Making a Positive Impact with NWIRP
By Gema Soto-Marquez, Northwest Immigrant Rights Project
At Northwest Immigrant Rights Project’s Seattle Office, our front desk works to screen community members who are in dire need of immigration services. Our organization assists community members in Removal (Deportation) Proceedings, those seeking Asylum, those who wish to submit Family Petitions for their relatives, those who wish to apply for citizenship, and many who hope to apply for humanitarian forms of relief, such as U-visa, T-visa, VAWA, Special Juvenile Visa Status and DACA renewals. We also assist community members who wish to either renew or replace their permanent resident (green card) cards or employment authorization cards. All our offices across Washington state take pride in our commitment to assist as many people who are detained at the Northwest Detention Center as possible.
We assist community members that are unable to afford a private attorney. Our services are critical to community members who come to Washington to seek protection from violence, to gain stability, and to obtain economic security. Importantly, without immigration legal support, our community members often find themselves unable to access other social services such as medical assistance, housing, or other vital services. We also know that many community members are afraid to call the police for protection from domestic violence or other crimes because of their lack of immigration status. By explaining their rights and law enforcement responsibilities we help empower community members to seek protection from law enforcement.
In addition, we strive to be accessible telephonically as well as in person for walk-in community members. Our NWIRP legal staff and the pro bono attorneys we collaborate with are incredibly diverse and are fluent in multiple languages. Many are immigrants themselves or have family members who have experienced the immigration system, giving us the ability to understand the experiences of our clients first-hand. Our organization’s diversity puts us in the unique position to connect with clients on a deeper level and provide a safe space for them to share their stories.
For people who have needs outside of our areas of expertise, we do our best to connect them with partners who can help. For King County residents, we rely on our partnership with KCBA to provide critical assistance. The KCBA Immigration Clinic is a great resource, especially for people who have specific legal questions but are unable to pay hundreds of dollars for a consultation with a private attorney. The focus of NWIRP’s partnership with KCBA is to assist low-income individuals who often are the ones in most urgent need of legal representation. The Immigration Clinic tends to fill up quickly, and often people seek representation after the clinic. We hope to receive more volunteer pro bono attorneys who are willing to provide their expertise to further advise our growing immigrant community.
The need for additional volunteers is especially acute given the uncertainty and hostility many immigrants face given the up-coming election season. We hope that the Washington State community will continue to stand with community members who are immigrants and advocate for breakdown of barriers and expansion of legal services.
If you are an attorney interested in volunteering with the KCBA-NWIRP Immigration Legal Clinic, please fill out a KCBA Pro Bono Services Volunteer Application at: https://www.kcba.org/?pg=Volunteer-Application or contact Devon Stark, NLC Program Manager, at DevonS@kcba.org. For more information about other volunteer opportunities with Northwest Immigrant Rights Project, including direct representation, interpretation, fundraising, and other volunteer roles, please see here: https://nwirp.org/join/volunteer/.
