CLS's Specialized Immigrant Services Unit: Strengthening Families, Strengthening Communities, 0316 COBJ, 2016, March, Pg. 17
| Author | Allison Pofit Altaras, J. |
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CLS's Specialized Immigrant Services Unit: Strengthening Families, Strengthening Communities
Allison Pofit Altaras, J.
About the Author
Allison Pofit Altaras is a member of the Associates Advisory Board of the Legal Aid Foundation and serves as an Associates Campaign representative for her firm, Otten Johnson Robinson Neff
+ Ragonetti. Her practice focuses on commercial real estate transactions and leasing, land use and development approvals, and associated water rights and infrastructure issues—(303) 575-7516, aaltaras@ottenjohnson. com.
The Legal Aid Foundation of Colorado kicks off its annual Associates Campaign for Justice on March 1. Now in its 12th year, the Associates Campaign has become a spring tradition at law firms around the state—and for good reason. The Associates Campaign provides an important funding source for Colorado Legal Services (CLS), the only agency in Colorado that offers free civil legal services to indigent clients and underserved populations in every single Colorado county. The Associates Campaign is also an opportunity for younger and newer attorneys to step up and assume a leadership role in supporting CLS and its 100-plus person staff, who are dedicated to serving the nearly 900,000 Coloradans who are income-eligible for CLS's services.
This article highlights the important work of CLS's Specialized Immigrant Services unit, as generously shared by CLS attorneys Karina Arreola and Patricia Medige. Arreola and Medige's clients are among the most vulnerable and least visible victims of crime, violence, and exploitation in our communities. And yet they play an essential role in local, state, and national law enforcement efforts. Without competent representation by CLS attorneys like Arreola and Medige, individuals and businesses that prey on the powerless will escape prosecution and their victims will never see justice.
By combating human trafficking and aiding noncitizen crime victims in obtaining legal status and testifying against their perpetrators, CLS helps strengthen Colorado communities, making them safer and more secure. You can support CLS through participation in the 2016 Associates Campaign by visiting legalaidfoundation.org and selecting "Donate Now."
What Is Human Trafficking?
"A lot of people are generally aware that human trafficking is a problem, but don't know exactly what it is," explains Medige, who oversees CLS's anti-trafficking project. "The definition is broader than most people think—human trafficking is defined as obtaining labor or services through fraud, force, or coercion." All forced or coerced labor counts—not just the forced prostitution that may immediately come to mind and garners the most media attention—farm labor, construction work, restaurant work, even office labor. The victims of human trafficking that CLS represents may be American citizens or nationals of other countries who are effectively held hostage by those who would take advantage of their legal status.
In 1996, Congress restricted the ability of legal aid organizations that receive federal funding to represent undocumented immigrants unless domestic violence was involved.1 The restrictions were gradually relaxed so that by 2006, CLS was also able to represent victims of human trafficking and certain other crime victims, regardless of immigration status. Since then, CLS has partnered with numerous local and national agencies, including the federal Innocence Lost Task Force, a multi-agency, interstate effort aimed at addressing the growing problem of domestic sex trafficking of children in the United States. CLS also serves on the steering committee of the statewide service provider network—the Colorado Network to End Human Trafficking (CoNEHT)—and partners with local law enforcement agencies, victim and immigrant advocacy groups, and nonprofit organizations, accepting referrals and triaging its cases.
CLS assists victims of human trafficking to report the crime and apply for temporary or long-term immigration relief. CLS also provides information and legal assistance to individuals wishing to pursue their traffickers for lost wages and damages suffered as a result of trafficking. In recognition of CLS's experience in serving trafficked persons, Governor Hickenlooper in 2014 appointed Medige to the state Human Trafficking Council.2
Hidden in Plain Sight
A recent Colorado trafficking case that garnered local and national attention involved immigrant Thai workers at several restaurants in Boulder, Broomfield, and Louisville. The owner of the restaurants induced the foreign workers to pay him thousands of dollars...
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