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Immigration legal services: Saving lives and livelihoods
Sheila McGeehan and Nate Milton, at the CWS affiliate in Lancaster, Pa., meet with two Cuban clients.
Photo: Celia Cardoza-Hill
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Access to quality, affordable immigration legal services can be a matter of livelihood -- and even of life itself -- for resettled refugees and asylees.
But too often, such services are expensive or simply not available in a community, and some service providers are unscrupulous or incompetent.
That is why the Church World Service Immigration and Refugee Program (CWS/IRP) three years ago launched a legal program to encourage its local resettlement affiliate agencies to offer such services.
Getting competent help can help make immigration-related applications stronger and avoid mistakes, thus diminishing the chances of delay or even denial of employment authorization, permanent residence, citizenship, asylum, family reunification, and other immigration-related benefits.
Sometimes life itself is at stake. The legal services provided by CWS affiliate director Sheila McGeehan and her staff may have saved the life of a Honduran woman in Lancaster, Pa.
"She had married a U.S. citizen and was seeking permanent residence based on that relationship, but he began abusing her," McGeehan said. "She ended up in a homeless shelter and didn't know what to do. Furthermore, she had a serious medical problem.
"The shelter and other local social service agencies called us in desperation, thinking she'd lost her grounds for permanent residence and saying they couldn't keep serving her," she said. "We knew that she could apply for permanent residence on her own through the Violence Against Women Act. Successful, she is getting the medical care she needs, and is in subsidized housing. Our help probably did save her life."
The CWS/IRP Immigration Legal Program was initiated by the IRP Committee (IRPCOM) and is funded by IRP's seven participating denominations. "Our goal is to build and support a network of immigration legal services providers," said Rev. Joe Roberson, IRP Director.
IRP hired Jennifer Guilfoyle in February 2003 to provide ongoing support on immigration legal issues to IRP's member denominations and local resettlement affiliate agencies. She also serves Episcopal Migration Ministries' stand-alone affiliates.
"I see my mission here as helping affiliates provide high-quality immigration legal services to often indigent clients, for at most nominal fees. I'm here for the denominations, too. A pastor might ask them a question and then the denomination calls me for advice. They aren't doing direct service, but they are more than welcome to call on my expertise."
Guilfoyle's "mantra" is "call me." "I'm always available for affiliates' questions," she emphasized. "Sometimes people say, ‘We don't want to bother you, you are a lawyer, you must be so busy.' I tell them, ‘I don't have my own legal clients. You -- the affiliates and the denominations -- are my clients.' My goal is to help our affiliates develop their professional services, keep up with changes in immigration law, and do the best job they can for their clients."
Guilfoyle regularly offers trainings at IRP conferences and, since November, on line. For the latter, participants phone in to a conference call and log on to a Web site where they can follow the leader's presentation on their own computers. These on-line trainings are free, also saving the time and expense of travel.
To date, trainings have delved into asylum law and the asylum application process, client intake, the Immigration and Nationality Act, immigration regulations, and other forms of immigration law.
Topics in mid to late April include I-730s and Green card applications for asylees and refugees, and fee waivers. Further trainings are planned on naturalization law, immigration and crimes, and affidavits of support.
"People should be in touch with me about what they want training on," Guilfoyle said. "If even only a few people want it, I can design it and offer it within a few weeks."
CWS/IRP is urging all of its affiliates to seek recognition from the Board of Immigration Appeals (BIA).
A handful of IRP's 40 local affiliates have staff attorneys or are partners with a program like the United Methodist Church's Justice for Our Neighbors, which has immigration attorneys. Others may provide immigration legal services if they obtain BIA accreditation for one or more staff members. Guilfoyle helps walk affiliates through the process.
"Jennie has done a fabulous job," Roberson said. Three years ago, only six CWS/IRP affiliates had BIA-recognition. Today, 14 do, and several more are in the application process. "I think the affiliates appreciate that CWS is willing to support them in this way," he said.
Immigration legal services providers in CWS affiliates across the country testified to the importance -- and the rewards -- of providing such services.
"Providing immigration legal services meets a huge need, judging from the response we are getting," said Chitral Demel, assistant director and coordinator of legal services at Refugee and Immigration Ministries, Malden, Mass. "We are touching so many people's lives. All affiliates should do this. Faith based organizations especially have to play a role. People trust these organizations and come to them for help."
As refugee arrivals numbers ebb and flow, offices can expand to help other immigrants. "It really broadens your clientele base," McGeehan said. Another big advantage, she continued, is "we are able to longer serve the refugees we resettle. I just think it's really rewarding. I hope more people go into it. I know everywhere CWS has an affiliate there is probably a need for more immigration legal counseling."
 Marya Millard, Assistant Immigration Counselor at Lutheran Family Services in the Carolinas, Greensboro, N.C., meets with Ang Hmok, a newly naturalized U.S. citizen and Montagnard from the Central Highlands of Vietnam. Photo: Heather Scavone |
"If no agency is offering pro bono or low-cost help," she said, "the clients won't get the services. They won't get permanent residence, or citizenship, or family reunification. Without these, they cannot move forward with their lives.
"It makes your work easier when you are accredited. As your client's authorized representative, you get correspondence from immigration at the same time your client does, so you are informed immediately about actions on cases," Scavone explained. "And, after consulting with a client, even by phone, I can make an intervention with immigration without the client having to be physically present in my office."
"It's an integral part of our service," said Murad Nuryagdiev at SOAR in Portland, Ore. Offering immigration legal services enables an agency "not only to establish relations with various communities, but also to extend and deepen relations with them."
Nuryagdiev recounted how BIA accreditation helped him facilitate the reunification of a refugee mother and her 12-year-old son from the Democratic Republic of Congo.
"If we hadn't been accredited," he said, "we wouldn't have been able to contact the National Visa Center to determine which embassy would interview the boy, or to phone the visa center to find out whether the case had reached it and the interview had been scheduled."
When affiliates provide immigration legal services, they give refugees and asylees alternatives to sometimes unscrupulous or incompetent service providers. Nate Milton, immigration services specialist at CWS's Lancaster, Pa., affiliate, described helping a refugee client rescue an application for permanent residence that someone else had botched.
"The guy had filled out an affidavit of support, which made no sense for a refugee client; attached translations but no originals of supporting documents, and put the client's arrival date in the space for his I-94 number, among other errors. Two months later, the application came back to the client, who then turned to us for help."
Mastering immigration law was daunting, admitted Rosa Ortiz in Omaha, Neb. She is a BIA-accredited immigration specialist with Lutheran Immigration Services, a program of Lutheran Family Services of Nebraska, whose clients include refugees resettled through Heartland Refugee Resettlement.
"At one point, I thought I wasn't going to be able to do this kind of work," she said. "CLINIC, LIRS, CWS and local attorneys gave me support." Ortiz attended several trainings and "read a lot. I downloaded all the different applications from the Web and read all the instructions."
Invaluable, Ortiz said, was a multi-agency, five-person local "roundtable" of immigration legal service providers who discussed all but the most obvious cases before filing the paperwork. In addition, participants took turns researching and presenting topics to their colleagues.
"I would encourage other affiliates to do this, especially those that feel they don't have enough experience or are overwhelmed with cases," she said.
"As time went on," Ortiz added, "things got easier." The roundtable does not meet regularly any more, but members still often phone each other for advice. "You have to keep on top of changes," she said. "Don't underestimate any question. If you're not sure, get a second opinion."
Most satisfying to Ortiz -- and what keeps her going when she is feeling overwhelmed and burned out -- "is knowing there's a family that is going to be reunited, or a child who will be a legal permanent resident and further their education here."
For example, she told how thrilled she was to help a West African who had been struggling for about two years to get his wife and child to the United States. "Once he came to our office, it took us about another year after getting all the documentation. They were very excited to be reunited."
In another case, Ortiz' work enabled a Mexican man to be reunited with his wife and three sons after a three-year separation. Some time later, the couple had a daughter -- and named her Rosa.
"I hope I encourage people to continue doing this work," Ortiz said. "I know it's overwhelming but it's really important."
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