Good-faith Counseling: Church offers free immigration law advice to community

Jared Taylor
The Monitor


PHARR — The Mission family came to the church as all the other families had, pursuing guidance in their lives.

In these families’ cases, the guidance wasn’t spiritual. It was to navigate another great mystery for many: U.S. immigration law.

Each month, Pharr United Methodist Church hosts a free clinic for families pursuing immigration law advice, under the umbrella of Justice for Our Neighbors, a faith-based group that provides education and counseling to immigrants.

The church, at 119 E. Kelly Ave., funds the program through grants, but participants do not need to be members or join to receive the free services.

Volunteers take information from those who attend, but only the attorney gives legal advice.

“We don’t try to lead them on in any way,” said Carole Lahti, the program’s regional coordinator.

Some cases are simple — as when a permanent resident wants to become a citizen.

But many others are more complex.

That was the case for one Guatemalan family, who declined to be named.

Their 21-year-old daughter was born in the U.S. and wants her undocumented parents to gain legal status, as well. She was born in California in 1990 before her family returned to her homeland when she was a child.

The family members said they endured threats of kidnapping and paid bribes to organized criminal thugs in Guatemala. At one point they found burglars had cleaned out their house.

“We went back to our house and they took everything,” the daughter said in Spanish.

So the family decided to return to the United States. The daughter crossed legally. Her parents swam across the Rio Grande at Hidalgo with the help of a coyote, a human smuggler.

The legal clinic is a contrast with other legal advice often sought by illegal immigrants from notarios públicos — notary publics who pose as immigration attorneys and give unlicensed advice inadmissible while applying for permanent residency or citizenship.

Many notarios will tell clients to lie on their applications, such as changing dates of arrival in the U.S., to build a stronger immigration case, said Sandra Salazar, the church’s staff immigration attorney. That can disqualify clients who may now legally qualify for status, but did not before — as was the case of one recent client.

“It’s hard to sit and tell them they lied to the government,” Salazar said. “But he did it because they told him to do it.”

About half of the clinics’ clients have valid claims that can place them on a path toward legal residency, Salazar said. Others often lack the money to apply for residency — which can cost thousands of dollars — or do not qualify.

“It’s hard for me personally and emotionally to tell them I can’t help,” Salazar said.

Immigrants from across the Rio Grande Valley have come for advice at the clinic, Lahti said, so much so that the program will begin hosting the monthly program in Brownsville, too — at El Buen Pastor United Methodist Church, 435 Boca Chica Blvd.

But for many families, the clinic is a first step toward getting a clear answer about their residency — not lies from those offering shady advice for money.

“We look at that as a success and we keep them out of the hands of the notaries,” Lahti said. “At least we give them the straight facts.”