Know Your Rights! VAAP is working on building our public-facing resource page. Meanwhile, we recommend immi.org as a reliable and bilingual source of Know Your Rights information, including information about what to expect during immigration court proceedings and how to assess yourself for the most common pathways to regularized immigration status.
Last week, the Biden Administration extended Temporary Protected Status for Haitians through February 2026. Qualifying Haitians with TPS can visit USCIS to reregister. Also last week, former Burlington City Councilmember Ali Dieng hosted VAAP on his CCTV show, Ali's Corner to digest Biden's enacted and proposed changes to asylum seeking and adjudication and expanded family-based immigration pathways.
Despite the Biden changes, migrants continue to seek asylum at the U.S./Mexico border. This reporting is consistent with research data that tougher border policies do not achieve their stated purpose of reducing displaced peoples' need or practice of asylum seeking.
Meanwhile, Canada is piloting an interesting "Airbnb for refugees" emergency housing model that appears eerily similar to the one brainstormed during the symposium's case management workshop! "Operating like a non-profit version of Airbnb, an online home-sharing platform has been launched in the face of Canada’s housing crisis, addressing the needs of at least one particularly vulnerable group. The new tool by Refugee Housing Canada [go to this link for details...] matches asylum seekers in need of safe, secure accommodation with Canadian hosts who are willing to open their home and offer their spare rooms at an affordable rent..."
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After working through our winter/spring waitlist and responding to dozens of new calls for legal help, VAAP's intake is now closed for the summer.
Due to limited staffing, we are unable to responsibly manage a waitlist at this time. This means that, unfortunately, we will be unable to respond to any new help requests from now until September, besides what we have already committed to doing before this week.
Intake will reopen in September 2024 when we will be piloting "Walk-in Wednesdays" as the only means of requesting VAAP's legal help. This means we will be supporting volunteers to welcome interested noncitizens to walk-in or call-in on specific days of the month to request legal help. Legal advocates, language access, and legal support volunteers will be on hand to assist with completing legal screenings, collecting all necessary client data, and offering brief advice and referrals as appropriate.
We will be supplementing Walk-in Wednesdays with tabling efforts at select community events (such as the recent Mobile Mexican Consulate in Montpelier and the upcoming Migrant Justice Torneo de Futbol).
If we identify during a "walk-in" intake clinic or tabling effort that VAAP is the appropriate provider to provide a person with immigration legal help, we will refer them to one of our by-appointment legal help clinics. There, VAAP advocates will help the person to prepare and/or review their immigration application forms for filing, with language access coordinated by VAAP. Otherwise we will orient folks to the legal system and their options, share resources, and make referrals.
All of this means we will not be registering or responding to referrals by email or voicemail going forward, except to inform referral makers/requestors of the upcoming Walk-in Wednesdays, and other intake clinics and tabling events, as the appropriate time to register the referral/request.
We will be sharing more information about "Walk-in Wednesdays" soon, but for now, potential clients, partners, and pro bonos can save the following dates as times when we'll be accepting walk-in and call-in requests for legal help: September 11, October 2, November 6, and December 4. No appointments necessary.
We will be sharing rolling updates on our website blog, our calendar, our newsletters, and our social media. Follow those channels, encourage potential clients to do the same, and contact VAAP to express your no-obligation interest in volunteering at one of the clinic events!
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We hope that all of our amazing volunteers save those dates, too, because we need you! If you are a lawyer or legal worker and you're interested in volunteering your time by providing an asylum seeker with free legal help but you're not quite sure where to start, check out our latest updates to our Volunteer Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs) and email us for access to our pro bono email list serv and insiders-only Resource SharePoint.
Not ready to take a case for full representation without some practice experience under your belt, or simply limited on time? Start by volunteering as an attorney-for-a-day at one of our upcoming pro se assistance clinics.
The next one is July 13th at the Migrant Justice Torneo de Futbol. We'll be training and supervising pro bono advocates to assist walk-up Torneo participants with legal information, orientation, and referral making. We'll handle the language access, you just RSVP. Refreshments will be served!
TL;DR: Don't wait to express your no-obligation interest in volunteering as attorney-for-a-day at one of our upcoming tabling events or legal clinics, or your interest in a deeper volunteer experience representing an asylum seeker from intake through to their merits hearing.
Whether you're completing your first-year attorney mentorship licensing requirements, planning your retirement projects, interested in skilling up, or interested in giving back, VAAP its here to support you along the way.
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 Migrant Justice works to build the voice, capacity, and power of the farmworker community and engage community partners to organize for economic justice and human rights. Through community-building and collective bargaining, they contract farmer-employers and distributors to produce milk with dignity; disentangle local safety systems from federal immigration law enforcement to end "polimigra" practices; secure equitable higher education access regardless of immigration status; assist workers to defend against deportation; secure equitable Covid-19 stimulus relief and safe access to Vermont driver privilege cards; and much, much more.
Numbering among the many incredible solidarity services Migrant Justice offers their members, staff regularly screen and refer members seeking immigration legal help to VAAP and our legal service partners. They also provide unrepresented members with highly skilled case support. Migrant Justice has welcomed VAAP to table at their signature summer event, a soccer tournament on Saturday, July 14, 2024 at Burlington's Leddy Park. Tabling will involve sharing outreach materials, fielding general questions, orienting people to the immigration system, and information gathering for eligible prospective clients.
If you are interested in supporting our tabling effort for some or all of the July 13th Torneo, please email us to express your no-obligation interest. We need your help! Training and malpractice insurance provided!
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Saturday, July 13: VAAP and volunteers will be tabling at Migrant Justice's Torneo de Futbol and offering walk-up individuals with legal orientation, brief advice, and referrals. Training, insurance, and refreshments always provided!
Tuesday, July 30: Last Tuesday of each month, besides August and December, VAAP hosts virtual immigration legal case rounds for lawyers and legal workers to discuss law, policy, and practice questions and support each other. All are welcome!
Wednesday, September 11: Walk-In Wednesday. VAAP and volunteers will be welcoming noncitizen Vermonters to call-in, or walk-in to VAAP's Burlington office, for legal orientation, brief advice, intake, and referrals.
Tuesday, September 24: VAAP hosts immigration case rounds for lawyers and legal workers.
Friday, September 27: VAAP presenting at Vermont Bar Association's annual meeting at the Lake Morey Resort in Fairlee, VT.
Wednesday, October 2: Walk-In Wednesday. As above.
Tuesday, October 29: VAAP hosts immigration case rounds for lawyers and legal workers.
Wednesday, November 6: Walk-In Wednesday. As above.
Tuesday, November 26: VAAP hosts immigration case rounds for lawyers and legal workers.
Wednesday, December 4: Walk-In Wednesday. As above.
Follow the VAAP calendar for more events as they unfold!
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THANK YOU FOR YOUR SUPPORT!
-The VAAP Team
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Jill Martin Diaz (they/them), elle), Executive Director is VAAP's supervising attorney and first full-time paid staff. They come to VAAP from Vermont Law and Graduate School where they taught doctrinal and clinical immigration law and directed the Center for Justice Reform Clinic. Previously, Jill practiced as a Vermont Poverty Law Fellow at Vermont Legal Aid and an Immigrant Justice Corps Fellow at Sanctuary for Families New York. The National LGBTQ+ Bar Association recognized Jill’s achievements by honoring them as one of 2023’s Top 40 Lawyers Under 40. They speak English and Spanish and are licensed to practice in New York, Vermont, and the District of Vermont.
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Marnie Avila Alvarez (she/her, ella), Paralegal Advocate/Program Coordinator, is a Cuban lawyer who is pursuing Vermont Law Office Study at VAAP. In 2014, she earned her law degree magna cum laude from the Havana University Faculty of Law and in 2023 completed her LLM as a Global Energy Fellow at Vermont Law and Graduate School’s Institute for Energy and the Environment. Before VAAP Marnie's legal work focused on renewable energy projects, regulatory compliance, and environmental law. Since coming to the U.S., she gained experience handling immigration cases, providing support to individuals navigating the immigration system, and advocating for fair and just immigration policies. In 2022, Marnie co-founded Alviera Group LLC, which assists immigrants to establish themselves legally, economically, and socially in the United States, while supporting clean energy access and energy efficiency solutions for the immigrant community. Marnie serves as adjunct faculty at VLGS, teaching their Global Sustainability Field Class in Cuba every year.
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Becky Wasserman (she/her), Board Member is an attorney and the Director of Economic Empowerment at the Office of the State Treasurer. Becky started working with asylum seekers more than ten years ago through her law school’s immigration clinic. Since then she has worked in a pro bono capacity on a number of immigration matters, including volunteering at the southern border in 2018 and 2019. In 2021, she co-founded the Vermont Asylum Assistance Project with Kate Paarlberg-Kvam and community partners.
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Kate Paarlberg-Kvam (she/they), Board Member is the Executive Director of the Milk With Dignity Standards Council. She has a PhD in Latin American Studies, and spent ten years teaching college prior to directing the Community Asylum Seekers Project (CASP) in Brattleboro, VT. In that role Kate learned firsthand the transformative power of legal representation for asylum seekers, and worked with CASP to co-found the Vermont Asylum Assistance Project with Rebecca Wasserman. Kate now directs the Milk with Dignity Standards Council, a Burlington-based nonprofit working to ensure the human rights of Vermont's dairy workers. Kate has worked as a researcher and a solidarity activist with social movement organizers in Colombia and is fluent in Spanish, occasionally helping VAAP with interpretation and translation needs.
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Caitlin Jenness (she/her), Board Member is the Director of Finance at Evernorth and lives with her husband Miles on a small homestead in Huntington, VT. In 2013, Caitlin earned her M.B.A from Antioch University in Sustainable Business Management, and has spent the last 10 years working in financial leadership of multiple mission-driven entrepreneurial businesses across Vermont. She is excited to bring her affinity for spreadsheets, budgets and financial planning to the organizational efforts of the VAAP team.
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Erin Jacobsen (she/her), Board Member is Burlington Mayor Mulvaney-Stanak's Chief of Staff. Previously she worked as Assistant Attorney General at the Office of the Vermont Attorney General and Co-Director of the office’s Community Justice Division, and before that she was a Professor of Law and Director of the South Royalton Legal Clinic at Vermont Law and Graduate School. There, she served as the Senior Staff Attorney at Vermont Immigrant Assistance project, where she supervised student clinicians on humanitarian immigration cases and taught Immigration Law and Legislation & Regulation in the classroom.
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Faith Orr (she/her), Board Member is a third-year law student at Vermont Law and Graduate School. She graduated from Concordia University in Montréal in 2015, specializing in French-to-English translation and worked as a French-to-English translator and legal assistant. Faith has experienced her own immigration challenges, and finally became a Canadian permanent resident last year. She moved back to Vermont during COVID-19 to continue her studies and help to better the lives of asylum seekers in Vermont. She plans to practice immigration law after passing the bar.
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