California program provides a lifeline for undocumented students seeking legal help

Community college student seeking assistance Image created by HJB using Gemini

It might come as a surprise to some that California provides many resources for undocumented individuals and their family members.

Many of these resources are funded by the California Department of Social Services(CDSS) Immigration Services Bureau (ISB) through a program called Higher Education Legal Services Project.

Information about these programs can be found within a website called Find Your Ally, which contains information about DACA, citizenship applications, green card screening and family-based petitions. The website is especially helpful for immigrant students who are unaware of the resources available to them, or who know about them, but are too afraid to use them or don’t know how to use them.

Find Your Ally receives $10 million in funding from the CDSS and offers free legal assistance on immigration issues to all students, faculty, and staff attending California's community colleges. Students who are dual enrolled – those taking courses at both a high school and a college -- and those who are in non-credit courses are also eligible for assistance.

Two speakers explained the program and its benefits at a special press briefing in early October that was hosted by American Community Media.

Alonso Garcia, the senior manager at the Foundation for California Community Colleges overseeing the delivery of our immigration legal services, he leads the statewide Immigration Legal Services program, and oversees activities such as community outreach, awareness campaigns, student training and the program’s engagement efforts,

Garcia said that there are approximately 50,000 to 70,000 undocumented students in California’s community colleges. This number represent the largest number of undocumented students in the nation.

Garcia said that the Find Your Ally provides comprehensive immigration legal services to all students Garcia stress that these are free services that are made available.

“And one of the benefits of participating in our program is that we do not ask for those filing fees to be repaid back, either they are just an additional resource of this program. The services will continue ... with the students regardless of when the affiliation ends with the community college system, and we do that because immigration policy, as you all know, is ever changing.

 He continued, “We're able to ... continue ... and provide the services regardless of if the student has completed their associate's degree, their trade program or just joined us for one semester. As long as they were a student at point of intake, they are … able to connect with and receive the services until their …their consultation comes to a close.” He said that the scheduling and the consultation are super easy and takes less than a minute to do… [on the] findyourally.com website.

Launched in 2019, the program has thus far supported over 30,00 students at a cost of over $40 million. The program is at all the state’s 115 community colleges; 85 colleges have both virtual and hybrid supports and 34 of them offer only virtual assistance

Ninety five percent of those served are students and the remaining 5% are faculty and staff members, including food handlers, groundskeepers, maintenance and other college employees.

Garcia was joined by Yadira Gutierrez Vargas, a Supervising Attorney for College Legal Services at the Central American Resource Center (CARECEN-LA) in Los Angeles, California, where she provides immigration legal services to underserved communities.

In explaining the security measures that are in place to protect those who seek the program’s services, Vargas said that Find Your Ally has several security measures in place to protect student privacy. She said, for example, that all information entered during appointment scheduling with the program’s lawyers is kept confidential; that legal service providers require intake forms and consultation contracts that expressly outline attorney-client privilege and confidentiality; that the physical location of legal service appointments is kept private until very close to the appointment time and offices are made discreet with measures like covered doors.

Also, offices are located outside of Dream Resource Centers, whenever possible, to avoid drawing attention to the nature of meetings; virtual options are available for those who prefer not to meet on campus and all of the processes required by the Find Your Ally program are designed to maintain complete confidentiality and privacy, strictly complying with legal and ethical standards for the protection of those receiving assistance through the program.

Garcia said that the program has seen an increase in services with over 9,000 students seeking services in the last nine months.

Both Garcia and Vargas stressed how important it is that those who are undocumented get reliable legal advice, especially, since according to Vargas, “undocumented students face like unique, complex challenges that other people may not be experiencing it in the same way, and because of that, they require specialized support. Higher Education can already be very difficult to navigate on its own. But when you add on top of that, immigration issues and immigration issues under this administration, it, as you can imagine, presents even more complex challenges.”

It was emphasized that Find Your Ally was a holistic program in that it addresses not only legal issues, but also other needs such as healthcare and financial aid.

To get more information about Find Your Ally, go online to findyourally.com