HOLLAND, Mich. — A clinic formed to help hundreds of Afghan evacuees in West Michigan seek asylum recently met a key milestone that advocates hope leads to a stable home.
“It’s a pretty proud moment,” said Iliana Ponce. “We just want to make their application strong.”
Ponce serves as the outreach program coordinator for the New Americans Legal Clinic.
It’s an initiative launched this past May by Lighthouse Immigrant Advocates and other local partners that works with Afghan refugees in West Michigan on their asylum claims.
READ: Clinic to help 270+ Afghan evacuees in West Michigan seek asylum
As of last week, the free clinic completed 50 percent of asylum applications. The rest are expected to be submitted within 365 days of their clients’ arrival.
Ponce calls it a big accomplishment since the status granted to evacuees when they first arrived only allows them to work and live in cities for up to a year.
“I’m not saying that they’ve completely healed, but they definitely have this hope and you can see that they’re willing to keep trying,” said Ponce.
After submission, asylum applicants must complete an interview.
Ponce says about 20 refugees began that process this week and met with immigration officers in Chicago.
The government must issue a decision on a person’s status no more than 150 days after their applications is submitted.
They can become eligible for a green card one year later. According to Ponce, New Americans Legal Clinic plans to help with those legal services too.
A group of bipartisan legislators, including Rep. Peter Meijer (R) and Rep. Fred Upton (R), introduced a bill earlier this month that would improve the special immigrant visa process for Afghans.
Clinic advocates urge people to ask their lawmakers to pass the bill.
“They were forcibly removed from their homes,” said Ponce. “A lot of our clients, that’s not something they ever imagined being forcibly removed, so now we need our community to assist.”
As evacuees wait for a decision, Ponce says they are trying to make life as normal as possible. She says, for example, many have recently accepted jobs in the field that they went to school for or got their driver’s license.
She hopes an approved claim gives them another thing to smile about.
“Just because this one bad thing happened to them - it’s a huge bad thing to them - but that’s not going to detain them,” said Ponce. “They have this desire to keep moving forward.”
