USCIS is considering changes that would allow certain immediate relatives (the spouse, children or parents of a U.S. citizen) who can demonstrate extreme hardship to a U.S. citizen spouse or parent to receive a provisional waiver of the unlawful presence bars before leaving the United States.

These procedures are not in effect and will not be available to potential applicants until USCIS publishes a final rule in the Federal Register specifying the effective date. USCIS plans to publish a notice of proposed rulemaking in the coming months and will consider all comments received as part of that process before publishing a final rule.

• Do not send an application requesting a provisional waiver at this time. USCIS will reject any application requesting this new process and we will return the application package and any related fees to the applicant. USCIS cannot accept applications until a final rule is issued and the process change becomes effective. 
• Be aware that some unauthorized practitioners of immigration law may wrongly claim they can currently file a provisional waiver application (Form I-601) for you. These same individuals may ask you to pay them to file such forms although the process is not yet in place. Please avoid such scams. USCIS wants you to learn the facts about protecting yourself and your family against scammers by visiting uscis.gov/avoidscams.

If you already have an immigrant visa interview with the U.S. Department of State, we strongly encourage you to attend. The Department of State may cancel your immigrant visa registration if you fail to appear at this interview.

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The following was taken from a newsletter from the Immigrant Law Center of Minnesota.

Emergency Medical Assistance: Recently, 2,300 Minnesotans received letters informing them that they would no longer qualify for Emergency Medical Assistance (EMA) beginning January 1, 2012. Specifically, due to changes made during the 2011 special legislative session, EMA would no longer cover such treatment as dialysis, chemotherapy, in-patient treatment, or mental health treatment. Due to the nature of who EMA covers, these changes impacted only non-citizens. The persons affected ranged from children to the elderly; from undocumented parents with U.S. citizen children to persons who have been legal permanent residents in Minnesota for years. Among other actions, ILCM began taking calls from affected immigrants and community partners almost immediately. Thanks to the generosity of the Minneapolis Foundation, we were recently able to hire a part-time attorney to screen immigrants for possible immigration relief such as applying for U.S. citizenship, U-visas, or a family petition to address both their immigration status and their eligibility to access life-saving healthcare. ILCM is also working hard with multiple partners to try to reinstate EMA coverage for as many persons as possible. Please be sure to sign up for action alerts and we promise to keep you informed as this issue moves forward. For more details, read this January 10 article from Minnesota Public Radio.

Click here to read a fact sheet compiled by the Department of Human Services on how last years change to EMA reduced coverage of serious medical conditions for some of Minnesota’s low-income immigrants.

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Family Visa Waiver Petition: On January 6, USCIS announced its intent to reduce the time that U.S. citizens are separated from their family members under certain circumstances while those family members proceed through the legal immigration process. This announcement from USCIS is wonderful news for immigrant families across the United States. We believe the announcement is the result of high-profile advocacy efforts like that of film director Ruth Leitman in her stellar documentary Tony and Janina’s American Wedding: A Deportation Love Story, as well as stories like Emily and Raul’s represented by ILCM and its pro bono attorneys, and another one in which an ILCM board member’s client died while waiting to be reunited with his U.S. citizen spouse from Hinckley.

For the political junkies out there, here are articles on Minnesota’s new districts from redistricting:

New court plan pairs 46 incumbents in the Minnesota Legislature

Interactive Map: Redistricting Minnesota

• Includes Congressional and state legislature maps

District-by-district look at Minnesota’s new congressional map

Minnesota’s ‘fair’ redistricting map ensures big legislative turnover

Legislative map: All shook up

And some news on city wards:

Last year’s redistricting of St. Paul’s wards didn’t change much

Minneapolis redistricting group signs off on tentative new wards

Picture by Ira Gelb

The Council on Asian Pacific Minnesotans is making a great effort to create awareness in human trafficking issues in Minnesota especially in our Asian Pacific communities. Human trafficking is a very complicated problem that outrages us all, yet it is not easy to understand or to solve. However, it is not impossible either. Solutions have to start with awareness of the problem and an understanding of the complexities of human trafficking. For this reason, I will be writing a multi-part blog series on human trafficking.

Fast Facts: 

• Minnesota has become one of the thirteen most heavily sex and slavery trafficked states in the United States.
• Human trafficking is a crime against humanity. It involves the act of recruiting, transporting, transferring, harboring or receiving a person through the use of force, coercion or other means, for the purpose of exploiting them for labor or commercial sexual purposes.
• Children and women are the most vulnerable to trafficking. 50% of trafficked victims are children.
• Human trafficking is the second largest and fastest growing criminal industry in the world, and it is very apparent in our state of Minnesota.

Topics that will be covered in this blog series:

• Human Trafficking affecting the Asian community in Minnesota
• How the trafficking business works
• Human trafficking and healthcare
• Legislative issues around human trafficking
• Updates on people and organizations working to stop human trafficking

Starting with awareness
Awareness, as a starting point, can bring about many important bottom-up changes. First of all, because victims are usually hidden and brought around our neighborhoods quietly, awareness in the community can help people identify victims, and point them to the direction of the help they need. It also educates people on their rights. The awareness of rights not only encourages members of our Asian community to be more civically and politically active, it also reduces a victim’s vulnerability helping them to act against their perpetrators who will blackmail or coerce them into forced labor or prostitution. Most importantly, great awareness can lead politicians and legislators to take this issue of human trafficking more seriously and act on it. Awareness can create the public discourse needed to state that human trafficking must not and will not be tolerated in our communities.

To learn more about human trafficking, please read next week’s post of the series which will touch on the issue of human trafficking within the Asian community in Minnesota.

Monday, March 12, 2012

Time: 1:00 – 5:00 p.m.

Location: MN Department of Health’s Snelling Office Park

Mississippi Room, 1645 Energy Park Drive, St Paul, MN

Link for directions: http://www.health.state.mn.us/about/sop.html

This dialogue is a follow up to the event ‘Healthcare for the Burmese and Karen Communities in Minnesota: A Community Conversation’ held on October 29, 2011 at Rondo St. Paul Public Library.

Suggested attendees include: health providers, social workers, educators, health plans, legislators, social service providers, community agencies and others serving refugees from Burma.

Highlights Include:

Overview:   Refugees from Burma

Panel 1: Entry – Journey to the United States 

This panel will include a personal refugee story, as well as provide insight into the role that several agencies play when new refugees come to Minnesota. Panelists will include representatives from the state health department, a local refugee resettlement agency and a community based organization.

Panel 2: Integration – Health Care Coordination

This panel will explore the systems needed to ensure care coordination for refugees after initial resettlement in the U.S. as well as an overview by a primary care provider on working with refugees from Burma. Panelists will include representatives from an interpreter service agency, a health plan, a health provider, and a healthcare navigator. 

Interactive discussion will be encouraged throughout the afternoon.

Stay tuned for a detailed agenda coming soon!

CEUs will be available. This event is FREE to the public.

RSVP to Scott Ruhsam at sruhsam@thelanguagebanc.com or 612-588-9410 by March 5.

This program is sponsored by MDH, HealthEast Care System, UCare, Karen Organization of Minnesota, Council on Asian Pacific Minnesotans and Language Banc.

The purpose of this event is to commemorate the traditions and successes of the Asian communities in Minnesota, and to celebrate Asian Pacific American Heritage Month. Legislators, corporate or local businesses and members of the community are all welcomed to attend.

When: May 4, 2012 (Friday)
Where: Hilton Garden Inn, St. Paul City Center (411 Minnesota St, St Paul Minnesota 55101)

For more information, please contact us at capm@state.mn.us or at 651-757-1740.

Like Little Italy in New York and Chinatown in San Francisco, Little Mekong offers a vibrant community where you can buy unique art and wonderful Asian food while immersing yourself in the culture of Southeast Asia.

Little Mekong is located where Frogtown meets Summit-University and historic Rondo neighborhoods in St. Paul on University Ave, where for the past 30 years, St. Paul’s Southeast Asian communities have been doing business. Now we want Little Mekong to become a regular destination for you as well.

When: Saturday, February 25, 2012
Time: 4pm
Where: Mai Village, 394 University Ave W, St. Paul, MN 55103
Cost: FREE

“Taste of Little Mekong” will include a ribbon cutting for Little Mekong, celebrated with food, cultural performances, a dragon dance and a special appearance by Nitaya Panemalaythong, Miss Minnesota 2012. A free Tasting Tour of Little Mekong Restaurants will follow the program. To reserve a space for the Tasting Tour, please go to www.littlemekong.com.

When: March 12, 2012 (Monday)
Time: 1pm to 5pm
Where: MN Department of Health’s Snelling Office Park, Mississippi Room, 1645 Energy Park Drive, St Paul, MN

This dialogue is a follow up to the event ‘Healthcare for the Burmese and Karen Communities in Minnesota: A Community Conversation’ held on October 29, 2011 at Rondo St. Paul Public Library.

Suggested attendees include: health providers, social workers, educators, health plans, legislators, social service providers, community agencies and others serving refugees from Burma.

For more information, download the PDF flyer here: Burma Health Dialogue: Save the date.

Vongsay was declared a 2011 Changemaker by Intermedia Arts for her vast community involvement. The Intermedia Arts has been providing artists with tools and support to make positive changes through art, dialogue and civic engagement since 1973.

The Asian Pacific Endowment is a permanent philanthropic endowment built by and for Asian Pacific Islanders. “This was part of an initiative to enhance philanthropic among communities of color in Minnesota.” Vongsay said.

Her works have been enjoyed by people nationally and internationally, she has used her skills to help communities of color all around the United States, and she currently collecting oral histories within the Lao American community for the Minnesota Historical Society.

To read more about Vongsay’s accomplishments, please click here to read the full article from the Asian American Press.

There are about 6,000 Karens living in Minnesota. The largest populations are in St. Paul and Roseville while there are also significant numbers living in Worthington, Austin, Eveleth, Faribault, and Marshall.

On speaking about how far Karens have come in their adopted state, “Karens are doing well and appreciate the support they receive from the public and non-profit agencies in Minnesota.”

To know more, please click here to read the full article from the Asian American Press.