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.

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.

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.