HomeMy WebLinkAboutConstituent Letter - Mail Packet - 10/27/2020 - Information From Community Members Re: Immigrant Low-Cost Or Pro-Bono Immigration Legal HelpFort Collins City Council
City Hall West, 300 LaPorte Ave.
Fort Collins, CO 80521
September 30, 2020
Dear City of Fort Collins representatives,
We write this proposal as trusted organizations in the immigrant community. In our work through Alianza
NORCO, the Colorado Immigrant Rights Coalition, and our collaboration with 92 other immigrant-led or
immigrant serving organizations, we have determined that the most foundational missing resource for
immigrants is low-cost or pro-bono immigration legal help.
We encourage the city of Fort Collins to unequivocally pledge your support to our local immigrant
communities by developing an initial $250,000 Legal Services Fund, which amounts to 0.035% of the
total city budget for 2021. Following successful models around the country, including in Denver, the Fort
Collins Legal Services Fund would empower qualified organizations to provide direct legal services to
immigrants who are current residents of Fort Collins by:
1. Executing free community workshops for USCIS filings such as naturalization, legal
permanent resident (LPR) and DACA renewals, that cost immigrants between $1,500 and $3,000
through traditional law firms
2. Expanding staff capacity and hiring attorneys to provide low-cost and pro-bono
assistance with asylum, visa processing, and removal defense cases. Without non-profits doing
this work, an individual would expect to pay anywhere between $6,000-$20,000 in legal fees.
According to our research, between 6.6% and 11.4% of Fort Collins residents are immigrants. We
estimate that there are 19,000 immigrants in our city; ~12,300 are not yet naturalized; ~3,800 are
unauthorized immigrants. Of the latter group, ~2,600 are likely eligible for some type of immigration relief
and ~1,930 have lived in the United States over 15 years.1 In 2017, immigrants in Colorado District 2 paid
$172.4M in state and local taxes, and $406.4M in federal taxes.2
70% of immigrants detained at the Aurora Detention Center face deportation without a lawyer, yet the
government trying to deport them always has a lawyer3. While in detention, people face inhumane
1County Agricultural Advisory Board, June 2017, Report on Immigration for the Larimer County Board of Commissioners
2For more information about immigrants in our area by the US Census American Community Survey, see CSU’s research here.
3 Transactional Records Access Clearinghouse (TRAC):
“Details on Deportation Proceedings in Immigration Court,” accessed September 19, 2019, https://trac.syr.edu/phptools/immigration/nta/
4Ingrid V. Eagly and Steven Shafer, “A National Study of Access to Counsel in Immigration Court,” University of Pennsylvania Law Review, 164, no. 1
5Executive Office for Immigration Review (EOIR), FY 2016 Statistics
Yearbook (Falls Church, VA: EOIR, 2017), F1 and figure10, https:// perma.cc/H2S8-Q4DT.
6There is an immigration attorney that works for CSU and whose services are not included in this assessment.
7“Take a Look: How Immigrants Drive the Economy in Colorado.” New American Economy, 27 Aug. 2020,
www.newamericaneconomy.org/locations/colorado/.
8 Report on Immigration in Larimer County, June 2017
conditions, loss of liberty, lasting trauma, and many barriers to accessing a lawyer and legal assistance.
Our immigration system is incredibly complicated and immigrants are more than 10 times more likely
to be able to remain when they have legal representation.4 Many people in deportation proceedings
have valid legal claims to remain in the US5, but cannot argue their cases effectively without legal
representation in our complex immigration system.
In August of 2020, 162 immigrant community members in Fort Collins responded to a poll distributed by
Alianza NORCO. ~70% of those polled reported that they have needed the services of an immigration
attorney but have not received them. 49% have not obtained immigration legal services due to the high
cost of services. Other findings indicated that 36% do not know where to find legal services, possibly due
to the fact that there are very few providers in Fort Collins, currently as low as one immigration
lawyer.6 We also saw the need to advocate for changed immigration policy as 39% indicated that they
have not obtained legal services due to their legal status (their perception is that immigration laws do not
allow it).
We consider the existing lack of affordable legal services and representation to be the biggest
barrier to successful integration for immigrants in Fort Collins. This gap creates significant
challenges to our unauthorized and partially-documented immigrant community, including financial and
emotional instability; lack of access to health care, stable housing, higher education and meaningful work;
and a cycle of poverty that has far-reaching effects. In spite of these challenges, immigrants residing in
Colorado are an integral part of our community, contributing 3.5 billion in federal taxes and 1.5 billion in
state and local taxes7. Our local culture is enriched by their traditions, and our local economy depends
heavily on their labor.8 The group of low-wage earners that we aim to serve power our hotels, restaurants,
construction firms, dairies, horticultural farms, commodity and livestock producers.1 Providing them with
access to affordable legal services should be a top priority for our city.
According to the Vera Institute for Justice, “A common misperception is that deportation proceedings are
only for unauthorized immigrants. In fact, any non-citizen—including lawful permanent residents
(green card holders), refugees, and people who entered legally on visas can be placed in
deportation proceedings.” We encourage the city to provide protection through universal representation
to all non-citizens who are currently in deportation proceedings, and to prevent any others from this unfair
process by increasing access to legal services.
In the Resources below, we include additional guidance, a point of contact in Denver (which is already
funding legal services), and videos that will give you additional background in 4 minutes or less! Please
let us know what questions you or others in the city may have. Thank you for your interest in supporting
our immigrant community. We look forward to continuing this conversation together!
Patricia Miller, Executive Director, Alianza NORCO
Joshua Stallings, North Regional Organizer, CIRC
Janina Farinas, Executive Director, La Cocina
Betty Aragón-Mitotes, Mujeres de Colores
Araceli Newman and Sarah Zuehlsdorff, Co-directors, Mi Voz Program
Gloria Kat, Executive Director, The Family Center/La Familia
Community Members:
Hilda Yanez
Adriana Quintero
Araceli Calderon
Kelly Evans
David Rout
Debbie Hayhow
Martha Giron Correa
Serena Thomas
Erin Bergquist
Dr. Ryan Barone
Max Armendariz
Silvia Soler Gallego
Erika Saucedo
Adela Gonzalez
Yenny Andreu
Susan Dunn
Felicia Hirning
Adrienne Birt
Adele Lonas
Felicia Hirning
Who we are:
Alianza NORCO is a Fort Collins-based non-profit whose mission is to strengthen and empower
our immigrant community and their families through key services, civic education, leadership
development and community organization. Alianza NORCO is a member of the Colorado
Immigrant Rights Coalition (CIRC).
CIRC is a statewide coalition of more than 90 organizations - including immigrant, faith, labor,
youth, community, business and ally organizations - founded in 2002 to improve the lives of
immigrants and refugees by making Colorado a more welcoming, immigrant-friendly state.
A working list of requests we receive from our immigrant community can be found here. In
addition to funding a Fort Collins LDF, this list may give you an idea of how you can expand the
mini-grants that you currently offer to include immigrants’ current needs. We have not given cost
estimates to the COVID-19 related needs at the bottom of the spreadsheet. If you’re interested
in funding these, please let us know and we can discuss what organizations are best equipped
to provide these.
Resources on Legal Defense:
● Vera on the importance of Universal Representation - 2min 40sec video
● Local Government Officials on the importance of Legal Defense and partnership with the
Vera Institute - 4min video
● Profile of Foreign-Born Population in Denver & in Colorado
● Profile of Foreign-Born Population in the United States
● Check out this Google Drive Folder that we have assembled:
○ “Urban Institute - Children of Immigrants” details many challenges our immigrant
families face, and provide evidence that a Fort Collins Legal Services Fund
would impact tens of thousands of legal resident and citizen family members in
addition to the 3,800 estimated unauthorized immigrants in Northern Larimer
County
○ “Talking Points on Universal Representation” details the importance of
establishing Legal Defense. It is also important to note that through the Vera
Institute for Justice, we will have a web of support that we can lean on and learn
from, including the staff at Vera, as well as the community leaders and city
officials that make up the 18 SAFE communities in Vera’s nation-wide network.
○ “CO Legal Defense Talking Points” details the importance of legal defense in our
state
○ “CO Fiscal Costs Due to Lack of Legal Defense” crunches some of the numbers
for the statewide fiscal impact that a Legal Defense Fund would have in
Colorado. Obviously, the numbers will not be as big when looking at Fort Collins.
Nonetheless, Fort Collins plays an important role in the state.
○ Information on Denver’s Immigrant Legal Services Fund can be referenced as a
model
■ “2018 Denver Immigrant Legal Services Fund Guidelines” explains the
three categories of immigrant legal services funded in Denver & the
guidelines for applicants to the fund
■ “Denver Legal Defense Executive Order” contains the explicit language of
Executive Order No. 142 in Denver
■ “TDF Grant Report_DILSF_2019 Final Report” shares a report back on
the results achieved through the Denver Immigrant Legal Services Fund
■ “Grant Report Narrative_Sturm College of Law_Final_” shares additional
information on the results achieved by the DU Law School with their
portion of DILSF funding
■ Lastly, Ben Martinez, Associate Program Officer of The Denver
Foundation, who helps manage and administer funds has offered to lend
his expertise to the City of Fort Collins as he is able. He can be reached
by email at bmartinez@denverfoundation.org or by phone at 720-974-
2618 (direct)
Ingrid V. Eagly and Steven Shafer, “A National Study of Access to Counsel in Immigration Court,” University of Pennsylvania Law Review,
164, no. 1