Legal Aid of Western Missouri (LAWMO) has developed an innovative approach to intake immigration cases that allows LAWMO's staff to handle hundreds of immigration cases a year that they would not otherwise be able to take.
Many community organizations throughout LAWMO's service area (which encompasses 40 counties in Western Missouri from the Arkansas line to the Iowa border), particularly faith-based organizations, are interested in assisting legal, low-income immigrants. Many of these organizations have financial and staffing resources that they are willing to use to assist immigrants. These organizations, however, generally do not have legal expertise and insufficient resources to fund a lawyer on staff.
LAWMO's immigration project has developed a system that taps into the resources that are available from other service providers. The project has recruited 8 funded service-providing organizations throughout the service area to donate the time of paralegals and community workers to work on immigration cases.
LAWMO's experienced immigration law staff conduct extensive training with the paralegals, who all speak Spanish (and many speak other languages), and teach them how to do intake, spot basic immigration issues for clients, assist clients in completing immigration forms, and compiling the paperwork that must accompany those forms. The paralegals also stay in contact with the clients through the course of their respective cases (which often go on for many months and sometimes years), and answer basic questions about their cases. The paralegals forward the appropriate paperwork to LAWMO's immigration staff for review and to assure that cases are promptly filed and processed.
LAWMO's staff maintain regular contact with the paralegals, update them twice a month on the frequent changes in INS policies and regulations, and answer any questions they have. LAWMO's staff then represent the clients at administrative hearings and mandatory informal INS meetings. The process allows LAWMO staff to focus their time and attention on work that requires their expertise, largely in meetings with clients about their cases and in INS hearings and interviews. It allows LAWMO to provide meaningful, substantive representation in over 400 immigration cases per year.
This process has taken a substantial amount of time and organization by LAWMO staff. It does, however, show what can be done with community partnerships with non-LSC funded service providers who have regular contact with our legal services.
Contact Information:
Suzanne Gladney Legal Aid of Western Missouri 920 Southwest Blvd. Kansas City, MO. 64108
LSC:
America's Partner for Equal Justice 