Day Four & Five - Final Stages

When the clock struck 6 on Friday afternoon, we had submitted to the United States Citizen and Immigration Services 19 applications for Temporary Protected Status, the overwhelming majority of which included requests for the U.S.C.I.S to waive the nearly $470 in application fees. All 19 entailed applications for employment authorization, so if the TPS is granted the applicants can legally reside and work in the United States.

For an additional 6 files that were complex and either would not be eligible for TPS or at least would not be eligible at this point, the supervising attorneys from the University of Miami encouraged us to produce memos that lay out, at least preliminarily, the legal and factual complexities of those cases, so that the U.M. Health and Elder Law Clinic can expeditiously move those files forward.

In just five days, we learned a lot about immigration law, but obviously only a fraction of what there is to learn. We also learned a great deal about the functioning of the administrative state. Those of us who had just completed Admin Law found the experience particularly valuable in providing a practical context within which we could apply and examine the concepts we had learned. The experience also demonstrated some of the limitations of the theoretical and conceptual discussions that inform the study of Administrative Law.

We also had a great clinical education experience. We spent two mornings doing case rounds with the supervising attorneys from the University of Miami. They were astute attorneys, who helped us navigate and manage through all the gray areas, and perfectionists who had us redo and redo again until the applications were perfect. They were also inspiring. Their genuine commitment to our disadvantaged clients, their passion for the work, and their energy and enthusiasm were inspiring and contagious.

And of course, we were touched by so many of the stories that we heard. One, in particular, might be worth highlighting. One applicant that came to us was actually not eligible for TPS. He came to the U.S. after the date of the Earthquake. A retired firefighter who was volunteering in the rescue effort in Haiti found a boy and his father. The boy had leukemia and would almost certainly die very soon without hospital care. With the firefighter’s help and the help of a local church, the boy was brought, by helicopter, to Miami and granted access on humanitarian grounds. His father was later allowed to enter as well. The young man is permitted to stay in the U.S. to receive medical care for about another year, but his father only has permission to stay for another two months. The father and son are not eligible for TPS as they arrived in the U.S. after the Earthquake, but our group has hopefully laid some groundwork for the U.M. clinic to secure more permanent status for him. And, given what we know of some of the students in the clinic and the attorneys, we are absolutely certain that the folks at U.M. won’t let this go until they are successful.

As for me, the trip culminated as it began, in a very personal way. We spent two days getting the word out about TPS in general and, in particular, the intake sessions that we were doing that week. Given the large concentration of Haitians in North Miami, we spent both days in the area, including at the elementary school and high school I attended, the grocery stores and shops I patronized growing up, and on streets just blocks from my old home. We decided to visit my old high school (which was also the high school at which I taught) in the late afternoon as that was the time that folks who attend evening English and GED classes would be there. This meant that most of my former teachers and colleagues weren’t around when we got there. I did however bump into one teacher who is Haitian and who had gone back to Haiti for a few years to advise the government there. He said that he would return to Haiti the first chance he gets, but this time contribute to bettering the country by starting in the countryside rather than in the capital, helping to educate the populace there. As we were departing he said, “I’m so proud. We trained you to go save the world…and now you are.”

I also met a client as she was walking between buildings at Jackson Memorial Hospital. The U.M. Health and Elder Law Clinic has a regular presence at Jackson, the County’s hospital that provides healthcare to the indigent. Fortunately, it was few and far between, but as a young person I did spend time in the waiting rooms at Jackson. My client, however, is not so lucky. Her 8 year old son has sickle cell and down-syndrome and so they are there frequently. Her case was sufficiently detailed that I ended up spending two days with her. In the last several minutes of the second day, before we wrapped up, in her broken English, she said “I pray that God saves your life.” Amen.

The day after I returned from Miami, she called me, just to check in.

Ed. note: Sean Hassan is a second-year law student at Stanford Law School.

Day Three: A Tough Case

The more I learn about immigration law, the more I discover its deficiencies. TPS is a great opportunity for Haitians to gain official immigration status in the U.S., but in some ways it disfavors the most needy. For the past two days, Alex and I worked with a father and son who came to the intake session at Jackson on Tuesday. Their story was tragic but only incidental to the earthquake. In the aftermath of the earthquake, aid workers discovered the boy on the street, suffering acutely from leukemia. He was near death and in need of immediate medical attention so the aid workers airlifted him to Miami where doctors convinced immigration officials to admit him for medical treatment. His father followed a few days later. Fast forward one month: the son is lively and active again, jabbering at me three different languages (including Spanish, which he picked up since coming to Miami). He has so much energy that it’s difficult to tell he is still sick.

But there are a few tell-tale signs.

He claims to be seventeen years old but looks only about ten or eleven, making me wonder if poor health and malnourishment has taken a toll on his development. He wears multiple plastic hospital bracelets, sliding loosely around his thin wrist like bangles. His life still revolves around hospitals—weekly blood work and tests, frequent overnight stays, constant medication.

The father and son have received an outpouring of generosity from a local church. One parishioner has taken charge of them, providing meals and transportation to and from the hospital and helping them navigate a new and unfamiliar country. USCIS has been much more stingy, granting the pair only a 90-day stay that expires in May. Looking for relief, they wandered into our intake session after running into a student with a TPS flier. Without any documents or few common language skills among us, the interview was very difficult. My heart sank when we finally determined that they came to the U.S. after the earthquake, making them ineligible for TPS. It seemed completely unfair to turn them away based only on an arbitrary entry date, especially when the son’s life depended on continued medical care.

Melissa and JoNel suggested we pursue humanitarian parole, permission to stay in the U.S. due to urgent emergency circumstances granted at the discretion of USCIS. After researching humanitarian parole further, Alex and I met again today with the father, son, (with a translator this time) and the parishioner at Chef Nicole’s. They greeted us like old friends, the son giving me a kiss on each cheek. When we explained the humanitarian parole process, they seemed overjoyed. Before coming into the intake session, they had no idea there was any other option except to leave in May and hope for the best. The son was ecstatic that he might be able to go to school. We put them in touch with the U Miami Clinic which would help them with the application in the upcoming weeks.

But humanitarian parole is not simple. Unlike for TPS, no fee waivers are permitted. Applicants must marshal evidence about their emergency situation—medical documents, doctor’s notes,—demonstrate that traditional non-immigrant visas would be difficult to obtain, and prove that they will be financially supported while in the US. USCIS grants parole on a completely discretionary basis with a response time of three or four months (TPS takes about two months). Parolees usually receive a parole period of less than a year, which can be extended—for another filing fee. And if granted parole, the father and son will still have to file an additional form to apply for work authorization. Although it was good to have the option, humanitarian parole presented a number of hurdles. The process made me long for the comparable speed and simplicity of TPS.

In light of the barriers inherent in many immigration procedures, the father and son’s story impressed upon me the importance of advocacy, and not just from legal actors. Doctors, churchgoers, and now attorneys and law students went beyond the scope of their stated duties and took an interest in their case. And because of that, hopefully this story will have a happy ending.

Ed. note: Jennifer Holmes is a first year student at Stanford Law School.

Day Two: All Hands on Deck

"Men anpil chay pa lou," many hands make light work.

This Haitian proverb, printed on the front of the t-shirts we wear during outreach and intake, captures the nature of our work today. With one group starting the day doing intake at Jackson Memorial Hospital and another making house calls to follow up on applications in progress, there were a variety of tasks and places we needed to be. By midday, the line of Haitians seeking assistance on the TPS application stretched outside the door of Chef Nicole, a Haitian restaurant that provides us with a place to do intake in the heart of Little Haiti. With our group split across house calls, intake at Jackson Memorial Hospital, and Chef Nicole, the clinical staff called in students from the University of Miami for extra support.

So many people, such a great need, and with the support of everyone--the work got done.

During both the intake and outreach work today, the need for more information and assistance to be provided on the fee waiver for the $470 application became readily apparent. One client, currently living with his cousin, has been out of work for six months. His family supports him as they can, which amounts to free housing and an income of about $100 a month. Even with the little he has, he sends what he can to his two children in Haiti. Our assistance in applying for a fee waiver makes it possible for him to apply at all for this relief. Likewise, during outreach, one person said, "Yes, I need TPS, but it is too expensive." Fortunately, he expressed his concern and we were able to reassure him that if he qualified, we could apply for a fee waiver for him.

While we were grateful to be of assistance today, we continue to be struck by the unmet needs in the community. We were asked multiple times during outreach whether we had a way of helping those that came after the earthquake. Unfortunately, for most of these people, the answer is no. Likewise, we felt at a loss when one woman approached us and asked whether we could help her get her children to the US. She successfully applied and received TPS, but her children are still in Haiti. We'll be consulting with the lawyers about her situation tomorrow and getting back to her, but again, we fear the answer is no.

Ed. note: Carolyn Slauson-Ali is a second year law student at Stanford Law School.

Day One: Training and Community Outreach in Little Haiti

Today was the first working day of what promises to be an incredible week in Miami, helping Haitians to apply for Temporary Protected Status.  The day began at nine in the morning at University of Miami's beautiful campus, where we met the attorneys and clinic students that will lead this week's effort to help Haitian apply for TPS.  Having spent the hours in the sun on Key Biscayne the day before, and some of us having come straight from red-eye flights, we were appreciative of the coffee and bagels that UM so kindly provided.  Our training consisted of a few hours learning about the TPS application forms and a lesson on legal ethics.  At one point in the session, we were asked to pair up with a UM student and get to know them so that we could introduce them to the group.  The purpose of the exercise, we later found, was to show us what it is like to have someone else speak for you.  The idea was to show us what it will be like for the Haitians to have someone else speak for them on such an important application form. 

After the training, we ventured over to Little Haiti to eat lunch at a place called Chef Nicole.  We enjoyed a phenomenal Creole meal and then commenced work spreading word of the TPS clinics.  UM had provided us with flyers listing the times and dates of the clinics and all the documentation that would be needed.  We basically set off in groups and told everyone we could about the effort and provided them with fliers so that they could share the news with their friends and family.  Virtually everyone that we encountered accepted our flyers and information open-mindedly and considerately, but a few people we met today will last in our memories forever.

Rachel, for instance, met an elderly and disabled homeless woman and asked her if she was aware of UM's TPS clinic.  The woman explained to Rachel that she was a U.S. citizen already, but went on to share the difficulties that she faced on a day-to-day basis.  She just had a stroke and consequently lost her vision in one eye.  She needed to go to the doctor but couldn't afford to.  Worse yet, she was afraid to go to sleep at night for fear of her few possessions being stolen and for fear of waking up without vision in her good eye.  The woman had lost a great number of her loves ones in the earthquake and she had no one to turn to for comfort.  Clearly the effects of the earthquake extend beyond what can be helped by the TPS clinic, but at least we are doing something.

Rachel also had an interesting experience with James.  They were passing a community center and stopped to tell a woman about the TPS clinic  The woman explained  that the president of the center was speaking that day, making a special appearance, and invited them inside to hear him talk.  Rachel and James went inside and were quickly invited to come up front and to tell the group about the TPS clinic.  The audience received the information warmly and promised to tell their friends and family about the it.  Like most of our group, Rachel and James realized that triggering community chatter about the clinic would be key to its success.

Others of us had more casually amazing moments.  For instance, I ventured into a school at one point told a school administrator about the TPS clinic.  I asked if I could leave a few flyers for the parents and she gladly agreed to spread around the word, and the flyers.  When I turned to leave, she said, "You all are doing a great thing; God will bless you. Receiving such praise from a woman who devotes her life to supporting her community was one of the most humbling highlights of my day.

There were also more challenging moments.  For instance, Gab encountered a gathering of men playing dominos and seized on the opportunity to get the word out about the TPS clinic.  His efforts were virtually ignored by the group, but Gab continued to feed them information.  Evidently Gab's persistence worked because the entire group ended up accepting fliers and telling Gab that they would inform their friends.

One of the most vivid memories in my mind from the day was walking past a group of young women in the midst of their being question by a few police officers.  I initially passed by the women, but one of the officers asked, "Hey, what are you advocating? When I told him, he said, "And why did you pass these girls up?" I felt slightly embarrassed, but I had just assumed that I should not interfere.  I gave the women flyers and told them about the clinic.  They received the information with more genuine interest than most people I had spoken with and the police officer asked for additional flyers to spread around.

Throughout the day, each of us realized that TPS is not as widely known among the Haitian community as we originally believed.  However, at the end of the day a man actually sought us out to seek help with a TPS application.  It was immeasurably rewarding to see that at least one man, in one community, will get a chance to apply for TPS as a result of our efforts.  I can only hope that the rest of the week will affirm that one group of students truly can change lives.

Ed. note: Katie Plichta is a first year law student at Stanford Law School.

First Day

This year I'm participating in the clinic hosted at the University of Miami School of Law with the Health & Elder Law Clinic (HELC). This is the third week in the marathon of Temporary Protected Status (TPS) clinics they have been running.

Today our group trained on the background situation (why TPS? what is it? what is the urgent situation here in Miami that necessitates the clinics?), how to fill out TPS forms, and how to interview clients who are part of vulnerable populations.

After that, we chowed down on some delicious Haitian food at Chef Nicole. Yum! They have been gracious enough to let us use their restaurant as an intake site in the Little Haiti community (go local! support their business!).

At the end of the day, we split up into three groups -- the Haitian Creole speakers assisted HELC with interpreting phone messages and returning calls. The rest of us canvassed Little Haiti to get the word out about our TPS clinics tomorrow and Wednesday. I'm excited!

For those of you who don't know, there are a TON of fly-by-night operations set up in Little Haiti claiming they will get folks TPS, but will then charge them exorbitant fees and will not offer the option of fee waivers. HELC is not only representing client, but they are counseling on fee waivers, and following-up on the cases once they are sent to immigration.

More tomorrow!!

--Evian

Ed. note: Evian White is a third year law student at the University of Miami.

Final Push

19 applications for TPS went out today as a result of many hours of hard work. We woke up this morning to the realization that we had to somehow fit all of the information that we had collected into all the tiny boxes on every form. As we checked and second checked the forms, we quickly realized sometimes we did not have enough and sometimes the information that we did have was incorrect.

So began the race to find our clients in order to fill in the blanks. Perhaps the most notable performance was that of Timothy McCauley. Armed with nothing but a name and a photograph, he tracked down in a single afternoon a man whose contact information we had misplaced. His tenacity was evident when he sojourned to little Haiti during torrential downpour in order to find our missing client.

The moment we placed the Fedex envelopes into the mailbox was one of great achievement. All the minor inconveniences and paper-cuts melted from our minds, as we realized that we had a positive impact on so many lives. We feel so satisfied and so glad that we came on this trip. The organizers, Fred, Matt, and Allison did an excellent job and were always willing to help. The attorneys, Olga, Jonelle, and Melissa, helped us to answer complex questions about immigration and taught us as much as they could in such a short time.

We learned so much! We learned about temporary protected status, filing papers with the government, and how to communicate with clients in an appropriate manner. We learned not to give up when faced with seemingly insurmountable obstacles. We also learned how smashed plantains, fried pork, and fried goat taste (great). We learned some Haitian Creole words: griot means fried pork, gratis means free, and meycy means thank you. We learned that although the world can leave ones life in shambles, the human spirit is resilient, willing to start anew. We are all so thankful to have gone on this trip.

Ed. note: Atina Rizk is a first-year law student at the University of Memphis.

How Quickly Time Passes...

It has been amazing how time has gone by so fast. Today flew by as well, the entire day felt like a race against the clock to get all of our applications completed and out the door by the time the Fedex man came at 6pm. Almost everyone that we in-took on Tuesday and Wednesday had their applications sent out today; all in all USF managed to complete and send off 10 TPS applications, with 5 more pending till next week. I think everyone feels that it is VERY hard to walk away from the files that we have started, even though they will be in the very capable hands of U of Miami students.

At the end of the week, I think we all feel a little exhausted, a tiny bit overwhelmed, but overall very fortunate to have gotten to know our clients, and be able send off their applications for them. I don't think any of us expected to do the amount of outreach that we did, and I don't think we expected our clients to have been living in the United States for as long as they had, but once the program was underway those things made sense. Of course we would need to establish ourselves in the community before gaining their trust; and although our clients were not in Haiti during the earthquake, their lives will forever be impacted by that tragedy. We are so thankful to the University of Miami for being generally awesome, and excited for the lucky students that get to come in the following weeks.

Ed. note: Dana Isaac is a second-year law student at the University of San Francisco.

Emotional Investments

While the last three days have been a lot of client interaction and outreach, today was primarily a paperwork day for most of us (Aman and Christine took yet another trip to Little Haiti to meet with their clients for follow up information). We spent a large chunk of time today in the clinic office working on typing up and actually preparing the applications that will be sent in. While a lot of the cases were fairly straight forward, several of them were complicated by criminal records. Olga and Melissa (and JoNel for a brief interlude) spent a lot of time with us looking into what exactly they did, what counts as a felony, and if there was any way around those convictions for TPS purposes. It was once again totally depressing to determine that a client was ineligible because of their criminal past; it seems like a major flaw in the TPS program.

I think that by the end of the day we were all a little surprised by how emotionally involved we are in our cases. After intake and spending that much time with our clients and learning so much about them, filling out the TPS application feels like a LOT more then just paperwork. Hopefully we can get in a lot of hours tomorrow (with yet another trip to Little Haiti!) and be able to send them off; I know that we will all feel gratified (and be able to sleep at night) to see our clients applications to the end.

Ed. note: Dana Isaac is a second-year law student at the University of San Francisco.

Light At the End of the Tunnel

It’s hard to believe that we only have one more day at the clinic to finalize our client’s files and send them off! This week has flown by!

Today was spent back in the Health and Elder Law Clinic at the University of Miami. We took the time to review and organize our cases, print out evidentiary support documents, affix certification labels to them, and meet with our supervising attorneys to get their approval on the completed files. Although it initially sounded tedious to have to ensure every crossed T and dotted I, it is really satisfying to know that we have taken extra measures to ensure there is nothing in our files that remains unaccounted for, and that our clients are getting thorough and accurate representation.

In addition to the office time, some of our team went back to Little Haiti to follow up with their clients and obtain additional documents. Though their GPS was a little faulty on the way there, they successfully navigated to and from homes, retrieving official forms, signatures, and ensuring that complete files will be sent to Immigration tomorrow.

Though we are nearing the end, we are looking forward to wrapping everything up tomorrow and sending a wave of applications off!

Ed. note - Anna Rudman-Santos is a first year law student at the University of Memphis.

The Nuts & Bolts of TPS

We had a nice quiet morning to ourselves today; since we didn’t have to be at the Law School until almost 1pm, we all spent the morning relaxing in different ways. Some of our team explored the shops around South Beach, some caught up on some sleep, and some of us caught up on some ever-present homework.

Once we arrived on campus, we met with the supervising attorneys for the Health and Elder Law Clinic and had a “firm meeting,” where we discussed all the applications we received at intake yesterday, and made game plans for following up with clients, completing paperwork, and researching questions that may have come up during interviews. Even when it seemed like we had complete case files yesterday during our time with the client photos, the attorneys came up with all kinds of things for us to follow up on today – verifying Alien Registration Numbers (or “A numbers”), doing criminal background checks, trying to put together timelines for each client, and translating all of those facts into a coherent, easy-to-understand story. It took us a couple of hours to go through all the applications we got yesterday, but by the end, we all had plenty of work to get through tomorrow.

After we finished up our meeting, we headed back out to the streets to do more recruiting for the legal clinics, and to do intake at a couple of restaurants in some predominately Haitian neighborhoods. Though the intake was slow, one of the restaurants had at least 5 people come through tonight, which is great for a Wednesday night!

Tomorrow, we are looking forward to more case review and office time to get our completed applications off to Immigration by Friday!

We had a nice quiet morning to ourselves today; since we didn’t have to be at the Law School until almost 1pm, we all spent the morning relaxing in different ways. Some of our team explored the shops around South Beach, some caught up on some sleep, and some of us caught up on some ever-present homework.

Once we arrived on campus, we met with the supervising attorneys for the Health and Elder Law Clinic and had a “firm meeting,” where we discussed all the applications we received at intake yesterday, and made game plans for following up with clients, completing paperwork, and researching questions that may have come up during interviews. Even when it seemed like we had complete case files yesterday during our time with the client photos, the attorneys came up with all kinds of things for us to follow up on today – verifying Alien Registration Numbers (or “A numbers”), doing criminal background checks, trying to put together timelines for each client, and translating all of those facts into a coherent, easy-to-understand story. It took us a couple of hours to go through all the applications we got yesterday, but by the end, we all had plenty of work to get through tomorrow.

After we finished up our meeting, we headed back out to the streets to do more recruiting for the legal clinics, and to do intake at a couple of restaurants in some predominately Haitian neighborhoods. Though the intake was slow, one of the restaurants had at least 5 people come through tonight, which is great for a Wednesday night!

Tomorrow, we are looking forward to more case review and office time to get our completed applications off to Immigration by Friday!

Ed. note - Anna Rudman-Santos is a first year law student at the University of Memphis.

In the Heart of Little Haiti - Take 3...

Today was a very, very, long day. We met at the school to debrief and go over our cases from the day before, started filling out the paperwork to file with USCIS and then went back to Little Haiti for the night clinic. While it feels like we have spent all of our time in Little Haiti the past three days, the night clinic was a good reminder of how important outreach is: it really paid off and at the end of the night we had 11 new TPS clients.

What was just as exciting was that clients from the day before returned with the paperwork we needed them to bring, recognized our faces, and even brought new friends and relatives to the clinic. At the end of the day we keep coming back to the importance of making those connections in the community and putting yourself out there to establish credibility. Zahra's client from the day before returned with a relative, and Aman's client went to get more of his family members to get more info.

We have also seen a lot of parents coming in to file applications for their kids, something that Melissa and JoNel had said that they were trying to get more of. Overall, tonight's clinic felt like the result of lots and lots of outreach. Those connections really matter!

As we are getting more and more familiar with the TPS application and during our time researching today, we have all been struck by the fundamental unfairness of the intersection between criminal law and immigration law. Christine got on the phone and started doing massive amounts of research to determine what exactly counted as a misdemeanor, and was shocked to see that driving without a licence could be a misdemeanor. It seems unbelievable to not allow someone to work legally in the United States because they drove a car without a license.

Some of the clients that we had today also had a criminal past. It seems ridiculous for crimes such as theft to disqualify someone from TPS; if you are unable to work, how are you going to support yourself? Even though that seems to be a threshold matter for TPS eligibility, we are hopefully gonna do some research tomorrow to see if there is ANY way around it.

All in all a very long but fulfilling day!

Ed. note: Dana Isaac is a second-year law student at the University of San Francisco.

Haitian TPS Intake - Into The Fire...

This morning, it was time to finally don our suits and hit the clinic! We navigated through morning traffic into downtown Miami, where we set up the intake clinic in Jackson Hospital. We split into groups, to continue promoting the clinics throughout the city, to ensure that everyone who qualifies for TPS has the opportunity to come.

Willem (a University of Memphis 3L) and I ended up leaving the intake for a bit to take the train to the Haitian Consulate where we spoke with folks waiting in lines, and handed out fliers about our clinics. We were able to let just about everyone know what we were doing, and met a number of people who were excited about sharing the opportunity with their friends and family.

Once we got back to the intake, we sat down with a young man who was applying for TPS, and his uncle who was there to help translate. His application process was fairly smooth, and Willem and I learned about organizing a massive number of documents, and ensuring consistency of information on all of the forms (remember that even fairly straightforward questions can have complicated answers!). Overall, it was wonderful to finally be face to face with Haitians, and so rewarding to know that we were able to aid in helping this young man gain the status he needs to start working in the United States.

Though the clinic slowed down this afternoon, we were able to make presentations in two different schools, and hand out a number of flyers in Little Haiti, where we will be tomorrow night doing intake. By the end of the day, we had 15 different applications filled out and ready for review.

Tonight, we are meeting up with the volunteer group from the University of San Francisco Law School. We’re headed to Coconut Grove, a district that everyone has been telling us about. A little dinner and down time will be just the ticket for a successful tomorrow!

Ed. note - Anna Rudman-Santos is a first year law student at the University of Memphis.

Out and About in Little Haiti

One of the things that we have come to realize throughout our work these past two days is how important outreach is. As Aman said "anyone can fill out forms, but it takes more to make a connection and gain someone's trust."

Our morning on Tuesday was largely spent wandering around little Haiti in community centers, churches and residential areas near Nicoles in order to talk to people about what TPS is, why we are there, and why we want to do this. One of the things that we think that people forget is that we are strangers showing up in someone's community and telling them to trust us. I think by the end of Tuesday we felt good about what we had done there because it felt like we had started to make some connections in the area. We had made enough of a connection that people were sending their friends over to the clinic, people were coming back to the clinic when they said that they would, and Aman even made a connection that could allow him to make an announcement on pirate radio. One thing that we felt might make it easier would be a deeper connection and liaison within the community.

In the morning Nicole, Christine and I went to Notre Dame Church, and we felt that having someone there who was already a presence in the area would have made it easier to talk to the people there, and might have made us a more credible presence. Overall I think that outreach will continue to be important, even if the clinic is flooded with people: making a connection in Little Haiti will continue to be important for future work in the area.

That being said, intake went really well. We had 8 clients who came in, and it seems that now that they have met us and trust us a bit, there may be more people who will come to the night clinics, or the clinics in the next week. One woman mentioned that she knew of a lot of people who had received deportation notices (but had never left the country) and were therefore extremely nervous to file any kind of paperwork at all. Hopefully now that we have established some credibility more people will come in!

Ed. note: Dana Isaac is a second-year law student at the University of San Francisco.

TPS and Community Outreach: A Crash Course

Today begins our weeklong adventure into the world of TPS clinics.

Information overload!

We met this morning at 8:15 in the lobby of our hotel, and headed over to the beautiful University of Miami campus. The law school is situated in a corner of campus and the common area is known as “The Bricks”. It's lovely – lots of trees and plants, and full of students studying and socializing.

Training began at 9am with the supervising attorneys and student mentors who have gone through this process a number of times already. Training consisted of an extensive overview of what TPS (Temporary Protected Status) means, who is currently eligible for it, and how we help Haitian nationals understand what the status means for them. We also went over the forms that we will be helping the applicants fill out, and learned about all the possible ways that what seems like a straightforward question can present a whole host of complicated answers. To wrap up the morning training sessions, the trainers did a skit of an interview that gave us an idea of questions that applicants might ask, and creative solutions we can use to help them overcome apprehension.

After the training wrapped up, our team headed to Little Haiti where we ate lunch at a Haitian restaurant – fried chicken, goat, pork, and spinach plates. Even the vegetarians in our group found delicious food to nosh on!

Our team split up into separate groups this afternoon and headed out to neighborhoods around the city where we distributed flyers at local schools and organizations, letting people know about the upcoming free clinics. Overall, the response from the community was extremely positive – people were glad to learn about the opportunities for Haitian nationals and their families. One of the high schools we stopped at even let us make a presentation to a class of students!

Tomorrow we begin our intake at the local community hospital. Though there is no doubt some apprehension about what our first experience helping this client group will be like, we are all excited to take everything we learned today and put it into action!

Ed. note - Anna Rudman-Santos is a first year law student at the University of Memphis.

Visions of Palm Trees and Public Service

As we get ready to begin this week of Alternative Spring Break, I’ve been thinking back on the last month of preparation. Meetings, fundraising, publicizing, emailing, attending benefit events...all while trying to juggle classes and studying. Those of us who are 1Ls have also been scrambling to get our first appellate brief draft turned in.

But now the preparation is over! We’re all on planes today, traveling from Memphis, Tennessee to Miami, where we are anticipating not only beautiful weather (palm trees, anyone?!) but also a eclectic and enthusiastic community of law students and attorneys, all revved up and ready to go.

In the last few weeks, we have spent a great deal of time sharing information about this trip with our community. What I have heard, overwhelmingly, is how surprised people are that students would “give up” and “sacrifice” their spring break to help Haitian nationals navigate paperwork to apply for Temporary Protective Status. What seems to be the theme within our group of 15 students, however, is not one of sacrifice, but one of opportunity. We are thankful for the opportunity to make the most of our Spring Break: we are serving a community in need; we are connecting with and befriending other law students; we are gaining valuable and practical legal skills; we are raising awareness about the value of public service. And I have to say it – we are having Spring Break in Miami (again, with the palm trees!). What an incredible combination of experiences that will, no doubt, leave a lasting impact on us, both in our personal and professional lives.

Although this week will certainly be a whirlwind, full of the unexpected and surprising experiences, we are absolutely looking forward to what the next 5 days bring. We are grateful to the University of Memphis Law School and the greater Memphis community for making this trip possible, and we are grateful to the University of Miami Law School for hosting us this upcoming week.

Ed. note - Anna Rudman-Santos is a first year law student at the University of Memphis.

Week 1 Summary

Whew! The end of it all...well, the first week at least and I am certifiably...exhausted. Nevertheless, I (we) will keep pushing strong until the end of the month. The date circled on my calendar is April 1st. D-day. We will be done, done, and done.

A brief recap of the Week 1 numbers:
Intake: 16
Sent Applications: 10

The model that we're implementing is not a high volume one, but rather is designed to have each student shepherd one or two applications from "Intake to Immigration". This is unlike the models that mass produce applications and send them out the door. Our attorneys are actually taking on these applicants as clients, as opposed to helping them fill out the forms and send them in on their own. Essentially, we're professionally and emotionally invested...

Related...we learned that our clinic is at the forefront of the Haitian TPS effort. Though we are a small group with limited resources, we have been able to push fee waivers through successfully. Immigration reported that we have 30 (10%) of all the approved fee waivers. In other words, immigration has only granted 300 fee waivers NATIONWIDE, and our clinic has 10% of them. We only have sent out about 75 total applications.

Whatever we're doing, we're definitely doing it right...

So this past week went well. We were able to conduct two intake sessions and one of which was actually in Little Haiti. We've refined our approach and have decided that being in Little Haiti is better than not being there. To this end, we've secured a couple locations in Little Haiti to hold intake this week in addition to Jackson Hospital.

Friday morning I had to drive 25 miles up north to go and do a radio advertisement on Hot 105. In the flurry of emails I blasted to various groups and organizations, the dj responsed with an affirmative, "yes, I'd like to be able to help." And with that, a date was set and I trekked to Hollywood, FL. The guy was cool and it only took a few minutes. The radio ad is supposed to air Monday and Tuesday. We'll see if it yields results.

We hit the streets again this afternoon. We were talking to everyone - dodging traffic across a four lane thoroughfare and even got handed a flyer by a Haitian church group. Then we had brainflash - let's go to the Church and advertise there. When we got there, service had not yet started, so we weren't able to do much, but Melissa went back this evening to talk to the Priest. We'll see how it goes.

Everything is pretty much set for the arrival of Memphis Law and San Francisco Law. We're locked on to begin at 9 am sharp. I have to get going because my spring break hasn't yet started and I still have to read for Civ Pro II.

-fdh

Day in the Office

Today, was full of paper work. I am finally beginning to better understand how to put together an application to have mailed in, whereas the past few days I learned more about the process of data mining and client interaction. I did a lot of calling clients today, asking for bits and pieces of detailed information to fill in affidavits necessary for fee waivers and other lost certificates. Every time I called a client, they were so happy to hear from the clinic even though I was sure they had no clue who I was.

I also spent a good deal time learning how to analyze and extract information from given documents, information which the clients and I have not discussed or that the client just did not know. This included immigration proceedings, visa status, and court orders.

All in all today was vital, tomorrow should be the perfect amount of time I need to prepare all of my applications to have them sent out. 


Ed. note:
Ben Akbulut is a first year law student at New England Law | Boston and will be the blogger for this week.

Intake at Chef Nicole

Hey all, today was great! We worked late into the evening. We started our day late by meeting at noon at the clinic where we all reviewed our cases and discussed what needed to be done in order to complete each application fully. This was very helpful because everyone had a unique case which the rule and guidelines of TPS applied differently too. The cases ranged from an ideal couple without any issues to borderline possible denials to more concrete cases of denial, in which there was more complex legal issues involved. In addition we had a few cases that were started earlier the week before we had arrived. After our meeting we had about an hour to work on our cases and complete researched required. Some of the research included criminal background checks and alien registration number status checks.

Later on we returned to Little Haiti to a newly opened restaurant named “Chef Nicole” that allowed us to host our clinic there for the evening. I must add we ate dinner which was phenomenal (some of the best Haitian food around). While a few of us setup others went into the neighborhood notifying everyone and anyone who either owned a shop or was on the street about the clinic. We met this one gentleman who operated a home radio station and made an announcement to community, telling them “FREE TPS at NICOLE’S!” By the time I returned from a second round of flyering the restaurant was full of clients and had one waiting for me. That night all of us had at least one client to our name.

Looks like we have some we have our work cut out for us tomorrow.


Ed. note:
Ben Akbulut is a first year law student at New England Law | Boston and will be the blogger for this week.

Day one of client intake

I wasn’t sure what to expect, the day began off with a series of early arrivers who all had vastly different stories. It is amazing to realize people who are so close to each other, be so different. I began downstairs at the entrance prescreening clients to make sure they had basic documents, photos and knew where the nearest places where to get their needs. Then I joined my group back upstairs to help them intake. As I watched other groups I saw all different types of Haitians from old to young.

The most difficult aspect was gaining the trust of the client. Oftentimes clients would tell us information that they did not want recorded or written down, things such as being in the military or type of entrance into the country, some even refused to give their real name. The trick here to calming and easing the pressure is repetitive reassurance, to constantly remind clients that we always keep confidentiality and would never take any action to adversely affect their situation.

In addition to this was the language barrier. Explaining principles such as a “stowaway” or what “adversely affects foreign policy” through solely English was really difficult, knowing a second language at this point proved to be priceless. Despite the difficulty of the language barrier, when clients left the clinic they were sincerely happy. We were able to at least explain that if we cannot help that we can point them into the right direction, which is better than doing nothing at all.

Btw they do not serve milk shakes at taco bell

Ed. note:
Ben Akbulut is a first year law student at New England Law | Boston and will be the blogger for this week.

Training and Outreach in Little Haiti

Today was the first day of the training clinic. As my first time ever involved in a such a clinic I was really nervous because I did not fully understand what TPS was. The first training session was great, we ran through every form, a mock interview and met with the attorneys and students involved with the program here at the University of Miami.

The second half of our day comprised of distributing flyers and getting the word out to the residents of Little Haiti. Flyers had content written in both English and Creole on each side. In groups of two we covered nearly all the restaurants and residential buildings in 15 square blocks. Learning simple phrases such as “Bonjour” and “Como Seva” made many elders simile. My biggest hit was in the community medical center…when I walked in, there were over two dozen people who were interested in the flyers and when I gave them one, they rifled questions at me. I took this as a good sign. There were so many people incredibly receptive to the flyer, I hope they all turnout.

All in all what a success so far.


Ed. note:
Ben Akbulut is a first year law student at New England Law | Boston and will be the blogger for this week.

Flyer Mania in Little Haiti

Given that's there's little more than week left to go, we've decided that we needed to get the word out - but in person. So this afternoon, we took to the streets of Little Haiti in an effort to let people know what we're doing and how we can help them.

We hit up a couple church parking lots (after asking permission of course) and flyered those cars like there's no tomorrow. We drove around and found a corner store and posted a couple flyers there too.

We finally found the main drag, NE 2nd Ave which is filled with storefronts, shops, and strip malls, all of them catering to the Haitian population that resides there.

For the most part people were responsive and wanted to take the flyers, even reading them right away instead of trashing them immediately. Although there was some misunderstanding as to what the fee on the page listed covered. Perhaps we need to make clear that the $470 is the cost of the application, NOT for our fees. We need to make this clear because there are attorneys who are charging for this service.

We also decided that the spring breakers are going to flyer Little Haiti on Monday afternoon, the day before their scheduled intake. This way, they'll be able to get a sense of the area upon arrival and a sense of the population to which they are dedicating their time. More importantly, they will also be able to hand a flyer to someone and say, "Yes, we are offering this free service and its tomorrow. Come and bring your family and friends who need help."

I'm hopeful that this will be a good beginning to their spring break experience and starting it off on the right foot - pounding the pavement in Little Haiti and getting a chance to talk to some people that they may actually help. I'm thinking that this would be an excellent beginning. We'll see how it goes...

-fdh

The Bewitching Hour Is Drawing Nigh...

We're about a week and a half from when the first wave of students from New England School of Law arrive. This past week we had another round of meetings, trying to get the logistics down, and of course funding. It's always about money. We're trying to find ways to get essentials, such as scanners, copiers, and such. I think HOPE, the public interest arm of the law school will lend financial and logistical support. Perhaps even the law school will throw some dollars our way. Time will tell.

I've yet to get a roster of the incoming students, so I haven't been able to reach out to them. I'm curious to know whether any students are Haitian, or Haitian-American and / or speak Creole. We have an excellent dedicated student in the clinic who is Haitian-American and has been a gem in helping with the translating needs of the clinic even before she was an official member of the clinic. Also, we have been reaching out to various groups hoping to get a firm commitment from those who can translate. More to follow.

So the translated flyers are done (Thanks Kat!) and now we need to distribute them in Little Haiti. Not sure if we're going to do that this weekend or during the week mere days before the event. Whatever the plan, we're planning to have about 30 Haitians come to Jackson Hospital on Tuesdays for intake. This is the optimal number given our resources and the time available to process the applications.

The next step is to draft an introduction email letting them know basics: regarding training, schedule, and generally what to expect. I'll try to paint a picture of the law school and Miami as warm and inviting...while simultaneously emphasizing the importance of the work and the care with which we must deal with the clients and their lives.

This is for keeps.

In any case, these emails don't write themselves, so I'm off...Until next time.

- fdh

The Beginning

This is the first post that begins the chronicling of the historic effort of UM Law's Health & Elder Law Clinic to assist Haitians in applying for Temporary Protected Status (TPS) following the devastating earthquake that killed an estimated 200,000 people in January.

Right now, we are preparing to welcome the first wave of students to our clinic and South Florida. There are many logistical details that must be finalized, hence, we are engaged in a series of meetings, brainstorming sessions, and a flurry of emails back and forth to those brave, valiant souls who have decided to take on the mantle of responsibility and answer the desperate call that many Haitians have put out following this tragic event.

We are about two weeks away from March 1st, when another form of "March Madness" will begin on the UM Law's campus. But amidst the madness, many Haitians will be helped, and invariably the rewards will be reciprocal, as a NYT article noted that a recent book concluded that those who volunteer actually experience positive psychic health results including increased happiness. If that's the case, my happiness level is poised to skyrocket over the next six weeks and I certainly hope so because it's going to take a Herculean effort from all of us at the clinic (including dedicated volunteers) to make this project a success. Only time will tell...

- fdh