Immigrant Advocacy Task Force
NC Legal Services Program
The Immigrant Advocacy (IA) Task Force of Legal Aid of North
Carolina brings together legal services attorneys and advocates who
represent immigrants in a variety of matters, including immigration
law, employment, housing, domestic violence, family law, and public
benefits.
Goals of the IA Task Force
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To provide training on substantive immigration law matters,
how to better represent immigrant clients, and how immigration status
may impact other substantive legal problems of our clients.
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To identify policy solutions to issues of importance to
our immigrant clients.
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To develop ways to improve the delivery of legal services
to immigrant clients which will ensure immigrant access to the courts
and to our offices.
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To identify issues of concern to immigrant clients that
may be best addressed by administrative advocacy and/or class action
litigation.
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To enhance our community education efforts for low-income
immigrants in North Carolina.
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To work together on litigation and/or administrative advocacy
on behalf of immigrant clients, when appropriate.
Meetings
The IA Task Force will meet during the regularly scheduled
legal services Task Force gatherings, and will participate in the planning
of the Legal Service Statewide Conference, when appropriate. The Task
Force will be initially co-chaired by a Legal Aid of North Carolina
staff member and a NC Justice Center staff member.
Priorities (those preliminarily identified
thus far):
-
Immigration law: providing training on trafficking and
crime victim visas and on the impact of criminal convictions, collaborating
with other groups (including AG Trafficking Task Force and churches)
on trafficking issues and immigration reform, and on VAWA self-petitions.
-
Litigation and Administrative Advocacy: identify clients
for possible Work First/DV advocacy, meet with HUD’s General Counsel
and/or state public housing association about public housing and
DV issues with mixed immigration status families, investigate court
interpreter issues for quasi-criminal cases, consider Title VI complaint
against ESC for lack of language access, research due process issues
involved in ESC language access and identify potential clients.
-
Internal Issues: create a directory of legal resources
for immigrants in North Carolina, train pro bono attorneys to do
community education, develop training for community members about
notario problems, share PowerPoint presentations and community ed
materials that have already been developed, focus on linguistic
and cultural competency barriers to access to legal services.
For additional information regarding the IA Task Force, contact Jennifer
Stuart (jennifers@legalaidnc.org
) or Carol Brooke (carol@ncjustice.org).
NOTE: This webpage was initially posted on November 3, 2005.
Disclaimer
The materials contained on this website are for information and educational
purposes only and do not constitute legal advice. Please contact your
Legal Aid of North Carolina office or a private attorney if you need to speak to
an attorney regarding your particular situation. See our complete
disclaimer.
Mission Statement
Legal Aid of North Carolina is a statewide, nonprofit law firm that
provides free legal services in civil matters to low-income people in
order to ensure equal access to justice and to remove legal barriers
to economic opportunity.