Temporary protection is not enough
Most of us have seen the traumatic images of our Afghan neighbors fleeing their home country when the Taliban took over their government last August. Thankfully resettlement agencies are working to help them find housing, food, and health care to meet the immediate needs. What is often overlooked though is that there currently is no funding allocated to provide legal representation to each of the 500 evacuees resettling in the Nashville area.
Tennessee Justice for Our Neighbors has partnered with Vanderbilt University Law School to help address this need.
The immigration system is complicated. Most of these individuals have entered as parolees and only have a temporary protection from deportation and will need to file for asylum within one year of arrival. Suddenly moving to a new country where you don’t know the language, laws or the culture is frightening. Imagine trying to file for asylum under these circumstances.
Providing immigration legal services for people who are entitled to humanitarian relief under U.S. immigration law is what we do and we have been asked to help. We are a tiny team of 3 attorneys with an active caseload. So we are hoping to pair our legal clinic model and established partnerships with local law schools and law firms to provide an intake screening of as many individuals as possible. When we have capacity, we will represent them. When we do not have capacity to provide representation, we will refer them to a pro bono attorney. We do not charge for any of these services.
On January 12, 2022 we co-hosted an Asylum 101 training for lawyers who we hope can provide pro bono representation. Today, we trained more than 50 law students to help with the intake process. We have also provided referral forms to the resettlement agencies to help expedite the intake process. Our legal clinics to screen individuals and families begin in a few days.
At each of these clinics, we will need volunteer interpreters, attorneys, law students for 2-3 hour intake meetings with each client. This is where we are asking for your help.
If you are a law student who can volunteer with our intake clinics, register here.
If you are a lawyer interested in providing pro bono legal services, complete this form.
If you are interested in providing food and drink at the legal clinics, email director@tnjfon.org.
You can always find ways to help on our volunteer page.
If you wish to support our efforts to assist the Afghan evacuees resettling in the area, please consider making a donation to Tennessee Justice for Our Neighbors.