wfn.org | Church-based clinics provide immigration help

[NewsDesk <NewsDesk@UMCOM.UMC.ORG>]

July 2, 1999 News media contact: Linda Bloom*(212) 870-3803*New York
10-32-71B{363}

By United Methodist News Service

As a longtime specialist in refugee ministries, Lilia Fernandez knows just
how confusing U.S. immigration laws can be.

The Illegal Immigration Reform and Immigrant Responsibility Act, enacted
in1996, created changes that affected both undocumented people and legal
permanent residents. Since then, the United Methodist Committee on Relief
(UMCOR), where Fernandez is a staff executive, has been inundated with pleas
for help from pastors, churches, agencies and concerned individuals.

Immigrants and refugees, especially those not fluent in English, have been
overwhelmed trying to absorb the details of the new law, follow the
application procedures and obtain legal counsel, according to Fernandez.

But by using the Just Neighbors Ministry, a United Methodist-related
immigration program in Virginia, as a model, she decided UMCOR could provide
training to local churches that offer the space and the people to hold legal
clinics for immigrants and refugees.

The United Methodist Board of Global Ministries, UMCOR's parent agency,
approved $200,000 this year to fund a national program to establish the
legal clinics. Called "Justice for Our Neighbors," the program includes
extensive on-site training and ongoing assistance with mission education, as
well as updates on immigration law and procedures.

Although 10 sites originally were planned, the program is working with 13,
Fernandez said. Those sites are in Alabama, Indiana, Iowa, New York, Texas,
Virginia, Wisconsin, Mississippi and Georgia.

The Rev. Janet Horman, a United Methodist pastor and immigration attorney
from Just Neighbors Ministry, is director of the program. At the end of
April, she led a consultation in the Washington area for two representatives
from each clinic. In addition to basic training, the representatives
received biblical and theological resources on ministry to newcomers and
made field trips to the immigration court and Congress.

By the end of June, Horman also had conducted five site visits. In Sioux
City, Iowa, for example, she worked with 25 to 30 volunteers from the
Siouxland United Methodist Hispanic Ministry at Whitfield United Methodist
Church. Six volunteer lawyers also participated.

Because of the Hispanic connection, the clinic was able to draw in clients
who needed assistance filing for residency under a new law that offers that
benefit to some Hondurans and Salvadorans who were living in the United
States in 1990. 

"We did the preliminary work so people knew what documents they needed,"
Horman said.

She acknowledged the difficulty of working on immigration issues "because
the regulations change almost daily. It's necessary to have almost constant
legal updating for the volunteers."

The client base can be found all across the country. Meat-packing plants in
Iowa and Nebraska, for instance, have attracted immigrant labor pools. 

"A large number of these folks need legal assistance to allow them to be
properly documented," Horman said.

But there is only a small number of immigration lawyers in those states.
That's why UMCOR is searching for more attorney volunteers to train in
immigration procedures in any of its clinic locations, Fernandez said.
Volunteer time from lawyers already working on immigration issues also is
appreciated, she said.

UMCOR expects to add more church-based clinic sites to the Justice for Our
Neighbors program next year. For more information on the program, contact
Fernandez at (212) 870-3805 or by e-mail at lfernandez@gbgm-umc.org.
 
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