Dear John,
When our clients celebrate, we celebrate. They are our family members, neighbors, and friends. By helping immigrants obtain legal status through free, comprehensive immigration services, the Immigrant Law Center of Minnesota (ILCM) helps unlock pathways for immigrants to contribute to our economy, have healthy and safe working conditions, and to put a stop to living in limbo. And we know it takes all of us to make these new beginnings possible. New beginnings like Maynor’s…
Originally from Guatemala, Maynor was a permanent resident for nearly 17 years before becoming a United States citizen on September 21. Through a partnership between ILCM and the Latino Economic Development Center, Maynor now owns his own house painting company, and his family resides in Southern Minnesota, with four of his five children proudly holding U.S. citizenship!
Over in North Dakota, our newest team serves the region’s rapidly growing refugee community, particularly Afghans and Ukrainians.
While most of our clients there are relatively new arrivals seeking temporary status or applying for green cards, a citizenship story from our Fargo office stands out.
The client is a refugee from Afghanistan, and she applied for citizenship twice on her own and had been denied. She suffered PTSD and had significant difficulty learning English but had been unable to convince U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services to grant a disability waiver for the English language requirement for naturalization. She came to ILCM; our team re-did her application; and she obtained the waiver. Our team then accompanied her to her naturalization interview, where, on September 11, she was finally approved for citizenship.
As we look forward to 2024 and beyond, much of our planning is contingent on policy decisions on the national, state, and regional level. When we are brimming with optimism, we plan for the passage of the Afghan Adjustment Act and the DREAM Act, which would create pathways to citizenship for tens of thousands of Afghans and immigrant young adults. But when we consider other proposals for immigration “reform” being circulated broadly, we prepare to respond to widescale raids, makeshift camps, and indiscriminate deportations that would destroy our communities.
Regardless of what is to come, we remain steadfast in helping all our clients to be able to thrive, stay, and keep calling Minnesota and North Dakota home.
Will you make a gift today to help us meet the rising need for legal representation for immigrants and refugees in Minnesota and react nimbly to future immigration policy changes that will impact our clients?
