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Realizing the American Dream Act is Best Fix

Immigrants caught in the flawed U.S. immigration system and their attorneys at the North Carolina Justice Center call on Congress to pass a comprehensive immigration reform bill introduced last month in both the House and the Senate. The Realizing the American Dream Act would resolve the systemic problems noted by President Bush on January 7, 2004 when he said, "The [immigration] system is not working ... Workers who seek only to earn a living end up in the shadows of American life Ñ fearful, often abused and exploited ... They are cut off from their families far away, fearing if they leave our country to visit relatives back home, they might never be able to return to their jobs."

The bill tackles three key challenges:

Family Reunification and Backlog Reduction: The Act helps immigrants who have waited years to bring their family members to the United States, and makes it easier for waiting families to stay in the U.S.

Earned Legalization: The Act provides a path to legalization for undocumented immigrants who have lived and worked in the United States for five or more years.

Future Worker Program: The Realizing the American Dream Act ensures that temporary guestworkers have critical labor protections and the eventual ability to stay in the United States if they choose, and allows them to bring family members with them to the U.S.

"Our clients face overwhelming immigration bureaucracy," says Attracta Kelly, immigration attorney with the Justice Center's Immigrants Legal Assistance Project (ILAP). "Backlogs keep immigrants separated from their families. In some cases, the wait is more than fifteen years." Rosalio Vigil Sanchez left El Salvador in 1987 to save his life. The Justice Center client has been trying to bring his family to the U.S. to be with him ever since. He says, "My children have grown up without me. My lawyer has told me that it will be about another two years before my wife and children can come to the United States."

As President Bush said, "As a nation that values immigration, and depends on immigration, we should have immigration laws that work and make us proud." The Realizing the American Dream Act would be of particular benefit to North Carolina. "The Act is critically important to the future of our state," explains Carol Brooke, a farmworker attorney with ILAP. "We have one of the fastest growing immigrant populations, and the largest number of agricultural guestworkers in the nation."

The North Carolina Justice Center is a statewide non-profit organization working to eliminate poverty in North Carolina by ensuring that low-income, working poor, and minority individuals have the resources they need to move to economic security. The Center's Immigrants Legal Assistance Project represents low-income immigrants in immigration and employment law matters.

Quick Reference

The North Carolina Immigrants Legal Assistance Project (ILAP) is a not-for-profit agency that helps low-income immigrants and migrant farmworkers with certain kinds of legal problems.

In order to qualify for our services, the applicant's household income must be below a certain amount. The amount is based on the Federal Poverty Guidelines issued each year by the federal government and it does change. The guidelines take into account the number of persons in the U.S. or in another country being supported by the applicant.

The following are the broad categories of cases we are currently accepting:
Family-based petitions; NACARA 203 (Nicaraguan & Central American Relief Act); Affirmative Asylum; Defensive Asylum; VAWA (Violence Against Women Act); Families of Asylees; TPS (Temporary Protected Status); Naturalization; Persons in Removal Proceedings; LULAC/CSS/ABC

We can only receive calls from prospective clients on Tuesdays. The numbers and hours are listed below.

Our office hours are 9:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m, Monday through Friday.

For Immigration Clients: Client intake (new cases) is Tuesdays from 9:00 AM to 12 Noon and 1 PM to 4 PM. We talk to new immigration clients over the phone only on Tuesdays. We do not accept walk-in clients. Call 1-888-251-2776 (toll free) or (919) 856-2159. We do speak Spanish. We prefer that all new clients call us before coming to our office to find out if we can help you.

For Farmworker/H2B Clients: You can call anytime at (919) 856-2144 or 1-888-251-2776 (toll free). If you are calling from Mexico, you may call collect..
The NC Justice Center • PO Box 28068 • 224 S. Dawson St. • Raleigh, NC 27611 Main 919-856-2570 • Fax 919-856-2175 • info@ncjustice.org •