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Immigration Resource Center of San Gabriel Valley Now to Provide Legal Services
News Jul 08, 2015
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Immigration Resource Center of San Gabriel Valley (IRCSGV), an extension of Mountainside Communion – A Church of the Nazarene and community partners, announced that on June 12, 2015 they officially received federal recognition by the Board of Immigration Appeals (BIA) to be an authorized site for immigration legal services. By law, only licensed attorneys and BIA accredited representatives can provide any form of immigration legal advice. The BIA “recognizes” non-profit organizations (such as churches) and “accredits” individuals trained in immigration law to provide immigration legal services. BIA-recognized non-profit organizations are authorized to conduct immigration legal work only if they provide low-cost services and serve under-resourced families and individuals. IRCSGV has become the only active BIA recognized site in the entire San Gabriel Valley region of Los Angeles County.
Along with the BIA recognition, Director Scott Haskins also received BIA accreditation for the IRCSGV. They plan to add on four more volunteer accredited representatives by the end of 2015.
The IRCSGV is the fruit of many years of partnership between Spanish and English speaking congregations and civic and community leaders in the Monrovia, California area. The program has been in development over the past couple years and officially launched in October 2014. Since then, the IRCSGV has been a part of leading seven educational community forums to spread accurate information about the Executive Actions President Obama announce in November 2014, as well as two application workshops where they were able to help a significant amount of people apply for Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA). They started providing in-office consultations and services in January 2014 under the legal supervision of an attorney on the IRCSGV advisory board as a temporary measure until they received BIA recognition this June.
For more information please contact: Josh Smith, Pastor, Mountainside Communion (626) 622-9631.
Marcos Canales, Hispanic Ministries Pastor, First Church of the Nazarene of Pasadena (562) 480-2876.
Robert Romero, Attorney and Professor of Chicana/o Studies and Asian-American Studies at UCLA (626) 437-1477.
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