Immigration lawyer advises about rights during seminar

YOUNGSTOWN

Members of Youngstown’s Latino community joined immigration lawyer Richard Herman on Thursday for a seminar focused on educating immigrants on their constitutional rights.

The seminar – titled “Know Your Rights” and hosted by the Organizacion Civica y Cultural Hispana Americana, a local social services group aimed at the Hispanic community but open to anyone in need – was the latest in a series of similar talks Herman has given on the topic.

Immigration law is Herman’s area of expertise. The Cleveland-area lawyer has spent the past 20 years fighting for immigration reform and has seen the personal side of the immigration process through the experiences of his wife – she came to the country without documentation and eventually received a green card during President Ronald Reagan’s administration.

The seminar covered a variety of immigration-related topics, including how immigrants should respond to visits from U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents and how to respond to law-enforcement officers in the event of a traffic stop.

Herman was joined by Frank Krajenke, a fellow lawyer from the Herman Legal Group who spent a decade as an attorney for the Mexican Consulate in Detroit. Krajenke acted as Herman’s translator during the seminar and offered up additional legal advice throughout the evening.

Throughout the course of the seminar, Herman advised attendees to be firm when asserting their rights to law enforcement and immigration officials, but urged the group not to lie or falsify documents. Instead, he suggested that individuals keep any identifying documentation they have with them whenever they’re out of their homes.

Members of the audience of about a dozen asked questions during the talk, many focusing on specific situations that their family members were facing or feared they might face.

Herman’s discussion was largely apolitical; while President Donald Trump’s focus on cracking down on illegal immigration may have been the catalyst for the seminars, Herman was quick to point out that mass deportations were ramped up under President Barack Obama’s administration.

“You can’t enforce your way out of this,” Herman said. “We need comprehensive immigration reform – it’s the only feasible option.”

After the seminar, nearly every member of the crowd surrounded the lawyers to ask questions. Herman said that the reaction was typical after the other talks he’s given.

Herman indicated that while the audience reaction was positive, his group also has received negative responses for offering the seminars, but declined to go into detail. Krajenke said all immigrant groups – including the Italian, Irish, Polish and Slavic communities with deep ties to Youngstown’s history – faced nativist backlash when they arrived in America.

Herman built on Krajenke’s point and was confident history would continue repeating itself.

“If you look back at American history, it tells us we got immigration rights once in this country, “ Herman said. “I know we’ll do it again.”