2010 Immigration Conference

Micronesian Legal Services Corporation once again hosted a training conference, providing 13 hours of CLE to attorneys in the CNMI. The Conference, which was held on December 8 and 9, 2010, focused on immigration matters, the impact of crimes on admissibility and removal. There were also brief sessions on VAWA, T Visas and U Visas, and the most popular session on ethics.


Joe Hill signs in while Polly Anne and Lolita man the registration table.

Our trainers were Evangeline Abriel from Santa Clara University Law School and Lauren Gilbert from Saint Thomas University Law School. They did an amazing job!


Vangie talks about aggravated felonies.




USCIS Honolulu District Director David Gulick attended some sessions and gave a lunchtime presentation on the 8th.


Lauren walked us through some basics before getting to the more difficult stuff.


We also made available the materials that Vangie and Lauren provided--copies of their power point presentations and sample problems.

Additionally, Vangie brought flashdrives loaded with 2 CLINIC manuals on crimes and removal proceedings and these were distributed to the conference participants. These were a donation! Thanks to CLINIC who allowed the materials to be copied. Thanks to Karen Bernosky at Santa Clara University who arranged the donation. And thanks to Steve Rebliagati, Manuel Valerio and James Chavez of Fry's Electronic's for making this happen. All we can say is THANKS! What great resources these nifty little flashdrives are!





Keen attention!


MLSC staff attorney Dimitri Varmazis.


MLSLC staff attorney Linda (in pink).


In the back--MLSC Deputy Director Ben Weber and support staff.


After the conference--Dimitri, Linda, Vangie, Lauren and Juanette.

Managaha

We had our Marianas Office "Burnout" retreat on April 30, 2010 at Managaha.

This is a day we take to talk with each other in a formal way, but in a relaxed and beautiful setting away from the office, to discuss what we do as an office, our successes, what we could do better, our failures, and anything that touches on life at MLSC. We are so busy in our daily work that we seldom have time to take for this kind of reflection. The hope is that by doing this, we'll spot trends and find ways to do what we might not otherwise get around to. At the very least, we have a nice day where we get to know each other better and stave off burn-out by taking time to appreciate the beautiful place where we live.

Marianas staff on the day-long retreat included Maria P. Muna (who has been with MLSC since we opened in 1971), Polly Anne Sablan, Lolita Nazaire, Juanette Sablan, Dimitri Varmazis and Linda Wingenbach. And me (Jane Mack). This year Frank Rogopes from the Marianas Office didn't come, but Ben Tured and Ben Weber from Central Office did.


This was the view from our "front lawn." We opted for the northern shore of Managaha.


Lolita cracked firewood.


Linda made her cooking preferences known.


Maria, Lolita, and Dimitri stopped for a moment for the camera.


This is what our pala-pala (i.e. shelter) looked like from one side.


Here's another view of our pala-pala.


Another view from "our" beach.


The distance from the beach to our pala-pala.


Certain areas around our campsite were marked off to protect bird habitat.


Ben Tured (Polly Anne and Juanette in the background).


Maria and Lolita exploring a bit. (Or did they go to the concession stand for coffee?)


Another protected zone.


Dimitri in deep thought (or just sleepy).


Ben Weber, relaxing, and modeling his ocean-rescue-ready shorts.


Linda on the move.



Ben Tured with his betel nut.


Polly Anne and Juanette tending the barbecue. (Food was delicious!)