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JUNE WEBINAR OF THE REFUGEE MENTAL HEALTH RESOURCE NETWORK SERIES: Vicarious Traumatization, Stress, and Psychological Resilience: Working with Refugee, Immigrant, and Internally Displaced Populations

JOIN the JUNE WEBINAR OF THE REFUGEE MENTAL HEALTH RESOURCE NETWORK SERIES: Vicarious Traumatization, Stress, and Psychological Resilience: Working with Refugee, Immigrant, and Internally Displaced Populations Elizabeth Carll, PhD, and Rick Williamson, PhD Friday, June 22, 2018, 12:00 pm – 1:00 pm Eastern Register at https://divisions.wufoo.com/forms/q870oes0ubu4ii/ This webinar is eligible for 1 CE credit Division 56 is approved by the American Psychological Association to sponsor continuing education for psychologists. Division 56 maintains responsibility for this program and its content. For registration questions, contact Sonja Wiggins, MBA, APA Division Services Office, at swiggins@apa.org or 202-336-5590. CEs No CEs Div. 56, 35, 52, 55, 34, 39, 42, 46, NYSPA, GPA, WSPA $15 Free (but must still register via link) Non-Members $25 Free (but must still register via link) Students $5 Free (but must still register via link) Professionals and staff members who provide treatment to traumatized individuals including refugees and vulnerable populations are at risk of developing, burnout, secondary traumatic stress and/or vicarious traumatization, and potentially debilitating stress symptoms. Despite the preponderance of skills-focused training available to professionals, little attention is given to the psychological hazards of their work in trauma contexts. As a result, there can be significant impact on mental health professionals and staff that can include a host of physical and psychological symptoms similar to those experienced by untreated trauma survivors. The first portion of the webinar will be introductory remarks and an update for participation in the Refugee Mental Health Resource Network followed by the presentation on the stress and psychological demands associated with the provision of services in settings addressing the experiences of refugee, and immigrant populations and internally displaced persons (IDP). Compassion fatigue, burnout, and vicarious traumatization can diminish a professional’s capacities for effectiveness over time and lead to decreased wellbeing, exhaustion, and lack of purpose in their professional roles. Information on trauma informed care, and on stress and psychological resilience, as well as mindfulness techniques as applied to care providers will be discussed. Helping professionals to identify ways to promote their own psychological resilience as well as encourage a collective responsibility to foster health and wellbeing within service agencies will also be presented. For those interested in participating in the Refugee Mental Health Resource Network, please contact RefMHResNetwk2@optimum.net

Friday, June 22, 2018, 12:00 pm – 1:00 pm Eastern Register at https://divisions.wufoo.com/forms/q870oes0ubu4ii/

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DACA Webinar

Hi all, 

We would like to invite everyone to our first webinar next week regarding  the current state of DACA and the role of universities in supporting DACA-recipient students. See the description below and attached flyer for bios on each of our speakers. 

Our panelists include the Executive Director, Maria Blanco, and the Managing Attorney, Rachel Ray of the University of California Immigrant Services Center and the Assistant Vice-Provost for Student immigration related legal services at University of Illinois at Chicago.

The call will be next Tuesday, June 5th 1-2:30pm eastern. Join us at:  https://zoom.us/j/299504628    

Looking forward to seeing you there,

Fabricio & Kevin

Description:  The Immigrant Justice Interest Group Committee is proud to invite you to our first Webinar regarding the current status of DACA students, their future options and what we can Universities do to help. As you know, the current legal battle is uncertain and we want to engage in a thoughtful conversation with a panel of experts to enhance our understanding of the current situation and the choices we may have.

Learning Objectives:

  1. To learn about current litigation regarding DACA
  2. Discuss proposed legislation
  3. Review the options available to DACA recipients
  4. Identify ways in which faculty and community psychologists could help
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Overview of Asylum Law and Procedure


 

“Overview of Asylum Law and Procedure”


The Immigration Advocates Network (IAN) and the Equal Justice Works (EJW) invite you to a free webinar, “Overview of Asylum Law and Procedure,” on Tuesday, June 5, 2018 at 2:00 pm Eastern / 1:00 pm Central / 12:00 pm

Mountain / 11:00 am Pacific.

The panelists will give an overview of asylum law and general procedure for affirmative applications. They will briefly cover criminal issues and strategies for state court, using New York as an example. The panelists are Sarah Brenes, Director of Refugee & Immigrant Program, The Advocates for Human Rights; Conor Gleason, Supervising Immigration Attorney, The Bronx Defenders; and, Christine Lin, Directing Attorney, Center for Gender & Refugee Studies (CGRS) – California and Senior Staff Attorney, CGRS.

To register for this free webinar, visit https://attendee.gotowebinar.com/register/5246706050478462977. Your registration will generate an automatic email with details on how to join the webinar.

If you have questions, please email us at support@immigrationadvocates.org.

We hope that you will join us,
Immigration Advocates Network ​

​Best, 
Glykeria​
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CIVIC Publishes the #ImmigrationDetentionSyllabus

CIVIC Publishes the #ImmigrationDetentionSyllabus

A comprehensive set of readings and resources for activists, scholars, and community members

 

​

The #ImmigrationDetentionSyllabus is a sixteen-part series of readings and tools to support education, research, and action to dissect and dismantle the U.S. immigration detention system. The syllabus is organized by theme and curated by historian Tina Shull at Community Initiatives for Visiting Immigrants in Confinement (CIVIC):

 

  1. On the Inside: Stories from Immigration Detention
  2. On History
  3. On Media
  4. On Race
  5. On Youth, Family, and LGBT Detention
  6. On Politics and Law
  7. On Health and Human Rights
  8. On Labor and Economics
  9. On Private Prisons
  10. On Raids and Policing
  11. On the Border and Global Refugee Crisis
  12. On Deportation
  13. On Hate
  14. On Resistance, Hunger Strikes, and Sanctuary
  15. On Abolition
  16. On Survival: Tools for Building Community Resilience

 

Shull says, “This set of materials is a powerful tool that brings together the best work on immigration detention in one place: scholarly and non-profit research, solutions-based journalism, organizing models and action plans, and multimedia stories projects featuring individuals and communities affected by the U.S. detention and deportation regime. Organized by theme, each part in the series can be utilized alone, or taken together as a whole to provide a complete view of the immigration detention system. The syllabus lives on CIVIC’s detention stories blog IMM Print and is meant to supplement the stories from detention we publish, providing context and support for further research and action.”

​

Syllabus: https://imm-print.com/syllabus/home

Contact: Tina Shull, tshull@endisolation.org

—

Tina Shull, Ph.D.

2016 Soros Justice Fellow

Community Initiatives for Visiting Immigrants in Confinement (CIVIC)

Editor-in-Chief, IMM Print

History Research Associate, UC Irvine

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Migratory Notes NewsletterMay 24, 2018 // Issue # 66

Michael Williams, a Republican candidate for governor in Georgia, rode on the campaign trail in a self-proclaimed ‘Deportation Bus.’ He failed to make it Tuesday to the next step to a runoff primary, winning just 5% of the votes. Photo from Ana Clavel’s Facebook page via Latino Rebels.
Know someone who might like Migratory Notes? Please help us spread the word: Here’s the subscribe form and here’s an archive on Medium. Got a story we should know about, send it on!
#MustRead/ #MustSee / #MustListen
Why are moderate Republicans defying party leadership to try and force a vote on immigration? The Washington Post created a handy data analysis and visualization explaining why some legislators are backing this move to protect Dreamers. They find the backers of the vote: 1) represent the most Hispanic Republican districts, 2) face competitive races or are retiring, 3) represent agricultural districts. As of Wednesday evening, they needed four more Republican signatures to force a vote, assuming all Democrats support the move.

At the center of Sessions’ efforts to limit asylum based on claims of domestic abuse is the case of one Salvadoran woman living in the Carolinas. Now the attorney general could use her case to set a precedent that would severely restrict who can apply for asylum. In an exclusive interview with NPR, the woman, called Ms. A.B. in the story, spoke out for the first time: “In El Salvador… there’s no protection for women. Anyone who’s been there knows this.” Critics of the current policy, led by the Trump administration, say that asylum claims are too broad.  “I think it’s a legitimate question to ask,” Jan Ting, a former immigration official who teaches at Temple University Beasley School of Law, told NPR. “Wait a minute, do we really want to say everyone who has experienced violence at the hands of a domestic partner is entitled to asylum in the United States?” A.B. is now waiting for Sessions’ decision.  “I felt like they are playing with me,” she said. “Like I’m a child who was given candy, only to have it taken away.”

Border
Undocumented immigrants are flooding federal criminal courts on the border as a result of Sessions’ zero-tolerance policy. The Voice of San Diego describes “havoc” in local courts. And the former “border czar” under Clinton tells the site that this approach of prosecuting illegal entry as a misdemeanor, rather than an administrative violation, has been tried before — and it failed.

Parents and children are already being separated on the border, with no clear answer for when they will be reunited, reports the Arizona Daily Star. “I only wanted to ask about the whereabouts of my child in this country,” one Guatemalan immigrant asked the judge as he was moved through an Operation Streamline court procedure. The response: the judge didn’t know, and suggested he continue asking the question at the facility where he would be detained.

In Texas, detained parents are frantically asking public defenders to help them find their children, reports NBC News. Immigrant advocates fear this prosecutorial policy “impedes asylum claims and lets the government use children as leverage, forcing parents to agree to deportation so families can reunite,” reports The LA Times. One public defender warned this policy may actually  have an unintended effect where parents return to the US to look for their children. “The logic of this is that parents learn their lesson,” he said. “But they’re going to come back. It’s their kids.”

PRI’s The World reports on one asylum seeker who made it through just before the zero-tolerance policy. They follow the case of a pregnant woman from Honduras who joined the Central American migrant caravan, and is now in Connecticut.

Enforcement Limits?
A Border Patrol agent detained and questioned two American citizens at a gas station in Montana, allegedly because they were speaking Spanish. The incident has spurred concerns about the overreach of immigration authorities, reports The Washington Post. A recent investigation by the Los Angeles Times found that more than 1,480 citizens have been detained under suspicion of being undocumented since 2012.

Education Secretary Betsy DeVos said it’s up to individual schools to decide whether to alert ICE that a student may be undocumented, reports Politico. Schools are considered “sensitive locations” where ICE activity is discouraged; DeVos’s comments would be a departure from that norm, and critics say it would interfere with undocumented children’s constitutionally protected right to an education.

Labor
Regulating the workplace by requiring employers to verify workers’ legal status was a frequent Trump campaign promise. But it is not one he has upheld as president, The Washington Post reports. As the demand for labor is high and unemployment is at a 17-year low, the will to implement the E-Verify program is lacking. Last March, Cindy Carcamo reported for the LA Times on long-standing employer loopholes, and how they need to end to prevent unauthorized immigration flows.

In the labor-intensive meatpacking industry, jobs used to go “almost exclusively to Mexican and Central Americans,” Alfredo Corchado writes for the Dallas Morning News. “But with fewer Mexican immigrants migrating illegally to the United States, refugees seeking a safe haven in the U.S are taking their place. The gradual departure of Mexican workers is opening up new opportunities.”

Justice & Deportation
The head of ICE warned this week that the agency would step up deporting families who have been ordered by a judge to leave the country. “Of course, I expect a lot of letters, ‘Why are you targeting families and not criminals?’ But if they are given their due process and a federal judge makes a decision, if we don’t execute those decisions there is no integrity in the system,” ICE Interim Director Thomas Homan said.

More than 350,000 immigrants are at risk of having their deportation cases reopened, a number that would only increase an already dire court backlog after a precedent-setting decision by Sessions, reports Vox. Immigration judges will no longer be allowed to use administrative closure to take low-priority deportation cases off their dockets.

More than 100,000 hearings for detained immigrants in 2017 were held via Skype in immigration court, reports Mother Jones in an investigation into the growing role of virtual trials. The medium creates little place for asylum seekers to make their case to attorneys, or judges, reports Mother Jones.

Refugees
Resettlement resources prepared for the arrival of refugees who never arrived sit unused across the country, reports The New York Times. It’s just one impact of the bureaucratic hurdles – staff cuts, intensified screenings – that have almost entirely halted refugee admissions and, as a result, broken down the “machinery of refugee resettlement.” In Newark, charity groups spent months preparing for a flood of refugees that never came, reports NorthJersey.com.

Gangs & Immigrants 
Connecting immigrants to gangs is a tactic ICE uses to justify a deportation, sometimes using false information. Slate reports on a case in which immigration authorities argued a Dreamer should be deported because he was in a gang – a claim a federal judge ruled to be blatantly untrue.

Trump’s statement calling some undocumented immigrants “animals,” and then clarifying that he was referring to MS-13 gang members, should be seen as dehumanizing language that is a threat to all immigrants, reports The Atlantic.

International Solutions 
Canada is integrating its recent flood of asylum seekers into the workforce as quickly as possible, in part by facilitating recruitment presentations with companies in need of labor, reports The Washington Post. It’s a stark contrast to the American system, where asylum seekers often wait months before receiving a work permit. In Australia, immigrants are moving into small towns and helping to forestall the rural collapse familiar in the American Midwest, reports The New York Times.

Quick links:

Follows:

Immigration Jobs and Opportunities

Resources

That’s all for Migratory Notes 66. If there’s a story you think we should consider, please send us an email.

Thank yous to Jacque Boltik and Angie Quintero for creating our template. Thanks this week to Monica Campbell, Fernanda Santos, Daniel Kowalski, Audrey Singer, Michele Henry, Jason Alcorn, Voice of San Diego Border Report, Global Nation Exchange FB group, Migration Information Source, Politico’s Morning Shift, and countless tweeters.

*Daniela Gerson is an assistant professor at California State University, Northridge with a focus on community, ethnic, and participatory media. She is also a senior fellow at the Democracy Fund. Before that she was a community engagement editor at the LA Times; founding editor of a trilingual hyperlocal publication, Alhambra Source; staff immigration reporter for the New York Sun; and a contributor to outlets including WNYC: New York Public Radio, The World, Der Spiegel, Financial Times, CNN, and The New York Times. She recently wrote How can collaborations between ethnic and mainstream outlets serve communities in the digital age? for American Press Institute. You can find her on Twitter @dhgerson

*Elizabeth Aguilera is a multimedia reporter for CALmatters covering health and social services, including immigration. Previously she reported on community health, for Southern California Public Radio. She’s also reported on immigration for the San Diego Union-Tribune, where she won a Best of the West award for her work on sex trafficking between the U.S. and Mexico; and before that she covered a variety of beats and issues for the Denver Post including urban affairs and immigration. Her latest story is What ice cream flavors can teach us about the changing California Dream. You can find her on Twitter @1eaguilera

*Yana Kunichoff is an independent journalist and documentary producer who covers immigration, policing, education and social movements. She was project manager for Migrahack 2016 in Chicago. She has also produced feature-length documentaries and a pop-culture web series for Scrappers Film Group; worked as a fellow with City Bureau, where she won a March 2016 Sidney Hillman award for an investigation into fatal police shootings; and covered race and poverty issues for the Chicago Reporter. Her work has appeared in The Guardian, The Atlantic, Pacific Standard and Chicago magazine among others. You can find her on Twitter @yanazure
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Detention Watch Network Conference in Aurora, CO

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Best Practices for Collaborating with Attorneys in Support of Immigrant Clients: Writing Effective Medical-Legal Affidavits; Testifying in Court; and Understanding Asylum Law

Save the Date – Friday, February 23, 2018, 12 noon to 1:00 pm  (ET)

7th Webinar of the  Refugee Mental Health Network, An APA Interdivisional Project

*Note if you are interested in participating and volunteering in the Refugee Mental Health Resources Network Database, click on the link below: 

https://refugeementalhealthnet.org/volunteer-database/

February 23rd webinar: An Attorney’s Perspective: Best Practices for Collaborating with Attorneys in Support of Immigrant Clients:Writing Effective Medical-Legal Affidavits; Testifying in Court; and Understanding Asylum Law.

This webinar will present best practices from the perspective of a highly experienced expert attorney when working with psychologists and mental health professionals.  This webinar is also a follow up to the previous webinars addressing asylum and other evaluations when working with refugee and immigrant populations incorporating psychological tests and information from the perspective of experienced psychologists.

 

How clinicians can best collaborate with attorneys to document evidence of  human rights abuses will be discussed. Participants will gain understanding of human rights law, immigration law, and the importance of health professionals and forensic documentation in the immigration process.  Also addressed – how to understand the process of a case, and how to effectively convey your psychological and mental health knowledge – through affidavit writing and in-court testimony – into evidence that will best support asylum-seekers and other immigrants navigating Immigration Court.

 

Registration information/flyer to follow.

 

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Refugee Mental Health Resource Network Database Volunteer Application Portal Now Open

From Elizabeth Carll:

Refugee Mental Health Resource Network Database

Volunteer Application Portal Now Open

An APA Interdivisional Project

Elizabeth Carll, PhD, Chair

Dear Interested Volunteer,

As promised we are following up to provide the access link to the database application, as the portal is now open, after many months of development.  The link is below along with some brief background information.

Forced migration due to wars, conflict, and persecution worldwide continued to grow, with the number of people displaced within their country or having fled internationally reaching more than 59 million with some statistics even higher. This is the highest level ever recorded according to estimates by the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR).

Mental health/psychosocial response are increasingly important components of programs for crisis affected migrants seeking asylum and refugee resettlement.  There has been a great need for these services and often the demand far exceeds the supply of mental health professionals.  To help meet these needs, the Refugee and Mental Health Resource Network database was developed to make available volunteer psychologists, within the US and globally, to help fill the need for evaluations and support services. As a result, Division 56 and cosponsoring Divisions 35, 52, and 55 obtained a CODAPAR grant from APA to subsidize this project, in part.

We have been gathering names of psychologists and mental health professionals interested in volunteering to provide services to refugees, migrants and internally displaced people. Some volunteers have experience working with refugees, and others have trauma experience, while the database was being developed.  Application portal is below.

In addition, there has been significant interest by students who would like to receive training and volunteer to be able to help in some way.  Also included are psychologists who are interested in conducting research with refugees, migrants and (IDPs). We are also gathering a list of non-profit refugee focused organizations that provide services or information.

To begin to meet the demand for training, 6 free webinars have been developed and provided in 2017 addressing various aspects of services for refugees including asylum evaluations.  These webinars will be available for volunteers and additional webinars are in the planning.

The interactive database is now open for volunteers to enter their own information.  The application process should take about 10 to 15  minutes.   Go to:

Volunteer Sign-up: Refugee Mental Health Resource Network

If you experience any difficulty, please contact us at RefMHResNetwk2@optimum.net  We look forward to your participation in this timely pro-bono humanitarian project.

 

 

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Webinars from Immigration Advocates Network


Patricia Malone
Associate Director / Immigration Advocates Network (IAN)
151 West 30th Street / New York, NY 10001
(T) 212-781-2140
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Free skills building webinar on “Beyond Asylum Evaluations: Conducting Immigration Evaluations for Cancellation of Deportation, Hardship Waivers, and Waivers from Taking the U.S. Citizenship Exam

Announcement from Elizabeth Carll, PhD

Chair, Refugee Mental Health Resource Network

Dear Colleague,

As you have expressed interest in volunteering to work with refugees and immigrants, attached is the flyer and registration for the 6th webinar in the APA Refugee Mental Health Resource Network series. This free skills building webinar on “Beyond Asylum Evaluations: Conducting Immigration Evaluations for Cancelation of Deportation, Hardship Waivers, and Waivers from Taking the U.S. Citizenship Exam” will take place on Friday, November 17, 2017 from 12 Noon to 1:00 PM Eastern. CE credit is available. As a result of recent political developments in the U.S., many immigrants have sought assistance in obtaining legal status. The first portion of the webinar will be introductory remarks and an update for participation in the Refugee Mental Health Resource Network. While previous Refugee Mental Health Resource Network webinars have focused on political asylum evaluations and providing assistance for refugees, this skill building webinar addresses evaluations that are often sought by immigrants who have been living in the U.S. for longer periods of time. Three types of immigration evaluations are reviewed: cancelation of removal (deportation), hardship waivers (I-601), and waivers from taking the U.S. citizenship exam (N-648). Each category is discussed, the qualifying criteria are highlighted, and case examples are provided. Assessment procedures and measures are recommended, as well as considerations for culturally competent assessment of non-English speakers. See attached flyer for registration and additional information. Elizabeth Carll, PhD Chair, Refugee Mental Health Resource Network, An APA Interdivisional Project; President, APA Division 56 (Trauma Psychology) ecarll@optonline.net

 

See https://www.apatraumadivision.org/527/webinar-series.html