Preliminary estimates have shown that South Carolina has
about 7500 Dreamers. We knew we needed to serve as many as possible in an
efficient way. Our staff is small, comprised of five talented, wonderful women
covering the entire state of South Carolina. Andrea is in Charleston and has a
special Board of Immigration Appeals accreditation because of her five years of
on-the-job experience and training background. Mily, an attorney in Peru, heads
up the Hilton Head office and works so hard, I have to beg her to take a day
off, to no avail. She started in April and bravely jumped right into the middle
of the crazy pace of our offices.
Vanessa is our attorney in Greenville, and we thank God
everyday for her snappy sense of humor. She attracts the messiest, strangest
immigration issues, and she valiantly and unsuccessfully tries to stave off her
stress level with baking, tennis, fishing, and knitting. Blenda, a caseworker
in Greenville, is our resident legal expert, researching everything and able to
answer questions like a seasoned immigration practitioner. And there’s me, with
my palms sweating and my mind racing. How are we going to serve all of these
young, deserving people?
On the same day that Obama introduced the Dreamers relief,
we sketched our enthusiastic plan to do group processing clinics around the state.
Our idea was to process groups of 50-60 immigrants at a time, helping them to
fill out the forms and gather the necessary supporting documents. We would
recruit volunteers! We would train them! We would do outreach! We would help
hundreds of immigrants to file their petitions! We were all idealistic and
starry-eyed, excited to be a part of history. Looking back, we had no idea what
we were getting ourselves into…
Staff and volunteers helping Dreamers during the Immigration clinics.
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