Council - workshop

Good evening everyone, are we ready? Good evening, everyone, and thank you for joining us this evening for this informational live workshop. I'm Vice Mayor Cassandra Timothy, and on behalf of the City of North Miami, I'd like to welcome you to tonight's town hall. First, I'd like to thank our distinguished panelists for being here this evening and for sharing their time and expertise with our community. We know that many families have questions and concerns about temporary protective status, TPS, and what recent developments may mean for them. At the same time, we recognize that planning for your family's future is just as important, which is why we've also invited estate planning professionals to be a part of tonight's discussion. Our goal is simple, to provide reliable information, connect residents with trusted legal resources, and create an opportunity for you to ask questions directly to experienced professionals, while tonight's discussion is intended to provide general information and should not be considered legal advice. We hope it gives you a better understanding of the resources available and the steps that you should take moving forward. We encourage everyone to ask questions, take notes, and make the most of this opportunity. An informed community is an empowered community. And I would like to thank our panelists for joining us this evening. We have Mr. Friendly D. Julian, PA, and a distinguished immigration attorney here in South Florida, and we also have the president of HLA, Emanuela Telford, and we have Sandy Boson, who'll be joining us later this evening, along with State Representative Dottie Joseph. At this time, I would like to invite State Representative Dottie Joseph, who's joining us virtually, to give us her take and also share the different resources that is coming from the state and what residents can do now, whether you're someone who has TPS or you're someone just looking for ways to help a neighbor or a friend. So State Rep, I thank you for joining us right now. I thank you for taking the time to be a part of this discussion and we look forward to hear what you have to say. State Representative Dottie Joseph. You can speak, Representative.

Hello, everyone. I hope you can hear me OK. I'm just going to do this mic check. OK, good. Awesome. All right. So I am State Representative Donnie Joseph. And first of all, I want to just thank everybody. I want to thank Councilwoman Cassandra Timothy for arranging this today. uh we know the tensions are running high but i want to encourage everybody to remain calm um we know this is coming uh we have been making preparations for this the first thing i'm going to say is to consult with an attorney you're going to hear from several here today there are lots of resources for attorneys i'm sure they're going to share some of those But if you ever need specific resources, not just for attorneys, let's say you need health care resources, you're concerned about what to do with your medication, you're concerned about what organizations exist. You're going to hear a little bit later from Sandy about some planning that you need to do for your family. But if you ever forget any of those resources, I want you to know that my office is here to help. You can reach us at 305-564-5060. We are located at 735 Northeast 125th Street, which is literally across the street from City Hall. We share the office with the North Miami CRA. There are a plethora of resources that are available. what i really want to talk about today is what we can do so in addition to the preparations that you should be making for yourself legally make a plan for your family make sure you know basic things like who's going to call who if you get taken will do you have a plan for your medication do you have a plan for any property that you own your business all those things are things that you're you're probably going to be covering in this and if not I have organizations that are specifically available to help deal with some of those. Some of them might include FLIC, the Florida Immigrant Advocacy Coalition, which works across South Florida. And of course, we have SUDLA that many of us know, which is located right here in North Miami. We have FUM, which was from ISN in Miami, which is now Family Action Network Movement. and a whole host of others right so i'm not going to get into all of them my office has a list depending on what your needs are we will connect you but what i want you to know that you can do right now is to call your u.s senators to support us so senate bill s4814 that is a bill um that is pending now before Congress. It was introduced by Senator Markey and Senator Rochester. They filed this to redesignate TPS. This goes along with the version that was passed in the House already by Congresswoman Ayanna Pressley. And what it will do is it will help extend TPS for Haitians. So basically the U.S. Supreme Court decision said that the courts have no business opining on this particular matter on TPS for the statute. The lawyers will get into the actual verbiage when they talk a little bit more. But what that means is the ball can be in Congress's court if they choose to act. So it's either the executive branch or the congressional branch who can handle this. To call your U.S. senator, if you don't know which one it is, the phone number you can use to call is 202-224-3121. Once again, that's 202-224-3121. And I'm going to be posting on social media momentarily some resources by Flick, which will give you a link that you can click on to go ahead and send a letter to your senator. I'll just say it briefly here. It's flick.fyi.com. So if you forget it, don't worry about it. I'm going to be posting it on my Facebook, which is just facebook.com. And you'll be able to do that there. But I want you to know that the fight is not over. We're continuing to fight for you, both individually with the cases, but also broader. If you know people who are concerned about what's happening with TPS, I want you to know there are things that we can do about it. And this is an easy advocacy step that we can take to try to pressure enough senators, particularly both of our senators here in Florida, but all centers across the United States so that we can have a veto-proof majority to pass that, and we will have the protection that we need for a longer period of time. Thank you very much.

Thank you, State Representative Dottie Joseph for joining us for this important conversation and reminding folks that everyone has a role and everyone can do something. I mean, speak up and encourage your neighbor, but make sure that you give us that information as well. So tonight we also have Emanuela Telford. If you can please introduce yourself and tell us, of course, your field of expertise as the Agent Lake President.

The president of the Haitian Lawyers Association. I'm an immigration attorney as well as we practice disability law. um it is my pleasure thank you vice mayor for giving us this opportunity this platform to reach your constituency to be able to share this vital information this critical information things are very very difficult right now for many households and i just want everyone to know that hla the haitian lords association is here we offer services that can be able to help you. You're going to be hearing from two distinguished attorneys who are going to be speaking on some of the more specifics of what would be ideal for you potentially. Please, again, like our state representative said, take notes and ask questions, and we will provide you with contact information where you can be able to reach out to the Haitian Lawyers Association to request a free consultation. Yes, a free consultation. We have attorneys who are willing to extend that time to be able to provide those services. I am available to help our community. We have several Haitian lawyers who are able to provide free consultations. You can join us during the program. With that, I will pass it on to the other lawyers who are able to introduce themselves and be able to talk about what we discussed today. Thank you.

Thank you, Madam President. Thank you, Madam Vice Mayor, for putting together this important panel. Thank you, State Representative Doty, for your enlightening presentation. My name is Friendly Julien. I am in a training here based in Miami. I practice immigration and personal injury. We know this moment was coming. We were hoping for the best, but this is the moment where we need to rise up as a community to meet the moment. And this is why we're grateful that the City of North Miami, the Haitian Lawyers Association, and our elected officials are working together with the community to come up with collective solutions. And for some of you, it will be individualized solutions, but we also need collective solutions to face this moment. We know you have a lot of questions. We're here. We're going to try to provide as many answers as possible to your concerns and your questions.

Thank you, Attorney Julian and Attorney Telfer. We're going to get right into this. Oh, Sandy. We also have Sandy who's also joining us as well on teams. Um, who was an estate planning, um, attorney of Sandy, if you can introduce yourself. And of course, if you want to give a bit a tidbit as well, please. Sandy, if you can unmute yourself, it shows that you're on mute. Okay, everybody can hear me, right? Yes. Yes, we can hear you, Sandy.

okay good evening everyone thank you so much um thank you so much madam president thank you for um city of north miami for hosting this um my name is sandy i am an estate planning attorney here out of south florida and one of my major tidbits for all of you is to really think and plan even if you weren't able to prepare any documents or get certain things in order you can take out a notepad, write down important information. If you have children, there are some very basic things that you can really get in order in the event that someone else is going to have to care for your children, such as information on school and teachers, medical information, doctor information. For yourself personally, it would be very helpful if you have certain information with someone that you trust. Things like access to accounts is very critical. A lot of times people don't have access to funds and the person that was able to provide those funds is not available because something has happened. And so really right now it's critical for you to work on planning and trying to make sure that you understand all of the documents that you would need to have in place in order for someone to be able to make decisions on your behalf. So that's the biggest tidbit I can give right now.

And thank you so much, Sandy. And I know we have a whole segment for you coming up. But we're going to jump right into this. We know what occurred yesterday. A few days ago, we were celebrating the Haiti national soccer team finally scoring two points. And there was so much Haitian pride. There was so much joy in our community. The following day, there's mourning in our community. And there's a lot that came out from the Supreme Court Justice. So if Attorney Julian, if you can kind of go into and explain what the current situation is and what residents should know today as it relates to the US Supreme Court ruling.

All right, so what happened is on April 29th, the Supreme Court heard oral arguments on TPS for Haiti and Syria after the government went to the Supreme Court for a writ of certiorari. Basically, the government, the administration, and Madam President Pétion and myself, we were in the room. We wanted to be there. It was an important moment for our community. The government initially went to the Supreme Court through the emergency docket. The legal teams representing Haiti and Syria asked the court not to grant relief through the emergency docket, but to allow, to afford them the opportunity to have oral argument. So we had oral arguments on April 29th. Now, after April 29th, we were supposed to wait for the Supreme Court to issue the decision. In the meantime, what happened is that through discovery with the Venezuela case, the legal teams working for Haiti found information that was critical. So what they did, they went back to the Supreme Court and asked the court, instead of issuing a ruling, the ruling that they issued yesterday, they asked them instead to dismiss the a rate of certiorari that they had granted to the government because during all argument, the government stated that it had satisfied the requirements of the law as to the consulting with, DHS consulting with other agencies through the documents obtained through discovery with the Venezuela case, the attorneys found that this was not the case. Initially the functionaries had decided that Haiti TPS should have been renowned. Now there's a gentleman by the name of Joseph Edlow, he went back to the functionaries and told them, no, you're gonna change that. They had asked, under Kristi Noem, they had asked the functionaries to look for example, instances of Haitians living in the United States who are involved in terrorist activities. The functionaries stated that we couldn't find any hit. Mr. Ed Lowe said, no, we're gonna have to change that because otherwise we cannot end TPS for Haiti. So you had all of this and also within DHS, they also found email exchanges from high ranking official who said that we are using national security interest as the reason to end TPS and usually to end TPS the reason is that the situation on the ground has improved and Among those officials, they said this is a first. We've never done that before. So armed with all this information, the legal teams went to the Supreme Court and they said, you know what, we're asking you to dismiss the writ and return the case to the lower court. The Supreme Court totally ignored all this information, relevant information, and they issued a decision where they stated that One, the decision to end TPS is unreviewable by the courts on the basis of the violation of the Administrative Procedure Act. The Administrative Procedure Act basically is this law that allows You know, usually Congress has the, legislating is the province of Congress, but through the Administrative Procedures Act, Congress delegates its ability to legislate to the executive branch, and this is how they can be the one making decision, granting or revoking TPS. So the court stated that irrelevant of what happened the courts cannot review that. And the Supreme Court also stated that claims lodged under violation of the TPS statutes are also unreviewable, and they stated that the only claim that is reviewable is the equal protection clause, a violation, so they remanded the case to the lower court to make a ruling that is consistent with the court's interpretation of the facts, and the courts basically made all the arguments as to foreclose the lower court to make any decision that could be satisfactory to TPS beneficiaries. Now, one thing that this decision makes is that it elevates the threshold for what is racist and what is not racist. And this goes beyond TPS. Because when Justice Alito in the ruling stated that Trump stating without mentioning exactly what the president said, that Haitians are poisoning the blood of the nation is not racist. So basically this is going to come back to hurt everybody because the threshold of what is racist or not has been increased significantly by this decision. So this is where we are. We are expecting communication from the government now. Will they be granted, I don't know, 30, 60 days to TPS recipients to make decisions? We don't know. We don't know exactly what's going to happen. This is why we're asking everybody to tune in, to listen to credible voices in the community in the coming days.

Thank you for that explanation and giving us the bigger picture of what took place. Cause a lot of times we see the headline, but we don't know the work that went behind it. And thank you guys for being a part of that or argument. So as it relates for TPS today, if someone has a license or work authorization, what happens to their documents?

The last decision was that those documents were to expire on July 1st. We don't know the answer to this. We don't know what's going to happen beyond July 1st.

So as it relates to their documents, there will be no renewing until we know what comes out from the government.

Until the government makes a decision, yes.

And I think that what's so critical is that this situation is fluid. Let's make sure that everyone's clear, particularly for immigration, not for estate planning or for some of the other concrete areas of practice. But for immigration right now, the situation is fluid because the Supreme Court has made their decision as it relates to what they believe they were able to do under the law. Now it's up to the legislature. We would hope that the Senate would take a look at these measures that would be beneficial to TPS recipients. And we hope that conversations with the executive branch would yield fruitful but besides those two things that are still in flux that means that they're moving they're moving continuously things may change okay and so I want you to be very aware of that and I'll continue to continue to plug you know keep your eyes on what's happening contact a reputable attorney for consultation continue to connect with various like the office of the the vice mayor for updated information because um these things will change tomorrow we may have a new uh well maybe not tomorrow but monday or tuesday we may have new news about some of the questions that are real pertinent for those in our community which is the ead the um the work permits um driver's license things that people need to be able to function

Thank you. And so what legal options does someone with TPS have right now? What pathways could they take? You guys are immigration attorneys, and I'm sure the consultations are going to be like, you know, this document expires. What's next for them?

I think several. Some people have no options. We have to be clear, right? We have people with outstanding removal orders. Aside from an application for a stay of removal, which likely will not be granted by this administration, they do not have options. And if they are picked up on the streets, they cannot, they are not entitled to seeing a judge. So those people have very few options. The second thing is those who've been around for less than two years, they are subjected to expedited removal, so they are in a more vulnerable situation as well. Yes. Now, those who've been here for more than two years, they are entitled to due process of law before the immigration court, so you're gonna see a lot of notices to appear. uh be issued to those people so that they can go and see a judge and the judge will ask them about any relief they want to pursue now you have people who've been here for 10 15 years but because they've always had tps they if they when before they came to the United States, they had a valid asylum claim, they can still lodge an asylum application, or sometimes the basis, the grounds for asylum occurs while they are in the United States. I can give you a quick example. I had a guy who came here in 2005. He did not have a valid claim for asylum, but somewhere, sometimes in 2015, a brother of his became involved in politics in Haiti, and as a result, the entire family was persecuted. So this guy, even if he's been in the United States since 2005, he can still, if he wants to, apply for asylum based on changed circumstances. You also have those who have a spouse, a child, or a parent was a permanent resident of a U.S. citizen, and those people, if they've been here for 10 years or more, they can avail themselves of cancellation of removal. You also have deferred action as a possible way. For instance, you have people here with small kids, so they can always try to apply for deferred action. I've seen some cases at my office recently of people who can still qualify for DACA, you know, deferred action for childhood arrival, because up until... Recently, the administration was not accepting new DACA applications, but as of recently, they are accepting them, although they are not adjudicating them yet. So all of this, I think it's important that they consult with a competent immigration attorney And competent reinvigoration may be a private attorney, it may also be attorneys associated with organizations like Flick, Santla, FAM, all those organizations, so that they can, Catholic charities, so they can have a consultation.

I do. And, you know, . But I will say this technical, okay? I know that a lot of people have friends, cousins, friends who are able to help with an asylum because they think that this money, and if I don't have this money, if I have to go to an asylum, I need someone to do it for me. I need someone to pay the money for a lawyer to do it for me. I would say, if you don't do that, you don't have the advantage to do that. Okay? You don't have the advantage to do that. If you put your head on the ground, like State Representative Dottie Joseph said, and then calm down, look for people who are willing to do it, to be able to really analyze their story, to help them understand what is in the asylum. And not only to go up there, after that, where they end up in the asylum. And not only that, because one day they will have to defend their head in front of a judge on what is written in the asylum, and they will have to erase it. Okay, so I have a little bit of information to be able to explain this to you, but understand that there are several ways, or several programs, excuse me, that people are able to be eligible for. Okay, so it's really important to be able to talk to a lawyer. Mr. Julien described several of them. There's DACA, there's the cancellation of removal for more than 10 years, but you have to be able to get people who are there with you, who are willing What would be the best word?

Qualifying relatives.

Qualifying relatives. And then, who else? Cancellation removal, DACA, Deferred action. Deferred action. If you have a reason, a person who has it, and has a minor background, you are able to ask for it to benefit them. This is a difficult program. Let me make this very clear. It's difficult. And thank you, thank you.

And I know HLA is the Haitian Lawyers Association, but we also know that it's not only Haitians in this fight, right? There's Syrians, there's Venezuelans, there's, you mentioned 13 TPS destinations that are now gone. um and now you know they're fearful for other countries so this information is not just for the haitian community although we're here hla and they're haitian attorneys but we know that this information is for all residents to share with their loved ones share with their neighbors so that they can prepare their families and prepare their loved ones You guys mentioned a lot of the applications. I know a few weeks back that they were pausing all Haitian applications. Has that pause since then been uplifted? Because I did get calls because they're like, well, we can't even apply now because all the Haitian application national or the Haitian nationals application have been paused. People were literally removed from being able to take their oath of office from getting their citizenship on the day that it was canceled. If you guys can talk to about that and what would occur.

Okay. Yes, definitely. A couple, I would say two or three weeks ago, a judge issued a ruling standing for the proposition that the government has no right to pause adjudication on application for given countries and ordered the administration to resume adjudicating those cases and have had quite a few interviews, green card interviews lately, and the officers are telling me now that now they are ready to make decisions, but there's still a certain confusion, I must say, because at least two officers told me that they are not sure whether they can only do the I-130 or both of them, but some officers told me, yes, they can do it. but there was also some doubt as to whether the interviewing officers are gonna be the adjudicating officers. So there's this level of uncertainty within USCIS, but what we know is that the administration knows that there was a ruling mandating that they resume adjudicating those cases. One thing I want to tell people is that the administration issued an internal memo to its adjudicators at USCIS telling them to ask people questions about why did you pursue adjustment of status instead of consular processing. The administration espouses the view that consular processing should be the norm. So they want to discourage adjustment of status. And so what we do, I try to do for each one of my clients on my cover letter, I take a cover letter to the to the interview and in the cover letter I explain why this person, the only choice for them was adjustment of status. But in the case of Haiti, it's so much easier than anybody else because the consulate consular services have been unavailable for at least four years. So this is the first argument we tell them, hey, consular services have not been available for four years, so it was never an option for Haitian clients. So we say they were trying to hurt us by not making those available to us, but it turns out pretty well it's helping.

No, and that's good to know. Right now, there's a lot of fear in certain communities, especially here in South Florida, about what may happen. We saw what happened in Minneapolis. We're seeing what's happening around the world. And we're praying and hoping for the best here in South Florida. But what rights does someone have if they're approached by an immigration official? What documents should they keep with themselves? And are there any common mistakes that you feel that someone should avoid to hurt their cases? if we can just talk about that for a little bit.

Absolutely. Before I answer that question, I do want to say that the Haitian Lawyers Association and its consultations are open to everybody, not just for Haitians and Haitian nationals, for everyone. I think it's just important to be able to speak in Creole for those who may not be able to be familiar with the English language so that they can best understand what our services are. So please understand that. That number is for everyone. You need assistance, reach out to us and we'll do our best to be able to assist you. Yes, so living in this country provides you with certain constitutional rights. You have a right to remain silent. So that means if someone were to approach you, you have a right to ask for a lawyer. You don't have to articulate everything that that person is asking, excuse me, articulate an answer to everything that that person is asking you, okay? You can be able to say, I choose to remain silent. If that person brandishes an ID, a police ID onto the, excuse me, like a a shield, a medal, a police badge. A police badge, exactly. You can be able to say, I would like to speak with my lawyer, and I would like to remain silent. So you have that right. If you're on the ground outside, if you are at home, you have a right to keep your door closed. You don't have to open your door because someone is knocking on the door and saying that they are with this agency or that. You have a right to keep your door closed. There are some conversations, though, you must know related to if there is a search warrant, okay? And there are two types of search warrant, a judicial search warrant, and I believe ICE has their own search warrant. And so you have to be- Administrative warrant, yes. An administrative warrant, right. And so you have to be able to understand a distinction. And I know our friends at Flick, they actually have those pamphlets and HLA will be updating its website to reflect what the difference looks like because the administrative warrant does not provide um carte blanche mean they can't just come into your house like that or forced to come into your house but with a judicial just judicial warrant is a little bit more of a higher standard that they have to meet for the judge to be able to issue that okay and so which point in time that may be the a possibility for them to enter into your house um again do one thing it's really important vice mayor i want you to i would love to you know help you i would like to articulate to you and to your constituency is that um there's this desire to want to, if they give you a document, okay, fine, you sign it. You feel that pressure because of either the badge or either the uniform. You feel like if you oblige, then it's gonna be okay for you. You don't have to sign it, okay? There are some individuals who sign their their rights away unbeknownst to them. You don't speak the language, you don't read the language, it's okay for you to say, I need to speak with my attorney, I need time to find an attorney so I know exactly what I'm signing and I'm not signing away my rights. I'll pass along to my colleague here to go into some other fundamentals as well.

Thank you, Madam President. What I would like to say is that Florida is, if I'm not mistaken, the state where ICE has picked up the most people so far. But you don't see them on the streets. And how do they do it? They do it through immigrants negligence. So what we've been seeing, a lot of people are calling the police because of domestic violence. Okay, so if you are in a relationship, and it goes both ways, I've seen a lot of women get arrested because of domestic violence. Now, if you're in a relationship, you don't hit the other person, right? And also, and it's challenging when you're advising people, but I've seen cases also where people call for ridiculous reasons. You know, I've seen a guy, he still has a green card, but he spent a couple months in ICE detention because the wife stated that, oh, I thought it was going to hit me. You know, so we have those cases. We also see a lot of people be picked up because they are driving without a license, valid license. So if you have a driver license, . There is a website for that. If we go to Google, we do a Florida driver license check or enter your license number. We must always make sure that we have a license. I myself am an American citizen who is very educated, etc. The other day, I went to a match in Haiti, Brazil. Mr. Voyage, no problem. And then Mr. Rivé in the county of Aropa, to call the machine and say, Mr. the license has expired since January. Yes, that means that in the community there are practices for us to do, and that each year we have to check the license testimonials every month to see if there is a problem, if there is a problem, if there is no pay that makes us suspend the license. That's very important. So then there is a risk that people will think that it is completely ridiculous. I have a client who leaves a statue, after which he says that he is in the airport, he wants to travel, does he want to travel? Who knows where he is going? You understand? That is to say that I have a client who leaves today because he is going to the hospital, he has a lot of time, he needs to come to the hospital. Who is in the hospital? You understand what I mean? There are things that people do not do. At a time like this, people are very prudent, they do not take care of the program here, people are very prudent, they do things that are completely ridiculous and that's what they do in Florida. The other side of the iceberg is the prison.

And so you mentioned that like taking the streets. Can ICE walk up to someone and ask them for their ID if they're just walking in the neighborhood? Because yes, we're Haitian. Yes, we're Hispanic. But we all look the same. Like we're all African-American. So this is going to open up profiling in the communities. Because now if ICE decides to say, hey, we're just going to come through this city and let's just check your ID, what can the person do? Can they keep their ID? If they don't, are they now, you know, subjecting themselves to be arrested. I know we have rights, but we also seen these ICE agents straight up violate people right and kill US citizens. We have to be mindful of how we approach this situation. What are their rights if they're just someone who's just walking in the street? I'm fearful that you're going to see a lot of people stay home now. People are not going to go to schools or go to churches because they're fearful. But what are their rights just in case they do want to step out and go to church?

So I think the question is a very good question. Can ICE or a police official stop someone? Can they do it? They would have to have probable cause to do it, right? That's a legal standard. They would have to have probable cause to do it. but we're in a different time. Can they do it? Yes, they can do it. Should they do it legally? No, they shouldn't do it without the proper constitutional frameworks that they know they should be doing. We've seen it, the violations, they're blatant these days. Friendly, I think that's a question that I would love to hear your opinion on it. Whether someone is stopped by an official and this individual is just walking down the street, let's say downtown North Miami about to go to a restaurant and a police officer just out of the blue with no reason stops them and asks them for them to show their ID.

I'm with you on that, that they need probable cause. However, if you see the profile of the newly minted ICE agents, low education, wannabe cops, and you give them all the power in the world, they're going to violate the law. And I am extremely cautious in advising people what to do. You know why? Because you don't want people to be confrontational. And we know what happens. You see what I mean? So what I tell people is that really, really try your best to avoid any encounter with these people. We see what they can do. We see what they can do. Preserve your life at all costs.

Absolutely. And I think to your point, Attorney Julian, sometimes the fight can happen in the courtroom.

Yes.

Right. And so you want to live to see the day where you can argue your case before a court. Not every judge bends to the will of the administration. There are some federal judges who believe in the rule of law and have a very different opinion as it relates to how it should be followed. And so the goal is to live another day, to not be a victim, and to be smart about the decision that you make.

Thank you and we're gonna go to Sandy next. I know she's still on virtually to talk about some of the estate planning segments and what should family do because we know many families spend so much time thinking about immigration that they forget to plan for the life's unexpected moments and that's why we also wanted to have an estate planning attorney here tonight. I've heard cases of a TPS holder who owns a home and have US-born children, what happens to their home? What happens to their assets, their bank accounts, and what steps they should take? Sandy, if you could give us some notes and bolts. I know you gave us a little bit of tidbits earlier about what is estate planning and why is it so important for everyone and not just people with significant access and what's the difference between a will and a trust and the power of attorney. So, if Sandy, if she's still on, if we can have her on to discuss some of those matters for us. Sandy, you're on mute.

Yes, indeed. So when it comes to dealing with things like real estate and financial accounts and investment accounts, retirement funds, or any other things that people have, one of the important things is to know that you probably want to have someone that you trust that you can name as your agent in a power of attorney document. That is important because it allows someone to actually act on your behalf with a official document that they can take to a bank, that they can take to a mortgage company. As well, if you have real estate, if you own property here in Florida, there are certain types of deeds that you can create if you want to allow someone to receive ownership of your property upon your passing. So if you pass away, you have a deed that you can create to handle that. But you also can identifying your power of attorney, who you want to be able to make decisions about your real estate so that someone can continue making mortgage payments and pay your property taxes. And also that someone can handle your affairs while you are currently not here or while you're going through certain proceedings. when it comes to dealing with anything that is in your name only it is critical that you make sure that you have someone authorized whether it be listing someone as an authorized user on accounts let's say you have credit cards and things of that sort when it comes to your banking it is critical that you make sure that you have a beneficiary on your account if something were to happen to you that that person can receive those funds and then you may also want to consider whether or not you might need to have an account where someone is listed as the authorized person that is handling your financial affairs. So going to your bank and sitting down with a bank representative to talk about what it is that you need and having certain things in place. if you have things like life insurance investments or other types of accounts again you have to have somebody that is authorized and the best way to be able to deal with those types of accounts is to make sure that you have in your power of attorney document the proper language So it's important when you sit down with an attorney to make certain decisions about who you want to be authorized, you have to explain to them what type of assets you own and make sure that they are clear that there's certain language that may need to be in your power of attorney document. Also, if you needed somebody to be able to make healthcare decisions for you, you would have to have a living will and a healthcare designation. It's another type of power of attorney, but it's very specific to your health care needs. And so you want to be able to make a decision about who are the people that you trust in your life currently that you can list as not only your power of attorney for your financials, but also as a power of attorney for your health care. As well, God forbid something happens to you, you pass away, you want to have a will in place, a last will and testament. This is a document that only operates when you pass away, and it allows you to make a decision about who is going to handle your final arrangements, as well as who is going to receive anything that you own. And if you own certain things that require a title change, like real estate or financial accounts, it's important that you do some other things to have those extra documents done that will allow you to transfer your real estate, that will allow you to transfer your financial accounts and your financial investments to the persons that you trust and the persons that are part of your family. So it's critical right now that if you are having any issues with property or investments or accounts, that you sit down and identify all of those accounts, give yourself a secure place to leave your important information, like your logins and your passwords, because if something were to happen to you and someone needs to have access, You need to make sure that someone you trust already has that information and is able to get access to those pieces.

Thank you so much, Sandy, for giving us that information. And we know that estate planning is so key, and not just in this situation, but just in all situations. But Sandy, if you can also touch on what happens if someone is deported? What happens if they, didn't know they were gonna get deported and now their house is there or their car is there or if they have small children, what happens to that family then so people can really understand the gravity of why is state planning so critical and so key, especially in this climate with what's happening right now? So that just came to mind as you were speaking. So if you can just maybe elaborate on that. If they're deported to their country of origin, what happens to their assets then?

So that's even more critical. It's kind of like one of those things where the preparation has to be done in advance in order to make sure that there is somebody that has the authority to address any real estate, address any accounts, because if, God forbid, you are deported, you now have no access to the things that you used to. Now, thankfully with online banking and things of that sort, oftentimes you can still handle certain transactions. and manage some of your affairs from other places. But again, you still would need someone who is able to have access, right? So a power of attorney is a critical document for someone who has concerns about deportation and wants to make sure that they are still able to manage and deal with. Now, if you get deported and you don't have those things in place, then it's very important that you work with an attorney back home and get them to get in contact with an attorney here in the states so they can work out any arrangements that need to be had thank god for the online world right now there's a lot of transactions that can be done online including online notarization and things of that sort So you could still work on certain documents and work with your attorney in Haiti, if that's your home country, and work with an attorney here in the States to make sure that any documents, paperwork, anything that needs to be completed or arranged for can still be done, even without you being here on U.S. soil.

Thank you, Sandy, for giving us that information because we know that oftentimes there's bank accounts, there's houses, there's cars, there's assets that we're not thinking about that may be affected if someone were, God forbid, had to go through something as touching as this. We're getting ready to wrap it up, but I definitely wanna give each attorney the opportunity to give a closing statement or share one thing that you wish a family would knew or something that you feel like they should know before we leave here tonight and close off tonight's segment.

So I think a lot of times we as a community, and I would say even as human beings, we tend to be reactional as opposed to proactive. And I'm included. I'll be the first person in that group just so it doesn't seem as if I'm throwing on anyone, but reactional as opposed to proactive. And so what ends up happening is that we're, you know, We should have had the opportunity to speak with an estate planning attorney and to have our affairs in order, but we never did. We never thought about it because it's like, if I do, then that means I'm getting ready to die. No, that's not the case at all. Death occurs, but then incapacity also occurs where you lack the capacity to handle your affairs. That's where guardianship comes in. There are so many ways and so many reasons why having those affairs in order is important. It just so happens that we're in the world of immigration being at our heel, and so we need to be able to get those things in order now. And so I would encourage everyone to sit down with a family member, someone they trust, and have those conversations. Again, the Haitian Lawyers Association is here. When you contact us at 954, excuse me, 561, excuse me, 561-861-6894. And then it's going to be on the screen again, 561-861-6894. You can text CONSULTATION requested, consultation needed. We will respond and we will then help to triage and help you to get to the attorney that you need to assist you. So that's number one. And number two, understand that these conversations are difficult. We understand that they're difficult to have. And so we encourage you to speak with someone. I'm not sure, Vice Mayor, if you all have programs for maybe for counseling or for something to that effect for the individuals who may not have the immigration issue, but who are related or who are connected with someone who has immigration issues. That's called vicarious trauma. When someone else is going through something so traumatic, although it's not happening to you, but because you're connected to that person, it's affecting you, and you also need help as well to communicate, to have those conversations, because mental health is part of the conversation, and you need to take care of yourself. You need to take care of yourself as well. You're taking care of your legal affairs, but you also need to take care of your personal, physical self, your mental self as well. And I will pass along to my colleague.

Thank you, President. What I would like to say is that it's been two years since Governor DeSantis said that Mr. Fepa's law in the Florida legislature says that if a man goes back to the United States by border, after he goes back to Florida, he has to go to school. And Mr. Fepa says that anyone who can go back to work by car has to go to school. The law, after it came into force, because there are no people who can work in gardens, no people who can work in construction, the law will always be there and it will never be applied. TPS for Haitians is the same thing. That is to say that their big decision is to hit us in the face, but they are not going to hit the economy and wait for it to flourish in the face. That means that they will not be surprised if we say that after a short time, they will not continue to make a force. Now they have started to have a problem to find people to take care of their children, people who can work in hotels, people who can work elsewhere. Now, the only thing you know is that when you get there, your team will start to take you. Now, if you win this TPS and you don't win the other one, ask yourself the question, are you going to be the first one to take you?

And thank you for that, for giving our residents and our community information that they may need to better prepare their families, to better prepare themselves, and share this live with someone else who may need the assistance or may not know what to do. And there are free legal resources out there. So for those who cannot afford an attorney, I know that there's organizations out there providing free like Catholic Legal Services, Americans for Immigrant Justice, they're also providing free legal services for those who do not have the means. But if you are someone who do have the means, please, please, please, now is the time to ensure that you have legal counsel on hand or on standby or know who to call in case something were to arrive. I just wanted to leave you all with those information too, because I know that for those who cannot afford the resources, that there's resources there and we'll ensure that we put them in the chat. But I know Americans for Immigrant Justice and Catholic Legal Services, and I don't know if there's any else that provide free legal services, but I know that there's a lot of people doing the great work. So I thank you all for joining us tonight. I thank you all for tuning in. I thank you for the team on the back end and the technical stuff, doing your legacy. for answering the call so last minute, but we understood that this situation is important because there are people who are vulnerable or those that may say, hey, I can help you apply for asylum, but they're not an attorney. And we wanted to make sure that we were giving people the facts, from the experts i'm no expert in the field but they they are and they can give you that information so i thank you for answering the call with very short notice um but we wanted to make sure that this information was circulating um throughout the weekend so folks can have the information thank you everyone and good night