'They're staying here': Millcreek immigrants won't abide by US government pressure to leave

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KEY TAKEAWAYS

The Millcreek mayor held a press conference to decry U.S. government efforts to force two immigrant families in the city legally to leave the country.
The Venezuelans and Haitians were targeted in a letter from the U.S. Department of Homeland Security instructing them to "depart the United States immediately."
The immigrants' lawyer says they plan to remain in the country.

MILLCREEK — As President Donald Trump's crackdown on immigrants continues, ensnaring an asylum-seeking family from Venezuela now living in Millcreek, their lawyer says his clients won't abide by apparent U.S. government pressure to leave.

"They're staying here," said Jim McConkie, a lawyer with the Refugee Justice League, a nonprofit group that represents refugees and others. An April 11 letter from the U.S. Department of Homeland Security giving the family a week to leave is "an absolutely illegal order. They don't need to leave. They're lawfully here, unless the United States can prove otherwise."

McConkie, speaking at a press conference on the matter on Friday, said he's been in contact with attorneys from around the country, and they're reporting similar sorts of letters from the Department of Homeland Security. He dubbed the letters a "scare tactic" and said the situation has prompted talk of a national class-action lawsuit against the federal government.

If U.S. authorities attempt to take his clients into custody, he said, "we'll be in the courts as fast as we can go to get a temporary restraining order." McConkie said they don't have criminal records, aren't involved with gangs and are legally working in Utah.

Brad and Deanna Neff speak about their immigrant neighbors, focus of U.S. pressure to leave the country, at a press conference at Millcreek City Hall on Friday. (Photo: Laura Seitz, Deseret News)

Millcreek Mayor Jeff Silvestrini led off Friday's press conference at Millcreek City Hall, decrying the letters, if legitimate, as "an affront to constitutionally guaranteed rights" of due process. McConkie said the four Venezuelans he's representing — a husband and his wife and the couple's son and his wife — are here lawfully. The same goes for a Haitian immigrant, also living in Millcreek, who received a similar letter.

The federal government has the right and duty to uphold U.S. immigration law, "but that does not mean that we will stand by silently when the rights of people in our local community are violated. When that happens we will circle our wagons," Silvestrini said. He values members of the immigrant and refugee community lawfully in the country, "and we want them to feel safe here."

In an email response Monday, a U.S. Customs and Border Protection spokesperson did not address the Millcreek cases specifically, but acknowledged the agency has been reaching out to certain immigrants. Users of the CBP One app, an immigration tool used during President Joe Biden's administration and tapped by the Venezuelans in the Millcreek case, are among those being targeted. However, they aren't the only ones.

"CBP has issued notices terminating parole for individuals who do not have lawful status to remain," the message said. The message didn't offer details of how widespread the effort is.

McConkie said he hasn't yet heard from DHS officials, though he might be meeting with them next week. He will also be meeting with representatives from the U.S. Attorney's Office, while Silvestrini said he's reached out to Utah's federal congressional delegation for help.

Trump has made the deportation of immigrants here illegally a priority. The April 11 letter to the Venezuelan family, which reads like a form letter, doesn't spell out any specific violation of law they've committed. Rather, in instructing them to leave, it cites discretionary authority granted to the DHS secretary under federal law with regard to immigrants paroled into the country. "Do not attempt to remain in the United States — the federal government will find you. Please depart the United States immediately," the letter reads, in part.

Richard Lambert, left, and Jim McConkie, attorneys with the Refugee Justice League, address concerns about letters received by two Millcreek families instructing them to leave the country at Millcreek City Hall on Friday. (Photo: Laura Seitz, Deseret News)

None of the immigrants who are the targets of the letters appeared at Friday's press conference, though some of their Millcreek neighbors did as a show of support, including Brad Neff.

"These are just fine, kind, hard-working people, people that are fabulous neighbors, and we just couldn't stand by," said Neff. "I wrote all of my federal legislators and Gov. (Spencer) Cox. We just couldn't stand by. We have to stand up for them."

The families, Neff went on, are nervous. "They're trying to keep their heads down and work and, at the same time, trying to keep their heads above water. They're afraid," he said.

'Tomorrow it could be American citizens'

The four Venezuelans crossed into the United States with a fifth family member, another son of the older couple, and he was detained at the border when they arrived last August. They haven't heard from him since. McConkie said the Venezuelans sought entry into the United States during the administration of President Joe Biden using the CBP One app, which gave certain immigrants a means to enter the country and seek asylum. Trump has ended the program.

The Venezuelans were political opponents of the socialist government of President Nicolás Maduro, McConkie said, and had faced backlash for their activism, prompting them to flee. "They were dead in that country," he said.

The family traveled by land from Venezuela through Central America and Mexico to get to the United States. Officials apparently detained the son still in custody because of tattoos that made U.S. officials think he was involved with a gang. "No allegations against him in his own country. I mean, his own country would say he was part of the dissident group," McConkie said, but the lawyer rejected any suggestion he was involved in gang activity.

This isn't the the first time Silvestrini has decried activity in Millcreek by immigration authorities. Last February, he spoke out against the detention of a U.S. citizen in the city by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents after the man honked at the officials while they were detaining a woman on the street.

He said the ICE agents seemed to have "trampled the rights of an American citizen employed in my city" and he used similarly tough language in condemning the apparent efforts against the immigrant families in Millcreek.

"If people like me don't stand up for this kind of thing, stand up for it early, our rights can be gone in a second," he said. "Today it's refugees who came to our country out of fear or danger in their countries. Tomorrow it could be American citizens."

The Millcreek families and their advocates are seeking donations for legal support.

Photos

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