Across the country, immigration attorneys, paralegals and other support staff are mobilizing to offer pro bono and low-cost legal options for the undocumented immigrants flooding across the southern United States border seeking asylum from violence in Central America.
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The Family Residential Center, which houses immigrant mothers with children seeking asylum in the United States, is at the Federal Law Enforcement Training Center in Artesia, New Mexico. Photo by Victor Nieblas Pradis of the American Immigration Lawyers Association.
Among those who have volunteered to help isJorgelina Araneda, who practices immigration law with her husband Randall Stroud in the Araneda & Stroud Immigration Law Group in Raleigh. She spent a week earlier this year working at the Artesia Family Residential Center, a federal detention facility for undocumented immigrant mothers and their children in Artesia, New Mexico. Araneda worked through the American Immigration Lawyers Association (AILA) to offer her services in Artesia.
She joined a team of attorneys from Illinois, Colorado, Minnesota, New York and other states who traveled at their own expense to represent the more than 600 mothers and children living in the facility. The federal government has faced a humanitarian crisis as more than 57,000 unaccompanied children and tens of thousands more Central American families – mostly mothers and their children – have crossed the border since October 2013, according to the AILA. Many of the refugees are fleeing domestic violence, gang violence, and narcotics traffickers.
AILA is addressing the lack legal representation for the mothers and children detained at the family detention facility and created a pro bono program for the detainees last July. Volunteer attorneys, paralegals and other support staff have been working up to 20 hours a day to assure the detainees know their legal rights, to represent them, defend their cases and give them a voice. They labor to get removal orders vacated and work to help the detainees prove their credible fear claims so they can win asylum.
Araneda said the United States government has had little patience with the immigrants and was systematically removed them from the country as fast as they were coming in.
“The Department of Homeland Security was not even waiting to see if these refugees were seeking asylum. They were simply processing them and deporting them with no hearings,” Araneda said. “I take issue with the way our government treats asylum seekers, and I want to help them.”
Paralegals needed
Paralegals and support staff are in short supply, and the need is great, according to Araneda. Administrative duties include managing files, operating a data management system, and helping with client intake.
“While I was there, we processed over 500 people, and there was still a two-week backlog,” Araneda said. “They need so much administrative help – I’m sure they’d welcome any volunteers.”
Molly Carey and Mia Batista work in the immigration section of Fragomen Worldwide in the firm’s Boston offices. Carey practices business and employment immigration law, counseling employers trying to hire professionals from foreign countries.
Batista, a paralegal since 1998, is in her third year of law school, and has been dealing with asylum and removal cases for seven years.
They traveled together to Artesia and were there alongside Araneda.
“We were a power team,” Carey said. “We were able to work faster together than the attorneys who went alone, and we represented a high volume of clients – 12 to 20 people a day.”
It helped that Batista is bilingual and was able to communicate with clients at a high level.
“We also have a great relationship with each other,” Batista said. “We were able to create a game plan for each day.”
At the facility, there’s no whistle to signal the end of the day. There is no time clock and there are no billable hours. By 7:30 p.m. each evening, the attorneys are at the AILA Pro Bono Project headquarters where they immerse themselves in up to four hours of case work.
For Carey, having Batista with her to pull files, scan documents and upload them into databases helped move their cases along at a rapid pace.
“There are so many administrative tasks at hand, and even having a paralegal to deal with the intake process saved a lot of time,” she said. “You don’t need to have a J.D. to ask questions. But the ability to speak Spanish is very helpful.”
In addition to keeping the process organized on site, the paralegals and support staff working and volunteering at the detention center are charged with leaving their open cases so the next round of volunteer attorneys and paralegals can complete them quickly.
Costly endeavors
The volunteers pay their own way, and it’s not cheap. Artesia is a dusty, remote, small town, about 40 miles from Roswell, and a four-hour drive from Albuquerque. Flights are expensive, and travel is grueling. A recent oil boom has driven costs up. Hotel rooms average $150 per night.
“It costs the attorneys an average of $1,000 to $1,500 to spend a week volunteering,” Maheen Taqui, a practice and professionalism center associate with AILA. “Many of them run small law firms, and they shut their doors for an entire week to volunteer in Artesia.”
Araneda describes the Family Residential Facility at the Federal Law Enforcement Training Center as reminiscent of a military base, with lots of trailers and new construction, surrounded by two layers of chain link fencing.
Many of the women there were arrested at or near the U.S. Border in Texas and then flown to New Mexico, Araneda said. She said that from what she observed at the center, government agents treat the detainees with professionalism and respect. But the problem of due process violations by the U.S. government still exists.
“This migration of victims of crime from failed states in Central America is historical, and to know that one is assisting these victims seek protection in our country is highly rewarding,” Araneda said. “Most of the women seeking asylum have been victims of domestic violence for years or threatened and attacked by gangs or gang members. Refusing to pay protection money to a gang is tantamount to being anti-gang and a reason to be a target.”
Batista said she was amazed by the women’s determination.
“I don’t know how they are able to make the journey with babies and toddlers,” she said. “But they are so afraid in their own country they are willing to do anything to get their kids out.”
If the women housed in Artesia can prove they have come to the United States to seek asylum, they can apply for permanent resident status after a year.
Taqui says the makeshift system is working.
“Since we started this project, we have had eight successful wins with asylum granted,” she said. “It’s pretty incredible and proves the women do have valid claims.”
Batista and Carey returned home from their week as volunteers, exhausted but energized.
“I definitely recommend this program for other paralegals. It is a great experience,” Batista said. “It’s a wonderful feeling to help others, even if it is just one person at a time.”
For more information
Attorneys, paralegals and other support staff interested in helping unaccompanied children and families crossing the southern border of the United States should visit: www.aila.org. Click on the link called “Practice and Professionalism” and follow the pro bono opportunities link to the “Artesia Pro Bono Project” site.
The site provides an outline of the situation at the Artesia Family Residence Center, contact information, and a sign-up form.
Jorgelina Araneda, an attorney with Araneda & Stroud of Raleigh, can speak with paralegals and support staff interested in volunteering. Contact her at info@aranedalaw.com or (919) 788-9225.
The AILA is primarily interested in working with attorneys and can offer advice for paralegals who want to help. Contact Maheen Taqui or Susan Timmons Marks at (202) 507-7600.