ever­i­tas of the Uni­ver­sity of Miami

http://everitas.univmiami.net/2010/01/27/um-school-of-law-students-help-haitian-immigrants-apply-for-protected-status/

Law stu­dent Nic­hole Geiger, left, and law school alumna Shirley St. Louis, a Haitian-American who speaks flu­ent Cre­ole, assist one of the many Hait­ian nation­als who showed up at Jack­son Tow­ers to file for Tem­po­rary Pro­tected Status.

Clutch­ing a large manila folder bulging with legal doc­u­ments, Jimmy Fleuris­saint sat in one of the chairs lin­ing the wall of a small med­ical clinic and looked straight ahead, his face clouded with concern.

Fleuris­saint, who arrived in Miami two years ago on a rick­ety boat from Haiti, said he couldn’t stop think­ing about the wife and five chil­dren he left behind in Port-au-Prince. While his fam­ily sur­vived the 7.0-magnitude earth­quake that destroyed much of the cap­i­tal city, “they have no place to live and not enough food to eat,” he said.

Secur­ing a steady job would allow the 40-year-old Fleuris­saint to earn enough money to help his loved ones back in Haiti.

The recent efforts of a group of Uni­ver­sity of Miami School of Law stu­dents may help him achieve his goal.

More than 60 of the stu­dents vol­un­teered last Fri­day to help Hait­ian nation­als apply for Tem­po­rary Pro­tected Sta­tus, a gov­ern­ment pro­gram that pro­tects qual­i­fied immi­grants from depor­ta­tion and allows them to stay and work in the United States for 18 months.

The Obama admin­is­tra­tion granted the spe­cial immi­gra­tion sta­tus to Hait­ian immi­grants three days after the quake plunged their coun­try into ruins, say­ing their safety would be at risk if they were deported. U.S. immi­gra­tion offi­cials antic­i­pate as many as 200,000 Haitians—between 34,000 and 68,000 in South Florida alone—will apply. But to be eli­gi­ble, they must have been in the U.S. on or before Jan­u­ary 12, the day of the earthquake.

Law stu­dents Nema Dagh­ban­dan, left, and Ana Kauff­mann assist a Hait­ian fam­ily with TPS last Fri­day, the sec­ond day Hait­ian immi­grants could apply for the spe­cial status.

Hait­ian immi­grants began apply­ing last Thurs­day, pour­ing into com­mu­nity cen­ters, churches, and other offices in Miami’s Lit­tle Haiti and else­where that served as fil­ing loca­tions. UM law stu­dents joined the effort to assist Hait­ian nation­als the next day, set­ting up shop in the nar­row cor­ri­dors and small offices of an eighth-floor clinic inside Jack­son Med­ical Tow­ers on the Miller School campus.

“This project grew out of our stu­dents’ enor­mous out­pour­ing of sup­port and desire to help the Hait­ian com­mu­nity in the wake of the tragedy,” said JoNel New­man, asso­ciate pro­fes­sor and direc­tor of UM’s Health and Elder Law Clinic (HELC), which con­ducted the fil­ing ses­sion. “As lawyers, none of us can admin­is­ter field med­i­cine, and we aren’t logis­tics experts. But this is a way we can help. It may not be as dra­matic, but it’s equally important–and will have a last­ing impact on Hait­ian families.”

New­man said the clients at Friday’s HELC event were Hait­ian immi­grants in Miami who receive care at the Uni­ver­sity of Miami/Jackson Memo­r­ial Med­ical Cen­ter. “We have a long­stand­ing attorney-client and refer­ral rela­tion­ship with UM/JMH clin­ics, treat­ment providers, and patients, so hold­ing this event seemed a nat­ural for us,” she said.

Through­out the day, each of the 15 work sta­tions set up by Newman’s clinic buzzed with activ­ity as stu­dents, assisted by inter­preters in many instances, worked in teams to begin the appli­ca­tion process, screen­ing and inter­view­ing Haitians. Trained immi­gra­tion lawyers reviewed appli­ca­tions to ensure accuracy.

JoNel New­man, left, who directs the Health and Elder Law Clinic, dis­cusses the day’s strat­egy for help­ing Hait­ian immi­grants apply for TPS with clinic super­vis­ing attor­neys Melissa Swain and Olga Por­ven and stu­dent Ali­son Flowers.

“We have the capac­ity to process up to 150 clients today,” New­man said, not­ing that tem­po­rary obsta­cles such as Haitians not hav­ing all the nec­es­sary doc­u­ments could hold up the appli­ca­tion process. “But we’re track­ing every sin­gle case that we do to make sure it’s processed correctly.”

The stu­dents also helped their Hait­ian clients apply to have the $500 appli­ca­tion fee waived. “Every dol­lar that doesn’t go to those fees can go to fam­ily and loved ones in Haiti,” New­man said.

When New­man and her staff of clinic lawyers and stu­dents arrived at Jack­son Med­ical Tow­ers at 8 a.m. Fri­day, there were already sev­eral Haitians stand­ing in line. One of them was Fleuris­saint, who woke at 6 a.m. to stand in line. He waited for an hour to file his appli­ca­tion, think­ing about his fam­ily in Haiti the entire time. “I try not to look at the tele­vi­sion news too much,” he said through an inter­preter. “The images com­ing out of Haiti are too painful.”

He wasn’t able to con­tact his wife and chil­dren by phone until four days after the quake. “They are safe, but afraid to sleep inside any build­ings that are still stand­ing out of fear of after­shocks,” he said. Get­ting a steady job so that he can send much-needed money back home is the first thing he intends to do if he is awarded pro­tected status.

Sixty-six-year-old Marie Pierre, whose daugh­ter and seven grand­chil­dren live in Port-au-Prince, plans to do the same. “Their home was destroyed, so they need my help,” she said.

Stu­dents and pro­fes­sors from the School of Law’s Chil­dren and Youth and Immi­gra­tion Law clin­ics also vol­un­teered at the TPS fil­ing event, assist­ing Newman’s group in pro­cess­ing the more than 60 appli­ca­tions that were filed.

New­man said the HELC is con­sid­er­ing con­duct­ing more TPS fil­ing ses­sions. If the clinic does, third-year Haitian-born law stu­dent Patri­cia Elizée, who vol­un­teered at Friday’s event, said she’ll be there.

“I’m so proud to be a Miami Hur­ri­cane right now because UM was one of the first insti­tu­tions to respond to this cri­sis,” said Elizée, 25, who was able to con­tact her father and brother in Port-au-Prince the day after the quake via Facebook.

Shirley St. Louis, who grad­u­ated from the UM law school last year and helped process some of the Haitians for TPS, said she would con­sider vol­un­teer­ing again as well. “What’s needed now is every­one pulling together to bring Haiti out of this cri­sis,” she said.