10 January 11 - 17, 2024 dallasobserver.com DALLAS OBSERVER Classified | MusiC | dish | Culture | unfair Park | Contents ▼ IMMIGRATION LITTLE ROOM AT THE BIG D INN LOCAL MIGRANT SHELTERS ‘OVER CAPACITY’ AS WINTER LOOMS. BY SIMONE CARTER M any of the migrants whom Associ- ate Pastor Isabel Marquez helps are confused and scared after reaching Oak Lawn United Methodist Church in Dal- las. Unfortunately for those who’ve applied for asylum, it’s just the beginning of a long, winding road, one that comes after an al- ready arduous journey to the U.S. On top of that, Marquez said, space and resources in Dallas are scant. “We want to serve our communities and we want to welcome all these people,” she said. “But, yeah, that’s the worry that we all have: What is going to happen if we are run- ning out of space? I mean, we are out of space already. And they’re still coming.” Shelters are reportedly over capacity in Dallas and other cities nationwide; last month, the U.S. logged a record number of migrant encounters at the southern border. The immigration court backlog surpassed 3 million cases in November, up from 2 million the year before. And last week, President Joe Biden’s ad- ministration consulted Mexico for help in decreasing border crossings as a thousands- deep migrant caravan approached the U.S. Marquez’s church serves as a welcoming center that assists immigrants in going any- where in the country, she said. The chal- lenge really comes when new arrivals lack a solid sponsor. Some will have listed a shelter as their sponsor address, she added: “And when we call them, we have to face the real- ity that all the shelters right now are being overcrowded, over capacity. So there is no more [space].” From Marquez’s church in Dallas, many migrants will next be sent to Chicago or Den- ver, where shelters are also overflowing. Her out-of-state connections have noted how chal- lenging it’s been to receive everyone. Some newcomers even wind up on the streets. This is a major worry for Marquez, espe- cially given the brutal winter weather in those locales. When migrants arrive at her Oak Lawn church, they’re often provided with jackets and shoes, she said. “When you receive … 80 [people], 60, whatever number — but multiply it by three times a week — those resources go fast,” Marquez said. Gov. Greg Abbott recently boasted in an end-of-year email about the state’s efforts to bus migrants to liberal-led areas across the country. By his estimate, more than 92,600 migrants so far have been shipped to cities including Chicago, Denver, Philadelphia and Washington, D.C. New York City has received more than 33,600 migrants since August 2022, accord- ing to Abbott. NYC Mayor Eric Adams an- nounced last week an emergency executive order applying new restrictions on these charter buses. Adams’ order dictates when and how such transport can enter the Big Apple and drop off immigrants. “There’s a high level of uncertainty as we continue to navigate these crises that we’re facing. Governor Abbott has made it clear he wants to destabilize cities and send thou- sands of migrant and asylum seekers here to the city,” Adams said last Wednesday during a virtual press event with the mayors of Denver and Chicago. “I have to navigate this city out of it.” Thousands of migrant families in New York City have been ordered to leave their shelters, The Associated Press reported in mid-December. A 22-year-old pregnant woman from Venezuela said she’d received a notice to exit her lodging by Jan. 8, less than 14 days after she was due to give birth. “We don’t have an escape plan if we can’t rent,” she told the AP in Spanish. “The situa- tion is difficult, even more so with a baby.” Chicago, meanwhile, recently ditched plans to build migrant tent encampments, according to that city’s local CBS News affil- iate. Many asylum seekers had been camp- ing outside of Chicago police stations. Marquez said she’s learned from people in Chicago and Denver that incoming immi- grants need to stay for a couple of weeks at the fire department before accessing a shel- ter bed. They’ll sleep on the floor and de- pend on others for food. Two weeks may seem like a short time for some, but Marquez explained that migrants want to feel human again, to decompress. Marquez emphasized that seeking asy- lum is legal and a human right. Migrants sometimes have to wait as long as five years for their immigration court dates, according to NBC-DFW. Asylum seekers face a one- to three-year waiting period before they can obtain a per- mit authorizing them to work, according to the DFW Asylum Seeker Housing Network. It’s illegal for them to work during this time, but they’re also not eligible for government assistance. Anyone who wants to aid Oak Lawn United Methodist Church’s efforts can vol- unteer and donate items like clothing and shoes, Marquez said. The welcoming center will help big groups two or three times a week. She also wants people to remember that the U.S. was founded by immigrants: “So it is in our DNA already to receive people.” ▼ CRIME & HOUSING FALSE EVICTION DALLAS COUNTY COURT CLERK FACES FORGERY CHARGES. BY JACOB VAUGHN A Dallas County clerk for a justice of the peace has been indicted on charges she forged a hearing notice that was used to evict a single Mesquite mother of seven. As first reported by The Dallas Morning News, 53-year-old Lutishia Williams, the chief clerk for Justice of the Peace Margaret O’Brien, is accused of faking a June 2022 hearing notice used to evict Chantel Hard- away. Hardaway said in a lawsuit that she never received the hearing notice. Local eviction attorney Mark Melton, Hardaway’s lawyer, declined to comment on the indict- ment. Williams, who was indicted on Dec. 22, did not respond to a request for comment. O’Brien said she couldn’t comment on an ac- tive investigation. Williams and O’Brien pre- viously denied any wrongdoing in statements and at a meeting with the Ob- server last year. According to the indictment, Williams al- legedly issued, passed and published “a forged writing, knowing such writing to be forged” with intent to defraud or harm an- other. Williams allegedly made, executed and authenticated a document that “purported to have been executed at a time other than was in fact the case,” the indictment said. The alleged forgery is a Class A misde- meanor charge. According to the News, the Dallas County District Attorney’s public in- tegrity unit started an investigation into the matter in September 2022, seizing items from the courthouse a year later. The DA’s office said it does not comment on cases that may or may not be under ongoing investigation. This all started in August 2022 when a tipster told Melton that a clerk forged a hearing notice in Hardaway’s eviction case. When Melton asked the court to turn over the notice, he realized it didn’t look like others he had seen before. It looked like the notice had been produced as a Microsoft Word document, whereas these notices are usually generated by a court system called Forvus. The court now operates on a sys- tem called Odyssey. Shortly thereafter, Melton filed a lawsuit against Hardaway’s landlord to stop her eviction, raising the question about the hearing notice. As part of the suit, Melton deposed four people with O’Brien’s court who said people often claim they didn’t receive hearing notices. Clerks can usually pull the documents from defendants’ files to show that the notice was indeed sent. But when civil clerk Wendy Lopez went to check Hardaway’s file, the notice wasn’t there, according to her deposition. Lopez didn’t think much of it at the time but the other clerks started talking about Hardaway and how adamant she was that she never re- ceived a hearing notice for her eviction. It wasn’t until Melton came asking ques- tions about the case that Lopez first saw the notice in Hardaway’s file. “I’m adamant that that letter was not there when Ms. Hard- away filed that motion,” Lopez said during her deposition. “And there’s no way I could not have seen that letter.” During a September 2022 interview with the Observer at the courthouse, both Wil- liams and O’Brien denied any wrongdoing. Williams showed us a document covering Hardaway’s eviction history, which dates back to 2018. That same year, Hardaway no- showed for another eviction hearing, Wil- liams said. Williams pointed out that Hardaway didn’t appear for other eviction hearings as well. In all of these cases, Hard- away was sent hearing notices through the court software Forvus, Williams said. She said Hardaway’s apartment com- plex eventually came under new manage- ment and wanted to reset her eviction hearing. On June 14 last year, the day before Hardaway’s original court date, Williams typed up the notice in question, she said. According to the court, it was mailed the following day, but Hardaway maintains she never received it. Williams told the Observer at the time that sending this type of notice, instead of a Forvus-generated one, was strategic. “I did something strategic in this on the notifica- tion, given the past history of the defendant not showing up to court, not really paying very much attention to the citation or any notification,” she explained. The court never got word from Hard- away, and the notice was never sent back, Williams said. Since Hardaway didn’t show up for her new hearing date, a default judg- ment was entered in favor of the landlord. That’s when Melton took the case and heard from the tipster. Williams and O’Brien claimed there was nothing out of the ordinary about the hear- ing notice. They suggested that the clerks who spoke to Melton didn’t recognize the hearing notice because they don’t usually work eviction cases and there were so many other documents in Hardaway’s file. “We would not intentionally deprive someone of their right,” O’Brien said. “No- body wants anyone to be evicted, OK? If they want to actually do something, they should change the legislation. I can’t rewrite the rules. I just have to enforce them.” John Moore/Getty Images An immigrant walks across the shallow Rio Grande at the U.S.-Mexico border at El Paso in May 2023. >> p12
