Immigration and detentions are dominating national headlines as the Trump administration works to overhaul national immigration policy.
We wanted to know more about what immigration looks like in northern Michigan.
Here, conversations tend to center on the region's long history of migrant farmworkers or on hospitality workers from all over the world who come here during the summer.
But according to local immigration attorney Marcelo Betti, there’s a lot more to the story than that. Betti runs the Traverse City branch of Immigration Law & Justice Michigan. IPR visited his office for some local perspective on immigration to our region.
This interview has been edited for length and clarity. Listen to the conversation in the audio player above.
MARCELO BETTI: We feel like northern Michigan is not particularly diverse, but since we opened our office here in Traverse City 10 years ago, we've kept track of the different nationalities that we've helped over the years, and we are at over 70 countries represented. So here in Traverse City, I personally interacted with people and helped people from 70 plus different countries. So there is a little bit more diversity than we think.
CLAIRE KEENAN-KURGAN: Looking at what countries people come from, what are some of the trends that you've noticed?
BETTI: Yeah, I think that when we started off here at the office, a good majority — about 50% to 60% of folks we saw here — were from Mexico or Central American countries, and that still represents a pretty large percentage. But over the years, we started representing more and more Ukrainian individuals.
Since the war [in Ukraine] began, we have represented well over 200 Ukrainian clients here in Traverse City. Most people don't know this, but the Traverse City region has been a resettlement region for Ukrainian refugees who came here from the former Soviet Union in the late '90s or early 2000s.
And because of that core group of Ukrainian immigrants here in our region, if you look back three years ago when the war between Ukraine and Russia started, as you would assume, a lot of the Ukrainian folks here in our region still had friends and relatives in Ukraine, and they were very quick and willing to sponsor those friends and relatives to come here.
So really, over the last three years, I would say over half of our clients here in Traverse City have been Ukrainians. For the vast majority of those Ukrainians who are here in the United States who came here because of the war — the vast, vast majority of them do not currently have a path for a permanent legal status.
KEENAN-KURGAN: We've talked a bit in the past few months, and I remember one thing you said about how people often think of the immigration system as, you get in a line and you wait your turn, and then eventually you can have the status you want, but that you think that's not quite the right analogy for how it works.
BETTI: Yeah, immigration is far more complex than, fill out some forms, pay a fee and get in line. Unfortunately, the way that our U.S. immigration laws are written, I always compare it to a series of boxes, a series of categories. And unless a person fits into a particular box — whether it's the box for close relatives to U.S. citizens, or the box for people who can invest a lot of money on a particular business, or who can fill some specific, highly specialized occupation — unless you fit into one of those boxes, you are not able to even start an immigration process into the United States.
So there's just a misconception that there is a magical solution to immigrate to the United States, but it's far more complicated than that.
Like many immigration lawyers, Betti is keeping a close eye on President Trump's overhaul of U.S. immigration policy. He has watched as various visa programs have been frozen or canceled. The changes in the past few months have been dramatic and quick.
BETTI: With everything changing, it becomes really difficult to advise your clients, you know, let them know what is the best course of action for their situation. Because what the best advice would have been a week ago may no longer be the best advice, because there may have been some change in how the government is going to implement and enforce immigration law. Nobody is that concerned about the plight of lawyers, right, but, it is a real challenge to the extent that people come to you and they want to know, 'Hey, what's the best for me?' And the fact that that is just a moving target is really challenging.
KEENAN-KURGAN: And then looking at northern Michigan, what do you think are the biggest impacts of Trump's immigration policy? What have you seen already, and what do you anticipate seeing?
BETTI: Well, I still think it's early. I think that most of the big operations arresting people for a lack of status, most of those have been conducted in larger cities. The administration wants to show that they can make a big splash and arrest hundreds and thousands of people in one swoop. Here in northern Michigan, we just don't have the population density that allows for that kind of thing. But we have seen some immigration arrests happen already.
Those arrests were in Antrim County. According to a Facebook post from the U.S. Border Patrol Detroit sector, four people from Honduras and Ecuador, detained in Central Lake, were being “processed for removal from the United States.”
Betti said he's seen immigration crackdowns have a wide range of effects.
BETTI: There are so many different ways that this could affect — that this is already affecting people, right?
Anecdotally, I have clients who, for example, came to me because they needed help to renew their green card — so this is someone who is already a green-card holder, a lawful permanent resident. And yet, I've had that person just decide, 'Oh, I'm too scared to actually file any paperwork. I would rather remain hidden,' than actually apply for this thing that is a benefit that they qualify for.
He has seen how incidents in other parts of the country, like green-card holders getting arrested at citizenship appointments or at airport security, have a sort of chilling effect on people.
We're just getting all of these stories that are really putting a fear in people that if you're not a U.S. citizen, then you are not welcome here. And, you know, there's no question that fear is a big part of the current campaign that this administration has against immigrants.
