Hello, my name is Tim and I am a rising senior English major with hopes of becoming a lawyer one day. This summer, I’ve been interning at SOAR Immigration Legal Services, a program of the Ecumenical Ministries of Oregon. SOAR Immigration Legal Services began as an offshoot of SOAR, Sponsors Organized to Assist Refugees, which serves refugees who resettle in Oregon.
Refugees often need legal aid when wading through the US Immigration System, so SOAR’s ILS was founded to meet this need. SOAR ILS now represents refugees in court and helps refugees file documents to USCIS, the US Citizenship and Immigration Services. Much of SOAR’s work is pro bono or offered at a discount. In court, SOAR advocates for refugees who may be, for example, applying for asylum, or facing deportation.
Helping refugees file documents is less flashy, but it’s some of the most important work that SOAR does. Forms can be confusing, and checking the wrong box or disclosing information that doesn’t need to be disclosed can, in some cases, lead to deportation for the refugee who’s filing. By helping with the filing of the forms, SOAR ILS makes sure that refugees correctly represent themselves and that USCIS reaches a just decision.
Aside from legal work, SOAR ILS runs classes for the immigrant and refugee communities. Right now, we have a citizenship-test preparation class, and a class for Ukrainian refugees that explains to them their rights.
I’ve appreciated my time at SOAR because of the stories that I’ve been able to hear. Many of these stories are heartbreaking, or sag with injustice, but it’s encouraging when I hear about the wins.
I read the case file of one client who was fleeing the political persecution of Cuba’s Communist Party, and applying for asylum in the US. Reading about the unfair detention and cruel tortures she suffered through angered and saddened me, but I was happy to read that after a winding litigation process, she got asylum and is now a permanent US resident.
In another case, a client was having trouble with the US Citizenship process because he had been unjustly arrested in the 1970s. With help from SOAR, he was able to get the arrest cleared, and eventually became a US citizen. I was able to help prep this case file for use to instruct other nearby ILS firms on what to do in similar situations.
I’m glad I was able to work with SOAR and would not have been able to without Interns for Justice. I hope to do good work like the work SOAR does in the future.