There are timelines and time-windows people have to follow in order to be eligible for different immigration pathways and if they do not get a consult with ILAP quickly they may be unaware of these requirements and/or miss deadlines, which can have big consequences.

 

To set up an appointment with ILAP go to the ILAP website and follow the instructions there.

 

Although ILAP's mission is to provide legal advocacy to low-income immigrants in Maine, they provide lists of vetted and recommended immigration lawyers to anyone whose income is over their income threshold and it is definitely better to use their list than to randomly choose an immigration attorney online and perhaps fall victim to immigration fraud.

 

ILAP only has physical offices in Portland and Lewiston, but they also conduct meetings over zoom and they send a lawyer to the Bangor area weekly and run a monthly walk-in legal clinic alternating between the MMCC offices in Bangor and the Mano en Mano offices in Milbridge.

 

Please  note: ILAP will assist all Maine immigrants with their immigration legal questions, including those who already have refugee status, asylee status or permanent residency. It is simply more urgent to get an appointment made quickly for those without one of these 3 statuses.

 

 

 

Many immigrants arrive in Maine with immigration court dates already scheduled, though they may or may not be aware of these dates.

 

Unless someone already has Asylee Status, Refugee Status or Permanent Residency, it is important to help them learn how to utilize this automated and anonymous phone system in order to check their court dates regularly.   

 

All they need is their A-number (which is an 8 or 9 digit identification number which can be found on all immigration paperwork).  The system has options in both English and Spanish.

 

Court dates can be changed by the government at any point, and although the government is required to mail a letter to the address they have on-file for an individual whenever they change someone's court date, that address may or may not be current and letters can get lost in the mail, so it is important to not simply check this phone line once and think you are done.  Individuals should make it part of their routine to check this automated phone line once a week.

 

ILAP maintains up-to-date information about "Know Your Rights Cards" for immigrants on their website and MMCC always has stacks of these cards, also known as Red Cards,  in our office.  

 

It is a good idea to be sure your family has some of these cards and that they understand how to use them.  Feel free to contact the MMCC office at any point to come and pick some up.

 

You can find more information about Know Your Rights Cards, interactions with ICE, and Immigration Preparedness Toolkits in this MMCC Immigrant Resource Guide created by Carolina Rojas-Becerra 

 

 

Please be sure that everyone in your partner family is aware that although marijuana may be legal in Maine, it is still illegal under federal immigration law and federal law supersedes state law for ALL immigrants.  This means that it is NOT legal for an immigrant to possess, use, help another person to use, grow, or work with marijuana in any state. Not even when they are over 21 and not even with a medical marijuana card. You can read more advice from ILAP about marijuana here. Questions about marijuana may be asked in immigration interviews. Immigrants should not lie, nor should they answer questions about marijuana when speaking to an immigration official or an immigration doctor. Instead, they should say that they want to speak to an immigration lawyer first and remain silent on this topic.

 

 

The National Immigration Law Center has step-by-step advice for this situation.