Rockland Legal Aid to offer free immigration help
By SUZAN CLARKE
THE JOURNAL NEWS
(Original Publication: June 27, 2007)

NEW CITY - People with immigration law issues who earn low incomes soon will be able to turn to the Legal Aid Society of Rockland County.

The organization is preparing to provide immigration law services for the first time.

"We've known for quite a while now that there is a great need for doing that work," Alex Bursztein, the organization's executive director, said last week. "Every time we talk to community groups, the first question we're asked is, 'Are you doing immigration work?' "

Members of the Rockland Immigration Coalition have welcomed the move.

"Everyone is very pleased to know that we are going to have a resource, an affordable resource for people where we can make referrals because we're getting many, many calls from people. We always have," Gail Golden, co-chairwoman of the Rockland Immigration Coalition, said Monday.

The service will be provided full time by Legal Aid attorney Harvey Eilbaum, a former Rockland prosecutor. Eilbaum, who is undergoing specialized training, will begin work on cases within three months, Bursztein said.

Legal Aid will consider cases from those who qualify. To meet the eligibility requirements, potential clients may earn no more than twice the income of the federal poverty level, Bursztein said.

When cases are accepted, legal assistance is provided at no cost.

Immigration status is not a factor, meaning that the society can represent undocumented immigrants.

Legal Aid subscribes to a telephone service that provides translation in numerous languages.

Bursztein did not initially know how Legal Aid would determine what cases it would take.

"We're just going to have to see how it goes. We'll see how the demand is," he said. "As is the case with the Legal Aid Society in general, we can't take all the civil cases that come to us. We don't have the money to do it.

"We have one lawyer so far," he said, "and one lawyer can only go so far."

The one type of case that Bursztein knows Legal Aid wouldn't be able to take is undocumented immigrants seeking green cards - or legal, permanent residence - for which they wouldn't ordinarily qualify under the current system.

"There's no point in doing that until the law changes," he said.

Cases he does anticipate taking include legal adjustments of status, deportations and visa issues.

"Our intention initially is to respond to everything we get and then see how we're going to narrow it," he said. "It's always a question of resources. There's never enough money to represent poor people in civil cases. There never is, there never will be, and at some point, we have to make difficult decisions."

Despite the acknowledged limitations, Golden said the local immigrant community would benefit from the service.

It is particularly timely, given that the coalition no longer has the services of a volunteer attorney, Vicki Cohen, who has returned to work full time, Golden said.

She added that the Catholic Charities immigration service continues to provide counseling.

Cohen was "deluged," Golden said, "as various deadlines would come due."

For example, when the government extends the Temporary Protected Status - the designation accorded to some foreign nationals allowed to live in the United States because the U.S. government acknowledges that conditions in their home countries are temporarily unsafe - each person generally has to file to renew the status.

At times like those, when petitioners would have to file applications, Golden said, "there would be huge amounts of work."

Legal Aid's entry into immigration law suggests that the "community as a whole really recognizes that this is a very needed service," Golden said.

"Our immigration system is so complex and so difficult to navigate that people really do need assistance," she said.


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