Immigration
Immigration Legal Clinic
We are currently fundraising for the first phase of the legal clinic, which includes hiring the attorneys who will be key to the success of this program. If you are interested in volunteering once the clinic opens, please let us know.
For the past three years, PRC has offered many different types of support to immigrants in our community and coming out of detention into southeastern Pennsylvania. Our cycling bond fund provided bond money for undocumented persons detained in Pennsylvania so that they could remain with their loved ones throughout lengthy legal proceedings. As part of PRC’s short-term resettlement efforts, we provided kits with basic necessities to detainees released from the York Detention Center. PRC also set up the first COVID-19 quarantine site for released detainees with our local ICE office. Detention Centers had especially high cases of COVID-19, so these quarantine sites moved individuals out of danger while also stemming the spread of the virus.
As we have continued this work, more local care providers and nonprofits called us with questions about their clients’ legal needs surrounding immigration. PRC staff are trained and experienced in immigration issues, and so could offer some answers and basic information to partners. However, trustworthy and affordable immigration attorneys are incredibly difficult to find, so the need for pro bono or pro rata legal assistance is growing.
Are you looking for this resource?
The Immigration Legal Clinic is not yet open. We hope to be open Summer or Fall 2023.
Bonds
PRC began working in immigration in 2019, as the fiscal sponsor for the group Immigration Bond and Advocacy Effort (IBAE). In addition to PRC, the affiliations of the founding members of this bond effort included Landisville Mennonite Church, Lancaster Friends Meeting, Pennsylvania Immigration Resource Center, and ALDEA – The People’s Justice Center.
PRC continued to help facilitate this work by soliciting donations, posting bond, and filling gaps for released asylum seekers as needed. IBAE was eventually absorbed into PRC’s growing work in immigration.
PRC’s bond fund has been fully distributed. As bonds are returned over the next few years, we will reallocate it.
Are you looking for this resource?
PRC’s bond fund has been fully distributed.
Carter’s Story
Carter spent two years in York Detention Center waiting for his asylum case to be settled. He ate the detention center food and never even saw the sky. In the middle of the COVID-19 pandemic, he was granted asylum and released from detention, but with no sponsor, he had nowhere to go. PRC arranged for quarantine lodging to ensure everyone’s safety. During quarantine, Carter was able to pass many hours on his little balcony watching the changing sky. Because of a partnership with a local catering company (run by recent refugees), the meals delivered during his quarantine included the tastes of his home in central Africa. PRC was able to find a welcoming church that is now working to give Carter a very bright future in his new home.