Series of Legal Workshops for the Latino Community in the Bay Area Hosted by Instawork
Instawork, an online job marketplace and mobile app that matches local job seekers to hospitality businesses is hosting a series of Legal Workshops to address the local community’s questions about immigration policy changes. The most recent event was held at the Mission Hiring Hall on February 7, 2017 with a turnout of nearly 100 attendees. The series of workshops are scheduled over the next few months across the Bay Area.
Immigrants make up over 50% of hospitality job seekers in the Bay Area. With the overwhelming amount of information coming from the news, social media and word-of-mouth, Instawork reached out to the Latino community to host a free legal workshop open to the public with top immigration law attorney Veronica Guinto from the Law Office of Veronica B. Guinto.
“There is widespread anxiety regarding potential changes to immigration policy,” said Alex Leung, Director of Finance & Operations at Instawork. “This workshop is one of the many ways Instawork is helping the immigrant community to understand the facts about what’s happening and to better sustain their livelihoods.”
Mrs. Guinto’s bilingual presentation explained President Trump’s executive orders, addressed rumors, and provided answers for families unsure of their next steps. Mrs. Guinto then opened the floor up to questions, upon which many attendees expressed their concerns regarding immigration law enforcement, immigration attorney scams, ability to travel, and family members with expired documentation.
“The most important takeaway from this workshop is to not be scared,” said an attendee who came with her young daughter. “There’s a lot of uncertainty and confusion in the Latino community because many of us don’t know our rights or even realize we have rights. This made everyone feel more comfortable and empowered for whatever the future holds.”
Through a skit, Mrs. Guinto demonstrated how to respond to an approach by an Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officer. She explained how to exercise constitutional rights and recommended ordering a “red card” to hand to a law enforcement officer if ever approached without reason. The card states that under the 4th and 5th amendment, one is not required to answer any questions or show documentation and that a home can only entered and searched with a proper search warrant.
“We don’t know where to go to get these answers,” another attendee said. “The Instawork event provided a safe place for us to openly ask questions. The attorney also gave us resources to find local pro-bono legal help that we didn’t know existed.”
The event was also attended by several dozen hospitality professionals representing popular Bay Area businesses, such as Michelin-star restaurant Lazy Bear and Mixt Greens, who were also interested in learning more about the potential impact of policy changes.
Instawork appreciates the enormous contributions of immigrants to small businesses across the United States, especially the hospitality industry, and is committed to creating economic opportunity for immigrant professionals.
About Instawork
Instawork is a marketplace for local jobs that makes it easy for thousands of restaurants, bars, cafes and other small and medium sized businesses to hire quality workers quickly. Based in San Francisco but now available in the Seattle area, Instawork sources and matches candidates with local businesses. Instawork is backed by prominent investors such as SV Angel, Crunchfund, Hall-of-Fame quarterback Joe Montana, and Steve Chen, co-founder of Youtube.
For more information about Instawork, please visit http://instawork.com.
Click here to download the mobile app.
