The 2024 Election season was filled with misinformation targeting our neighbors based on their race, gender, immigration status, and more. At Legal Aid SMC, we continue to push back against these attempts to disempower local families by providing accurate information and legal services to help them access the social safety nets meant to help us all. To learn more about how the outcome of the presidential election may or may not affect you and your loved ones, visit legalaidsmc.org/2024-election
LIBRE's Hope Nakamura featured in MIE Journal
Hope Nakamura, past Legal Director at Legal Aid SMC, co-authored one of the featured articles in the upcoming edition of the MIE Journal, “ the premiere voice of the civil legal aid community for sharing and exchanging information and ideas about the current and emerging issues facing legal aid leadership, management, and advocates working to further justice for people in poverty...
A Summer with Legal Aid: Carl L McConnell Fellowship
As I prepare for my second year of law school at Santa Clara University, I am bringing with me a fortified knowledge of immigration law. Although I was always intrigued by immigration law, as being a daughter of Mexican immigrants has shown me first-hand the effects of immigration policies, it wasn’t until I became a Project Coordinator for the LIBRE Team that my passion for immigration law solidified.
Beyond Legal Services
In January, farmworkers in Half Moon Bay were left in shock after an armed gunman killed seven victims and seriously wounded another. While law enforcement began their investigations, the farmworkers and their families were offered shelter at a local hotel. Soon concerns were raised about their onsite housing and working conditions. County officials turned to Legal Aid SMC to assess the legal needs of those affected by the shootings.
Benefits & Public Charge Update
Join the LIBRE Project on Dec 14th to learn more about updates to public charge. Watch on Facebook Live at facebook.com/countyofsanmateo at 5 pm for English and 5:30 pm for Spanish
Únase al Proyecto LIBRE el 14 de diciembre para aprender más sobre las actualizaciones de la carga pública. Véalo en Facebook Live en facebook.com/countyofsanmateo a las 5 pm en inglés y a las 5:30 pm en español.
DACA Again: Springing into Action for Dreamers
Tim Clark
When Federal Judge William Alsup opened a tiny crack in the Trump Administration’s intention to end the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program, Legal Aid sprang into action.
On Jan. 9, 2018, San Francisco-based Alsup ordered U.S. immigration officials to accept applications again for DACA renewals, ruling that plaintiffs were likely to succeed on their claim that the rescission of DACA was arbitrary. On Jan. 13 (a Saturday), U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) resumed accepting DACA renewal applications because of the court order.
On Monday, Jan. 15, Legal Aid posted a note on its website, in both English and Spanish, “If you have DACA or your DACA card expired, you may be able to renew your card.” Then Jenny Horne of Legal Aid’s Teen Parents’ Project started working the phones.
“I have 25 clients or former clients who have DACA now and have cards expiring after March 5. They could be eligible to renew now under the court order,” Horne said. “I have a lot expiring in March or April.”
She advises her clients to file renewal applications quickly because the government on Jan. 16 served notice it will appeal the ruling. Applications could be cut off at any time.
For some of Horne’s Dreamers, the $495 filing fee is a barrier. Legal Aid will tap its small emergency fund and also is seeking donations from private funders to underwrite filing fees.
“I’m personally very excited,” Horne said. “It’s so sad to have clients say their DACA card has expired so their employers won’t keep them on. It’s a big opportunity for clients.”
Once her current clients all file applications, Horne doesn’t expect the flow to slow. “We will get other calls as the news gets out. I have already gotten some calls from former clients who have siblings with expiring DACA cards.”
Filing an application doesn’t guarantee extended DACA status—USCIS may turn down the applications or sit on them rather than moving forward. Still, for the Dreamers the dream is alive again—thanks to Legal Aid.
Tim Clark is a partner at The FactPoint Group, a Silicon Valley-based research and consulting firm dedicated to the business improvement of its clients. He is a dedicated Legal Aid volunteer concerned with the issues facing low-income persons in our community.
A Beacon of Hope for Immigrants in the Bay Area
Blog author Iliana Arbeed
"I don't want to take any risks," explains a 52-year-old immigrant mother fearing deportation, when asked by the Associated Press why she felt it was necessary to drop her teenage daughter, a U.S. citizen, from the food stamp benefit she relied on.
Fears of deportation plague immigrant families in our community and across the United States, as chilling stories of ICE raids and families being forcefully separated circulate through the media. These fears are at a high in California, where the U.S. Census Bureau states that the immigrant population is twice the national average. The Bureau also found that here in San Mateo County, more than one third of the approximately 750,000 residents are foreign-born. Of the estimated 7.6% of these residents who are unauthorized, the Migration Policy Institute recorded that more than half have lived in the U.S. for over ten years, over 70% are employed, and many have U.S. citizen children.
Despite the fact that immigrants are deeply integrated into our communities--as friends, coworkers, peers, husbands, wives, mothers, and fathers--many still lack knowledge about their legal rights. All immigrants, documented or undocumented, are eligible under federal law for basic services such as emergency health care. However, even if they are aware of these rights, they are increasingly afraid to pursue them--even for their U.S.-born children.
Legal Aid's Linking Immigrants to Benefits, Resources, and Education (LIBRE) Project is a catalyst for action at a time when many are paralyzed by their fear of the government. When negative rhetoric towards immigrants is perpetrated by the highest of government officials, LIBRE represents a voice of compassion and justice for immigrants and their families.
LIBRE is a collaborative between the Legal Aid Society of San Mateo County and six other organizations in San Mateo County: Redwood City 2020, Nuestra Casa, Coastside Hope, Ravenswood School District, Redwood City School District, and the San Mateo County Human Services Agency. Its aim is to ameliorate the barriers that prevent immigrants from asserting their rights and accessing basic services. To accomplish this task, LIBRE connects immigrants and their families with various resources in their communities such as healthcare facilities, community centers, and other support services, to help them obtain the benefits for which they are eligible.
Immigrants turn to LIBRE because it is known in the community as a trusted source of accurate information, in a day and age where it is increasingly difficult to separate fact from fiction. For example, a common myth among immigrant families is that applying for any government benefits will label them as a "public charge," which will negatively affect their immigration status in the future. In reality, "public charge" is a term only for certain immigrants who are applying for legal permanent residence status, and who the government deems likely to rely on specific cash benefits. Obtaining non-cash benefits, such as Medicare or Food Stamps, does not raise public charge issues. Through outreach efforts like presentations at local community centers, LIBRE works to ensure that immigrants know these myths are false. LIBRE educates immigrant families about the benefits for which they are eligible, and whether their immigration status will be affected.
The opportunity for immigrants to receive these benefits is not about taking resources away from U.S. citizens, and it is not about free-riding off the government. It is about accessing the basics of life--food and health care--that every human being needs in order to survive and to be a contributing member of society. Legal Aid attorneys and their LIBRE partners do not assist individuals in thwarting the law. They assist pregnant mothers who need prenatal care to give birth to a healthy child, developing children whose parents cannot afford to feed them, and ill grandparents who could die from the flu without basic medical services.
Recently, I had the privilege of attending a LIBRE conference and experiencing these efforts firsthand. The conference was composed of representatives from each organization that makes up LIBRE, who convene regularly to discuss their work. Going into the conference, what I expected to see was a group at least somewhat discouraged by the growing difficulty of advocating for immigrants in today's tumultuous political environment. However, what I observed was a community of individuals passionately continuing to work against those obstacles.
Rather than feeling defeated, the members of LIBRE seem imbued with a renewed sense of purpose, inspired to do their job even better and to work even harder. I watched as they raised questions, shared experiences, addressed obstacles, and formed solutions as a group. LIBRE's clients need them now more than ever, and it is clear from what I observed that LIBRE has no intention of backing away from the challenges ahead. Remaining committed to serving its clients no matter what, LIBRE is a beacon of hope in a time of great uncertainty for one of the largest immigrant communities in the country.
To learn more about LIBRE, visit their website: http://www.thelibreproject.org/.