, 227 N. 18th Street 215 854-7019 

Research Tools Statute: 8 U.S.C.A Aliens and Nationality http://www.ins.usdoj.gov

Regulations: 8 C.F.R. Aliens and Nationality http://www.ins.usdoj.gov

INS Operating Instructions (directives that clarify sections of 8 CFR and give notice of policy changes)  Cases

Findlaw.com Treatises, Casebooks: Articles: Steel and Kalra   Charles Gordon & Stanley Mailman Immigration Law and Procedure (13 volumes, looseleaf) Matthew Bender   Weissbrodt, David Immigration Law and Procedure in a Nutshell West Publishing Corp   Aleinikoff, Martin, Motomura Immigration Process and Policy (3rd ed.) West Publishing Corp   Interpreter Releases Federal Publications

Lewis Mumford Center for Comparative Urban and Regional Research REPORTS: http://mumford1.dyndns.org/cen2000/report.html

http://www.albany.edu/mumford/Center_Act/Act_frame.html

SORTABLE LIST of Latino communities across USA:

http://mumford1.dyndns.org/cen2000/HispanicPop/HspSort/TotHspSort.htm

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Physical and Psychological Issues in Treating Survivors of Torture

What is Torture ?Torture is a tool to:

Exert actual confessions, information, etc. Break Individual spirit Create Community control

Torture has long lasting effects on individuals

Physically Emotionally Socially Spiritually

TORTURE (Physical)

Physical beatings Electrical shocks Trauma to specific body parts Sensory Deprivation/Over stimulation

TORTURE (Sexual)

Rape Sodomy Psychological fear of sexual brutality Rape as torture in context of war is different

than rape in non-war context

TORTURE (Psychological)

Humiliation (nakedness) Lack of Control Solitary confinement Symbolic acts to scar the psyche Symbolic acts to make person feel guilty

Physical Torture:

Somatic Complaints

Physical Torture:Somatic Complaints

Beatings to Feet– Falanga or Bastinado (beating bottom of feet)– Sequelae:

Pain, walking on bones of feet Weakness in the Limbs

Physical Torture:Somatic Complaints

Beating to head– Ears, head, teeth– Sequelae

Headaches Fatigue Dizziness Sensitivity to light and sound

Physical Torture:Somatic Complaints

Suspension (Being put in unatural position– Hanging upside down– Sequelae:

Muscular/Skletal disorder Complex nueral pain Stomach Pain Menstrual Irregularities

Physical Torture:Somatic Complaints

Suffocation Dfsdafsda asdfasdfsad

– Bags– Fluid or Gas)

Common Physical Signs of Torture

Skin Skin diseases, lacerations, burns, puncture wounds, and lesions

Face Fracture, crepitation, swelling pain

Nose Fracture, change in alignment, and nasal septal deviation

Eyes Hemorrhages, lens dislocation, visual loss

Jaw/ Pharynx/ Neck

Fractures, dislocations, lesions, gingival hemorrhages, and gum conditions

Physical Signs of Torture (continued)

Oral Cavity/Teeth Avulsions, fractures, dislocated and broken fillings and prostheses

Chest and Abdomen Lesions, tenderness, injuries to ribs, internal organs, retroperitoneal, intramuscularity and intro abdominal hematomas

Musculoskeletal System

Aches and pains, reduced mobility, contractures, weakness, fractures and dislocations

Physical Signs of Torture (cont.)

Genitourinary Systems (female)

Bruises, lacerations, tears, bleeding, vaginal discharge, STD’s , HIV, scaring, deformity

Genitourinary System (male)

Pain and sensitivity, hydrocele, hematocele, srsctile dysfunction, anal fissures, rectal tears, scaring, atrophy of the testes, disruption of rugal pattern (scaring), purulent drainage

Central Nervous System/ Brain

Cognitive changes, motor and sensory deficits, abnormal gait

Psychological TorturePsychological Manifestations

Distrust

Why doing this How much getting paid Interpreters Truth as luxury

Guilt

Sole survivor Here vs. being there Leaving or letting down your cause How do I help my people here

Shame

Evil inside them Deserving of Torture Will harm other people Shame of immigrants

Disassociation

Begins as defense mechanism Becomes an ineffective “coping skill”

Anxiety

Torture-specific phobias Generalized high levels of “nervousness” Fear of deportation Concern about children (here and away) Vigilance

Post Traumatic Stress Disorder

Traumatic event Re-living the event Avoidance Hyperarousal Impatience

Mediating Factors

Torture Related (frequency, duration, repeated exposure, intensity, preparedness)

Developmental (age, cognitive ability, life role, education)

Personal (personal history, family history, genetic predisposition)

Spiritual (meaning, religious or political belief system)

Social (survival of family, friends, group, isolation)

Developmental triple trauma

Country of origin torture trauma Flight torture trauma New immigrant trauma

Country of origin torture trauma

Living in a controlled/oppressive situation Living in fear Hiding Vigilance Detentions Societal sanctions Threats against self, family Torture

Flight torture trauma

Documentation Fleeing Who you left behind How you got to a safe country Did you get “caught” entering without

inspection Fear of future/fear of past Difficult travel conditions

Immigration Trauma

Resettlement High expectations PTSD symptoms Language barriers Cultural differences Isolation Survivor’s Guilt Economic need

Treatment

Strength Based Multimodal Approach Address immediate social service needs Reduce Psychiatric Symptoms Appropriate Medical Care Hope Restoration

Liberty Center for Survivors of Torutre

5902 N. 5th StreetPhiladelphia, PA 19120

Dr. Denise Michultka215 276-5500 x 211densiem@lcfsinpa.org

Needs of Liberty Center for Survivor of Torture

Human Resources Public Awareness Funding Suport

Human Resources

Therapists – Psychologists– Social Workers

Interpreters Volunteers

– Take survivor on outing– Assist survivor’s child with tutoring

Public Awareness

Professional organization annual conference Your own workplace professional

development seminars Your place or workship

Funding

Writing letter to Congress Writing Check to the Center

Liberty Center for Survivors of Torutre

231 N. 63th StreetPhiladelphia, PA 19139

Dr. Denise Michultka215 747-7500 x 249densiem@lcfsinpa.org