Featured Story: A New Kind of Asylum Assistance
A New Kind of Asylum Assistance
In recent weeks and months here in Maine, we have all seen media coverage or met newly arrived immigrant families who are hoping to apply for asylum in the U.S. and put down roots here. Their stories show their resilience and bravery, the difficult path still ahead, and the opportunities for our state if we welcome and support those looking to make Maine home.
Many have made dangerous journeys from the Democratic Republic of Congo, Angola, and other places around the world through the U.S.-Mexico border, and all are part of a long history of immigrants seeking safety and a new life in Maine.
“It is long past time for us to stop framing the arrival of asylum seekers as a surprise and a crisis,” says ILAP’s Policy Director Lisa Parisio. “Migration has been a part of our experience as human beings for as long as we have existed on this planet. Sometimes people need to cross borders to save their lives and they have a human and legal right to do so.”
Navigating a System in the Shadows
In the shadows of every asylum seeker’s story is an asylum system that undermines due process and human rights and treats Black and Brown immigrants with particular hostility. Our immigration system is failing to protect those most in need of protection and, every day, immigrants of color feel the impact of a system that was built for their exclusion.
Felix Hagenimana joined ILAP’s team after the City of Portland first transformed the Expo Center into a temporary shelter for asylum seekers in 2019. And while so much in our world have changed since then, he is back providing support at the Expo and reminds us that “a lot of things in immigration have stayed the same.” Congress has not passed comprehensive immigration reform and the Biden administration is continuing many anti-immigrant and anti-Black policies from previous administrations. “The laws are against asylum seekers,” says Felix.
Despite these challenges, ILAP works alongside our clients to shine a light on injustices hidden behind arcane procedures and multi-year waiting periods and, together, we fight for justice and push ahead. And like in 2019, that means evolving our services to meet the needs we’re seeing today.
Legal Support Assistant Lauren Abrams and Senior Accredited Representative Treva deMaynadier help asylum seekers with their immigration forms at the Portland Expo Center. Photo credit: Paula Esteves.
How ILAP is Supporting Asylum Seekers
In fall 2022, ILAP launched the Asylum Assistance and Legal Orientation Project (AALOP). Building on three decades of supporting asylum seekers in Maine, AALOP aims to find new, creative ways of offering timely, trusted, and reliable immigration help to even more asylum seekers.
ILAP has been working with local partners to provide legal support to asylum seekers living in temporary housing locations. As the next phase of this work, we are excited to announce a new collaboration with the American Bar Association Commission on Immigration to pilot a training series to help people complete their asylum applications with hands-on support from ILAP’s experienced immigration lawyers and accredited representatives.
“Our goal is for applicants to leave with a well-prepared application that has been properly filed, bringing them a critical step closer to being able to obtain a work permit and rebuild their life in Maine, their new home,” explains Senior Project Attorney Catherine N. Lindgren who is collaborating with ILAP’s long-time asylum expert Jennifer Bailey on this project.
Due to the complexity of defensive asylum cases, this kind of pro se defensive asylum assistance offered in workshop settings is rare among other immigration legal service providers. But knowing traditional forms of assistance are not keeping pace with our community’s needs, we believe in trying something new to provide asylum assistance on a larger scale. “It’s a unique type of assistance that, depending on how it goes, could be something other legal service organizations use as a model,” explains Felix.
ILAP is working with our partners at the University of Maine School of Law and Catholic Charities Maine to host monthly three-session series starting in June. We look forward to sharing updates on this exciting new initiative in future issues.