tony and grammy award winning broadway show. the associated press calls glorious big and high kicking. some like it hot, some like it hot. and that ain't bad. playing the orpheum theater now through january 26th. tickets at broadway sf.com. these road trippers set to explore just one last person to see before it's sam. big. oh, sam. wherever they're headed, they stay on track. she's the gal that gets them there and back at sam. and right now you can roll into the new year savings event, get 80 to $100 instant savings on for select in-stock tires, plus zero interest if paid damian trujillo: hello and welcome to "comunidad del valle." i'm damian trujillo, and today, one-on-one with an immigration attorney, we're gonna talk about the threat of mass deportations

on your "comunidad del valle." ♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ damian: we're going to begin today with a call for your service with the civil grand jury of santa clara county. with me here on "comunidad del valle" is the honorable jesus valencia. he's here to give us a pitch on why we all should join the grand jury. judge, welcome to the show. jesus valencia: well, thank you, and i appreciate the opportunity to come on your show and speak to your audience about this important issue. damian: yeah, before we get into it, i want to talk about that robe hanging in the back of your office there. talk about the pride, sir, of wearing that robe, and making sure that the jurisprudence is fair and accurate in the county. jesus: absolutely, you know, i've been privileged and blessed

to be able to serve on the bench here with many, many outstanding colleagues for the past 17 years, going on 18 years, and i really--in this particular location where i'm at, it's morgan hill, but it's a location that's dear to my heart because when i first came to san jose, i came through this little corridor and morgan hill is one of the first little towns. it was much more agrarian, but it just reminded me of my roots as a farm laborer and coming here to sort of make my future. and so many years later, decades later, i--i've grown roots here, and i've been really proud to be part of this community and to serve as a lawyer, but now as a judge, so i really feel blessed and i'm grateful for the opportunity.

damian: well, we thank you for your service and we're all in admiration of your accomplishments, judge. but we're here to talk, though, about how folks watching and listening can pitch in and help in making sure that the folks who are running our government entities are running them appropriately. talk about the role of the civil grand jury and how people can help. jesus: and thank you. so we are--every year, the santa clara county superior court undertakes a recruitment effort to get people from the community, our citizens, to participate in the civil grand jury. we're actively doing that now, it's really all hands on deck. we're making a--we have a mass campaign to try to reach out to the community to letet them kn the importance of the civil grand jury. it is an independent body. it is what we define as a civil watchdog agency, and it's convened annually.

it's empowered to investigate all facets of county and city government, special districts, school districts. and the work that it does, and we'll talk about that in a little bit, is really, really important and impactful for the entire community. but to have it be effective and efficient, it has to have the participation of the community and that's why we're here, to get people involved. damian: and you need about 19 people, that's who is impaneled ultimately in the grand jury panel? jesus: well, ultimately peop--ultimately, 19 people are the selected group that participates, but we certainly need a l more people than 19 to apply because it is a process where they're randomly selected from a group of people, and we'd like to have a--certainly, a larger number of people that's

from the diverse parts of the community that will participate in that random drawing so that we can have the 19 qualified eligible members to serve for the year. and so that i am clear, we're talking about the incoming fiscal year starting in june of 2025 through 2026. damian: and you mentioned diversity, sir, talk about the importance of making sure that those who are impaneled--if impanel is a word--are black, latino, asian, white, that we do cover all the diversity that we have here in silicon valley. jesus: well, like any part of an effective government, it's only as effective and responsive as its participants. and santa clara county, of course, is a very, very diverse

community, and it's important that all members of our community participate in all systems of government. granjury happens to be a very specialized function of government and it involves itself in many, many important issues that impact the community, and it--it's therefore imperative that we have those people of the community be part of that important governmental function. damian: all right, we'll talk about that role and that work of the grand jury in our next segment, but if you are interested, we are--the court is recruiting a diverse pool of people to participate in the upcoming year's civil grand jury. again, we emphasize this is a civil grand jury. there is a phone number on the screen and the web address for more information. we'll be back and talk with the honorable jesus valencia here on "comunidad del valle", stay with us.

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damian: we're back here on "comunidad del valle" with the honorable jesus valencia, superior court judge for the county of santa clara, talking about the recruitment for the civil grand jury. so go ahead, judge, give us the hits, runs, and errors, what do we need to do to participate? jesus: well, first of all, i just wanted to explain to people the particulars of what grand jurors do. grand jurors, for the audience, is tasked with investigating resident complaints related to government actions and ensuring that funds are properly managed. jurors, grand jurors also inspect the conditions of detention centers and review public agency practices, making formal recommendations and--for improvements rather, and their investigation can lead to actionable changes on how governments--government agencies operate.

and to increase accountability, the grand jury, by law, must produce a final report and summarize their investigative findings and recommendations, and it does offer a unique opportunity to directly impact how governments serve the people of this county. the requirements are very, very specific, you do have to be a citizen of the united states, 18 years of age or older, and you must be a resident of the county for one year immediately preceding the selection period. you must be in possession of your natural faculties, ordinary intelligence, sound judgment, and fair character, and possess a sufficient knowledge of english language. in summary, the candidates should have the capacity to be of fair judgment, investigative skills, and have a commitment to

serving the community. they must also be willing to file what we call a form 700. it's a statement of economic interest. and that, as i've already mentioned, the court is focused on building a diverse and inclusive grand jury panel that reflects the population. a range of experiences and knowledge and expertise are also important. the time commitments are varied. there's, on average, 25 hours per week, but the grand jurors work together as a group and set their own hours, set their own tasks that will be assigned, that will be part of their role in the grand jury. and so the recruitment is then taken on--the recruitment

process is then taken on by the presiding judge. in this case, our presiding judge, judge emede, will be in charge along with--we have an individual named britney huelbig who's our deputy court manager, she's available for more information. and i'm gonna let you know that if you need any more information, you can contact her at 408-22--start that, 408-882-2721. she can also be reached at the following email cgj@scscourt.org. and then we have a website that has all of this important information for members of the public to glean, and to get further information on the reports that have--the reports and the work of previous grand jurors.

damian: and real quickly, judge, there is a stipend for these meetings and you reimburse for mileage? jesu oh, that's a good question. there is a payment. i wouldn't call it a stipend, that would be a little generous, but there is compensation that includes a $45 per diem for meetings and activities. there's mileage reimbursement at rates set by the irs. there's also court and county funding provided for parking, supplies, and additional support. and, you know, there's a wealth of information to give to the audience about this and fortunately, we have a very complete website at the court's website address that i just gave. that will provide, certainly, a lot more information. the point is we really need participation from our citizens,

and this is a very important, unique opportunity for people who are civic-minded, who are dedicated to giving back to their community to have that opportunity through their service on the civil grand jury. damian: so we have about 20 seconds. this is a way for an ordinary citizen to hold the powerful accountable, basically? jesus: absolutely, and, you know, there--there's always media information and updates that's provided to our citizens to let them know what the grand jury has done. there's been a lot of those reports and investigations and issues that the grand jury has taken up, and their impact, i think, is self-evident. damian: well, we as the media enjoy receiving those reports and going through them and seeing what's going--what's being done right or wrong in the county. judge jesus valencia, thank you so much for being on "comunid

del valle," and for recruiting folks for the civil grand jury in santa clara county. jesus: and thank you for the opportunity once again. damian: thank you very much. again, if you're interested in participating in the civil grand jury in santa clara county, there is a number on the screen and the website for more information. up next on the show are immigration expert, stay with us.

damian: well, with the threat of mass deportations, many people and community organizations are scrambling. we have our expert here on "comunidad del valle" today, andrew newcomb is an immigration attorney. he joins us now on "comunidad del valle." welcome back to the show, andrew. andrew newcomb: thank you, damian, it's great to be here. damian: thank you for being here. well, we spoke with the ceo of the latino community foundation, julian castro, just after the elections, and he says that we need to treat the threats of mass deportations as a five-alarm fire. what say you? andrew: i think that that's an apt description of what we're looking at.

the trump administration ran into some procedural hurdles certainly during its first four years, but this is a different time when he feels as though he has a public mandate. he's been given blanket immunity for any potential misdeeds by the supreme court, and he's learned how to operate through the system. now, having said that, the first time around, he made a lot of outlandish promises, for example, that there was going to be a big beautiful border wall that mexico was going to pay for. we s that--we observed that none of those things came to pass. and so i think we should focus on--you can think of it as though they were rings on a planet, in terms of proximity to danger, and i think the first ring where we have the greatest proximity to danger would be people that have criminal records or people that have prior orders of removal. i think the likelihood that he goes into neighborhoods and starts randomly arresting people because of their appearance that don't have those factors present is much less likely. i mean, they could be swept up in raids, of course, that's always something that could happen, but it's important to focus on those two communities within the undocumented community that are at greatest risk. damian: so the first targets, if target is the proper word, are

those who already might have a target on their back, that have a--have had some run-ins with the law in one way or another? andrew: certainly, damian, and i wanna just distinguish, you know, people that have had--that have a criminal record, their information is gonna be in federal databases, just like state databases. however, many people, maybe they haven't had any run-ins with the law, but they initially came in seeking asylum. unfortunately, their asylum case was denied. ultimately, they appealed their asylum case up to the board of immigration appeals, and then their appeal was rejected. and so that's considered more of a civil penalty, but they would also be within--i mean, the court would have updated records of their home information and that kind of thing. now, governor newsom's office has made some commitments that he is not going to work along with the trump administration in his goal of doing mass deportations, which can be very beneficial in the sense of state and local law enforcement not being willing to share that information and to be able to continue providing a kind of a sanctuary for the undocumented community here in california. damian: this past week, senator alex padilla urged--and other

senators, they urged the biden administration to fortify, solidify tps and daca. what is he trying to do? andrew: well, so, daca right now is up on appeal at the fifth circuit, so that likely--they still haven't made a final decision as to what ultimately was an injunction by a lower district court judge. often, these litigations are started within a--with a favorable court for, you know, conservative anti-immigration advocates within texas and then it's appealed through the fifth circuit, which has also historically been an unfriendly circuit for the undocumented community. now, with respect to daca, it's going to take the path that it takes to go through the court. however, people with daca should take advantage of advance parole and look for an opportunity to travel to mexico and come back in with a lawful entry and admission. this can provide very important immigration benefits down the road. when it comes to tps, the difference between daca and tps is that tps is technically a lawful status, daca is just a

promise that the government is not going to deport you. so with tps, people have an unabridged right to travel. however, those designations, for example, for people from honduras, from haiti, from el salvador, they need to be extended. so one thing the biden administration could do right now is he could try to extend those tps statuses a few years into the future and try to issue some executive order shielding them from future executive action, that--whether or not that could be effective in the long term remains to be seen, but it would certainly be very helpful and comforting for a lot of people that are living here in the united states right now with tps. damian: but because can't president-elect trump come in and nullify one executive order with another executive order? andrew: sure, that would get into an issue and it could--it would probably be subject to litigation, likely, and at least it could cause challenges, there could be injunctions issued. a lot of what the plan to resist trump's mass deportation has to do with challenging his actions in court. so even a president's executive order, as we saw with the biden marriage parole executive order, can be subject to

judicial review. they picked a very friendly forum in texas, just like californians can pick a very friendly forum in san francisco. so if biden extends the parole and then trump inten--attempts to undo that extension, we could file for an injunction to stop that undoing of the extension in the first place. so either way, it would get messy, it would be a legal battle. but these things take longer than four years to reach the supreme court anyway, by which time trump would be out of office and we'd have a whole new paradigm to work in. damian: since election day, how busy have you been? are your phones ringing off the hook? andrew: yeah, people are--yes, damian, people are concerned, people are afraid right now. folks that maybe in the past wouldn't have been animated to get started on their paperwork are now feeling fear. there's a lot of feelings of nervousness and panic within the community, and so, you know, immigration lawyers are becoming more busy. and also, as, you know, these kinds of detentions and removal proceedings are initiated, we have to remember there are still due process considerations. you can't just scoop someone off the street, determine that

they're here unlawfully, and put them on a plane and deport them summarily without them having had a right to present any motions, to present any defenses on their own behalf. so we are more busy, we anticipate to get even busier as the weeks turn into months and trump takes over the executive, but it's important to remember that there are lawful due process protections in place to protect people from that kind of summary deportation. damian: all right, and in our next segment, i'm gonna ask you to give us some consejos, your advice for free on "comunidad del valle" here on what we should know going forward. but the offices of attorney andrew newcomb are right here in the south bay. there is a website for more i informati. we'll get closer to that date. we'll be back with andrew newcomb here on "comunidad del valle," stay with us. ♪♪♪

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imagine, since election day. we should mention, andrew, that you're giving free advice here on "comunidad del valle," but you do that at the consulate on a continual basis. andrew: thank you, damian, yes, that's correct. on thursday mornings from 9 to 12, i'm at the san jose mexican consulate, and i offer free consultations. if you have any immigration questions, typically they'll let you in without having otherwise had an appointment, so i'm happy to answer any questions there as well. damian: all right, so give us your consejos, what should we know, how should we prepare? you kind of mentioned that in a previous segment, but what else can you tell us? andrew: yes, so one thing that--when you think about what could the trump administration do, we have to look at his first four years as a model of the things that he attempted to do. and one thing that he effectively did accomplish was he took away the right of immigration judges to administratively close cases and for the right of ice attorneys to exercise prosecutorial discretion in deciding to join in those motions, to join to close those cases, and we have a backlog right now of about 3,000 remo--excuse me, 3 million removal cases. so what it--what happens when you take away that right from

judges and prosecutors to decide which cases they want to prosecute is it causes a huge traffic jam and no cases are effectively able to move forward, which sometimes can work out for the benefit of an asylum applicant if they have a weak case because they'll be tied up in litigation for years and years. however, if you are someone who's in removal proceedings, either because you came in and you were detained and you were issued a notice to appear and you're pleading your asylum case, or you were referred to a removal court because of some kind of infraction or crime that was committed, if there's any other collateral relief that you have, meaning a petition, u visa, any type of immigration benefit that you can show, or just a balance of factors that you have a us citizen spouse, you have children, et cetera, you should move to court right now in the next five weeks to close your case. and they will be very receptive to that motion because they're aware of this horrific traffic jam that's likely going be caused, and you're very likely to have that case closed, which frees you up to apply in a different direction and effectively eliminates the risk of deportation. i mean, so it's a very important tool. damian: and we had as a guest on the news our legal analyst,

steven clark, who said, you know, if you've had a dui or any other criminal offense that you pled guilty to just to get it over with and move on with your life ten, fifteen years ago, you might want to go in and have that not even cleared, but have that plea changed. andrew: yes, correct, a very important point. simply having a prior conviction expunged does not have any immigration effect unless it's a discretionary form of relief like u visa that can just sort of be a positive factor generally. but if you want to--if it's something that's gonna affect your eligibility for, for example, an adjustment of status, exactly as you said, you have to go back and reopen those proceedings and have your plea waived or have your plea eliminated based on ineffective assistance of counsel, typically, if there's a public defender that didn't advise someone of those immigration consequences. so that's something to consult with a defense attorney about. damian: all right, we have a couple of minutes, what else should we know, andrew? andrew: well, a lot of people were very disappointed about the biden parole program. folks that have children here that have been married to a us

citizen for over ten years, this was gonna massively decrease the backlog at different consular offices around the world for people hoping to get their green card. and while it's true that that program has now been decreed unconstitutional pending appeal, there exists a path for people that are married to us citizens or lawful permanent residents regardless of how much time they've been married to those people. and that path is very well established, it's etched in granite. it's very unlikely that trump would be able to undo decades old precedent, which is petitioning your spouse, seeking a waiver of their unlawful presence, which is essentially arguing that you would suffer an extreme hardship if they were to be removed, and finally scheduling them consular processing, which i understand can be very intimidating for people to leave before they have a definite certainty, but we have to compare the paradigm today with the paradigm that existed ten years ago. before 2014, when someone had to go, have their interview be denied, and then apply for their waiver so they wouldn't even know whether their waiver would be approved and they'd have to

anticipate six months in mexico. so now by comparison, you have your waiver approved beforehand. if you've consulted with a competent immigration attorney, you basically know 99%, 98% you're going to get approved and you're only there for 7 to 10 days. so it's something that people should definitely start down that path. the waiver processing times are extremely excessive now, i don't want to sugarcoat that, but it's better to start down that path for so many reasons. having those immigration receipts can be so instrumental in also defending against deportatioto be able to tell the judge, look, i have a process with uscis, you should close the case and allow me to continue there. on that note, it's very important that people research their own immigration past. many people never try to apply for an immigration benefit because, potentially, they were detained at the border previously and they think that they're not eligible. while it's true that some people detained at the border have orders of expedited removal, that's a power that immigration officers w were give after april 1, 1997, not everybody does, and usually there's another aggravating

factor that causes you to have one of those, so it's important to investigate your record. damian: do your research and buckle up, it's gonna be a bumpy ride. andrew newcomb, thank you so much. great advice, appreciate you--having you on the show. andrew: thank you, damian, i'm pleased to be here. damian: thank you very much. again, more information, the offices of andrew newcomb are right here in the south bay. you can log on to the website for more information. he is at the consulate every week. we thank you for sharing a part of your sunday here on "comunidad del valle." we'll see you back here again next week, and we wish you a very merry christmas.

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