Immigration Legal Services – Program Director Spotlight

by Sean DeWitt

Amidst the fray of the housing market crash, massive government bailouts, unemployment shooting through the roof, and a new president, the issue of immigration has lost its glimmer in the news. Though far from being resolved, the media has left the issue to ferment and fester until it becomes “real” news. However, there are those who are still fighting to make sure that the only headlines on immigration in the future are positive ones.

Director of Immigration Legal Services for Catholic Charities of Central Texas, Carmen Cortes-Harms, has been working to educate and empower the immigrant community for years. Carmen began small, but quickly climbed the ranks in the Mexican Foreign Service, becoming the Consulate’s Chief of Protection and Legal Affairs Department in charge of providing Mexican nationals with criminal, civil and labor legal services. Through her work, she realized that people broke laws because they did not know the laws. She found that the immigrants were unaware of visas such as the VAVA, U, and T visas, which were specially created to protect victimized immigrants. As a result, Carmen saw immigrants become easy targets for violent crimes. She saw victims stop coming to government officials for help. And she saw many immigrants taken advantage of through fraudulent legal services.

Carmen worked to curb this trend. With the help of several agencies, Carmen convinced all Austin Wells Fargo Bank’s to accept Mexican Matricula Consular (an ID given to all Mexican foreign nationals) as sufficient ID to open a bank account. This was an important change because it took large amounts of money out of the immigrant’s pockets, deterring many thefts and related homicides. After Wells Fargo made the change, other major banks across the US took up the same practice. After fifteen years with the Mexican Foreign Service, Carmen took an early retirement. However, it was less than six-months until she started working for Catholic Charities, bringing all of her experience and knowledge with her

Looking to continue her efforts to educate the immigrant community, Carmen began hosting informative sessions on immigration laws. Her goal was to educate the immigrant community on the laws and the requirements for legal residency in the US. She combined the informative nature of the sessions with an emphasis on the immigrant’s rights and duties as guests here in the United States. Her approach has been very effective in getting the community to understand that as guests they have a certain set of rights that are protected by the law and therefore, there is no reason to avoid the law. Since the start of these programs, Carmen has reached over 1,700 immigrants in the Austin area, speaking with upwards of 1,300 on one occasion. That particular presentation took place on February 2001 at Dolores Church here in Austin, filling the parish hall to the brim. Father John Korcsmar, pastor of Dolores Church, was the first Priest to open the doors of the Church to her presentations.

Carmen attributes a great amount of this success in part to the Church. She said, “In Chicago as a student and immigrant myself, I realized how important the Church was in providing a support group and a safe place for immigrants to come.” Knowing the community’s great loyalty to the Church, Carmen has been using both the Church’s facilities and memberships to draw on the community. She said that though some churches fail to get the word out, the Church helps in both a spiritual and practical way. Not only does speaking in the name of the Church make your voice more powerful, but if the immigrants are registered members of the Church, they can use their membership as an official proof of their residency in the US.

Recently, a rough economy and tight budgets have caused Carmen to dedicate more time to the office, and less time to her out reach programs. In response, Carmen has moved these programs outside of her working hours, visiting local parishes on the weekends. When asked why she felt like hosting these events on her own time, she said, “I believe God has given me the talent to speak in public and He has provided me with the education necessary to help people. It is my duty and responsibility to use those gifts.” Carmen finds these outreach programs important enough to require those who work under her to attend as well. She says, “Paper and computers can be cold sometimes. I am a people person.” Carmen realizes how effective direct service is in conjunction with education. So much so that she wants her fellow coworkers to experience and learn this for themselves.

In terms of how her programs fits into the mission of Catholic Charities, Carmen quotes Matthew 25: “For I was hungry and you gave me food, I was thirsty and you gave me drink, a stranger and you welcomed me, naked and you clothed me, ill and you cared for me, in prison and you visited me.” Her approach, as is the approach of Catholic Charities, is not only to feed the hungry and welcome the stranger, but to teach the hungry how to provide for themselves and to educate the strangers in the ways of the land. Don’t just give the people fish. Give them a fish, a fishing pole, and then teach them how to fish.

Carmen is an example of the great amount dedication and charity that is present in those serving the immigrant community. And though headlines might be lacking such stories, there are many people out there like Carmen, sacrificing both their working lives and their personal lives to the service of the immigrant community. So while we ooh and ah at the technicolor shout out loud news at home, let us not forget the wonderful people, who are serving our gracious guests.