The Archdiocese of New York hosted an information session and community legal clinic at St. Peter’s-St. Denis parish in Yonkers Friday, March 10. Organizers said the effort was aimed at assisting recently arrived asylum seekers as well as the greater community in need of legal immigration help. 

Staffers and volunteers from Catholic Charities Community Services’ Immigrant and Refugee provided information and free consultations for immigration legal services and other important services accessible to documented and undocumented immigrants, including Know Your Rights Training for guidance on encounters with ICE.

 

At the event was Lesly Santos, Community Legal Clinics lead project attorney at Catholic Charities’ Immigrant & Refugee Services.

 

“These community legal clinics are extremely important; for a lot of people in the Hudson Valley, we’re the first attorneys that they ever see,” Santos told The Good Newsroom onsite during the event.

 

“Because there’s so little access to nonprofit attorneys in the Hudson Valley, immigrants here are especially prone to fraud – whether it be notaries saying that they’re eligible for some relief and filling out applications for them when they have no legal basis to do so; or some low-moral private attorneys who charge thousands of dollars to file applications that people are, again, not eligible for.”

 

She added, “These clinics provide access to licensed legal representatives for free,” noting that the clinic workers make sure to let clients know if they are not eligible for particular social services. The archdiocesan Hudson Valley legal clinics are held monthly at an area parish, usually the second Friday.  

 

Maria Rodriguez, 35, from Honduras was among the nearly 75 registered clients assisted at the March 10 Legal Clinic. So was Bernabel Ramirez, 65, from the Dominican Republic. In speaking with The Good Newsroom onsite, both expressed words of gratitude for the program and the dedicated work of staffers and volunteers.

 

Ms. Rodriguez, a single mother of two, said, “I appreciate this service very much; there are many people without work, without resources. This is a very important program.”

 

Also at the Legal Clinic were two staffers from archdiocesan ArchCare, Sister Mary Anne Dennehy and Michael Guglielmo. “Most of the ArchCare programs are geared toward seniors; some of these people have seniors at home, so we give them information about the ArchCare programs,” Sr. Mary Anne said. “And with their path toward legal status, we also give out information about opportunities for taking the home-health aide class or the CNA class (Certified Nursing Assistant) through ArchCare.”  Guglielmo noted that Sr. Mary Anne and an assistant would be offering free onsite health screenings to the legal clinic clients.

 

Organizers said that since last July, archdiocesan Catholic Charities Community Services (CCCS) has served more than 6,000 new migrants, mostly from Venezuela, Colombia and other Latin American countries. Catholic Charities case managers, in partnership with staff from the agency’s Immigrant & Refugee Services Division, work with the migrants to assess their relocation and transitional needs.

 

The needs include: guiding asylum-seekers to available housing resources; addressing food security needs; providing legal screenings, application assistance with the Department of Homeland Security and the Immigration Courts, occupational safety/health services, and ESL services.   

 

They also include assisting with school enrollment, healthcare benefits and other social service support that will help them to better integrate into their new communities.   At the New York City Asylum Seeker Resource Navigation Center in Manhattan, Catholic Charities staff are also assisting with case management and initial in-take for newly arrived individuals.

 

The center is located at the American Red Cross on West 49th Street.