wfn.org | Lutherans Assist Immigrants

[ELCANEWS@ELCASCO.ELCA.ORG]

ELCA NEWS SERVICE NEWSBRIEF

August 21, 1996

LUTHERANS ASSIST IMMIGRANTS

The Lutheran church is training "accredited representatives" to
help immigrants to the United States deal with the stack of
paperwork they're handed.  "It's not only important to provide
services but to provide them in a way that ensures the person
will receive effective, low-cost, quality immigration
counseling," said John E. Whitfield, director for immigration
services, Lutheran Immigration and Refugee Service, New York.
LIRS operates 16 regional offices across the United States that
are recognized by the Department of Justice's Board of
Immigration Appeals.  To maintain that recognition, Whitfield is
developing a network of accredited representatives "who can
represent people before the immigration service, who can fill out
a range of applications and who perform other lawyer-like
procedures."  He's using a Ford Foundation grant to enlist the
help of consultants to design and update the representatives'
training.  Whitfield said LIRS is trying to combat the "immigrant
bashing that has become part of the political experience in this
country.  Immigrants bring a number of resources to our country.
They enable us to grow as a people," he said.  LIRS is a joint
ministry of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America, Lutheran
Church-Missouri Synod and Latvian Evangelical Lutheran Church in
America.

For information contact: Ann Hafften, Dir., ELCA News Service,
(312) 380-2958; Frank Imhoff, Assoc. Dir., (312) 380-2955