Welcoming New Neighbors from Afghanistan with the New Americans Legal Clinic
Lighthouse Immigrant Advocates (LIA) has launched a new legal clinic to serve an influx of newcomers from Afghanistan, serving their legal needs to achieve safety and stability after traumatic and harrowing journeys.
Communities across Michigan are working to welcome more than 1,300 new arrivals from Afghanistan, with tens of thousands across the United States already in process, and tens of thousands more expected over the coming seasons. More than 300 have resettled in West Michigan, including Ottawa, Kent, and Muskegon Counties, in the greater-Holland/Zeeland, Grand Rapids, and Tri-Cities regions. The Operation Afghan Refuge Clinic (OAR Clinic) provided every refugee individual and family with the appropriate legal services to transition from temporary humanitarian parole into full asylum or other permanent status.
To create a foundation for stability and safety which all people need to thrive, applications must be made for asylum on the basis that refugees would face persecution, torture, or worse, if they returned to their home countries. Refugees granted asylum may eventually apply for legal permanent residency. Refugees have 1 year from the date of entry into the United States to apply for asylum.
LIA has created a process and program alongside leading resettlement agencies and immigrant and refugee rights organizations in Michigan, including Bethany Christian Services, Immigrant Connection, and MIRC. The OAR Clinic will served as the single point of initial contact for every incoming refugee case from Afghanistan, with a team of attorneys reviewing each case and assigning to the best legal resource with available capacity. Rather than individual offices or agencies being flooded with requests that would otherwise bog down time-critical legal processes, the OAR Clinic created an efficient and collaborative way for the needs of Afghan newcomers and service providers to be met.
For these newly arriving neighbors from Afghanistan, and those seeking to assist in welcoming them, questions about housing, employment, health services, food access, and education are at the fore, while the challenges of addressing their legal status are often invisible. Legal status is vital to every new arrival’s long-term stability and future, and LIA’s nonprofit model of legal counsel and representation offers a credible pathway forward for our community to live into its welcoming values.
As a nonprofit immigration law office and advocacy center serving West Michigan, Lighthouse Immigrant Advocates will expend all available resources so refugees can pursue every opportunity to achieve the safety and stability that all people deserve. LIA has been committed to this mission to serve immigrants and refugees since 2015.
The OAR Clinic launched in the first week of November 2021. Staff and volunteers trained and made adjustments to service delivery, including trauma-informed interviewing and cultural orientation. The OAR Clinic completed interviews with all clients that arrived in West Michigan through Spring 2022. LIA had initially anticipated taking on 40-60% of these cases internally through the asylum filing process. Traditionally, these cases can take upwards of 80 hours of law office time, with legal fees in the tens of thousands of dollars.
With broad community support from local foundations, businesses, faith communities, and organizations for this holistic local solution to unanticipated global challenges, LIA launched the New Americans Legal Clinic to live up to our community’s reputation for welcoming, empathy, and generosity, and create a space and legal services that are led with dignity, cultural respect, and without compromise on quality.