“On behalf of the city of Shore View, uh welcome you to this immigration, know your rights and family preparation. Tonight is about information preparation and ensuring that our families and our community feel supported and empowered.”

Opening remarks for the webinar.

“This was one of the things that I was really proud that uh the human rights commission um heard from the community and said this is a topic that uh needs uh attention and uh they took it upon themselves to create this um webinar for tonight.”

Acknowledging the Human Rights Commission's role.

“I came to United States as a refugee uh from Vietnam at age five. My family arrived here um seeking the proverbial American dream.”

Personal background shared to connect with the topic.

“Wearing the uniform was one of the greatest honors of my life. uh it deep it deepened my belief in service and also the ideals that define our country and I'm proud to also now be a Shoreview city council member through that journey from refugee to service member to an elected official”

Reflecting on his journey and public service.

“knowing our rights is so important preparing our families and our community uh for uh the issues that uh we currently face and going in with as much information as possible is so important.”

Emphasizing the importance of the webinar's topics.

“We are a legal aid organization. Um, we provide free civil legal help to lowincome people in the east metro and in southern Minnesota. So, our service area does cover Shore View um, as well as many other areas.”

Describing Smurls' services and service area.

“So we help with a lot of different types of immigration cases. However, there are many kinds of immigration cases and we can't help with all of them.”

Clarifying the scope of Smurls' assistance.

“So we uh help with a lot of different types of immigration cases. However, there are many kinds of immigration cases and we can't help with all of them. So as you heard, we do cases of domestic violence victims. So that would include the U visa for people who have reported crimes, uh T visa for victims of human trafficking, and VAWA, which is the Violence Against Women Act.”

Listing specific immigration case types Smurls handles.

“And so we have um we're talking about uh rights and we're talking about family preparation and you know rights like I said um we have constitutional rights and those apply to everybody um but they aren't necessarily respected for anybody um and then we have family preparation steps which can um just mean practical things that people can do to prepare for possible detention for possible deportation of a family member.”

Transitioning to rights and family preparation.

“We did include on this slide a note um that smiles cannot represent people in their detention or deportation case. Unfortunately um it's due to funding restrictions. That's kind of built into the funding that we receive.”

Explaining limitations in Smurls' representation.

“So there's a lot of movement between floors. You can take an elevator up sometimes. Sometimes you have no right to get on the elevator. And that's the biggest problem with the basement. People who've lived here for decades, who came in illegally, there's not a button they can push to get to the other floors.”

Describing barriers to moving between immigration status levels.

“There's a lot of different kind of barriers and bars. So with this visa bulletin, you might have a category that works and you might have that petitioner and they petition for you and everything is great. But if you've been here or you are here and you violated uh some immigration regulation, you may not qualify even though you have you know waited the 20 years.”

Discussing barriers to obtaining immigration status.

“Not signing anything without speaking to a lawyer that absolutely stands. And the reason that I think that's more important than ever is um one thing that we've been seeing is people are taken to Texas within a very short time after um being taken into custody and they're being handed these documents that are going to get them deported and they're being told, you know, you don't get access to a lawyer and you don't have any rights and you're not going to get status, therefore sign this.”

Advising against signing documents without legal counsel.

“One of the documents that you would want to have in that kind of packet for that person is the DOPA. And it's probably, you know, in a lot of cases going to be the same person, the person that you delegate care of your children to.”

Recommending the Delegation of Parental Authority (DOPA) form.

“Our goal tonight is to move from fear toward empowerment through knowledge and information.”

Stating the webinar's primary objective.

“Our commitment to being a welcoming and safe community for all residents remains steadfast.”

Reaffirming the city's stance on community inclusivity.

“Tonight's webinar, Immigration, Know Your Rights, and Family Preparation, is designed to provide you with practical legal tools.”

Describing the webinar's content and purpose.