When it comes to immigrant rights activism, some of the most important and consequential work hasn’t happened in D.C. or even state houses, but in an RV with a handful of attorneys. Since 2014, Santa Fe Dreamers Project has provided legal aid to immigrant clients via fixed locations and a roaming RV office, assisting immigrants with complicated forms, applying for DACA, answering legal questions, and helping others facing deportation. While an immigration attorney can cost up to $2,000, Santa Fe Dreamers Project charges only $150. It can mean the difference between staying or being ripped away from your home:
This catalyst for her mobile legal aid clinic came in 2006, before she was a lawyer. At that time [Sante Fe Dreamers Project founder Allegra] Love was a 24-year-old third grade public school teacher.
She was teaching a class of 20 children in a small immigrant town in the Santa Fe school district when U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) conducted a raid on her school. The next day, her class was reduced to just three.
“Kids just stopped going to school,” says Love.
Appalled at the politics in play within her classroom, Love decided she wanted to advocate for these families whom she had grown to respect and cherish during her brief teaching career.
“Why were we terrorizing these people?” she wondered. “They’re good people … They work hard.”
from Daily Kos http://ift.tt/2t0G0TB
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