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In July, the Immigration Legal Services (ILS) program offered DACA renewal services for the first time to over 60 individuals through volunteer-staffed workshops.

In 1998, Brandon Vega Ayala came to the U.S. at the age of two. His mother decided to flee an abusive relationship and her family saved the money to help her and her son cross the border without authorization. In doing so, Brandon became one of the so-called “DREAMers,” or undocumented youth brought into the country as young children.

In his early years in the U.S., Brandon moved often around the Sacramento area with his mother. They eventually established themselves in the Rosemont area and he attended Hiram Johnson High School. “My mom told me I had to be careful, that I didn’t have papers,” Brandon explained. He participated in numerous clubs and sports in school, but his lack of status thwarted his dreams. “I planned to join the U.S. military, but my immigration status prevented me from enlisting.”

When the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program was announced in 2012, Brandon was a sophomore. The new program provided protection from deportation and a work permit that was renewable every two years. He filed for DACA and has renewed it ever since.

Today, Brandon lives a full life, in part owing to his DACA protections. Last December, he married Paulina, a friend from high school. He works 50 hours a week at a grocery store while taking college classes on the side to complete programs in business management and electrical engineering.

Last September, President Trump ended the DACA program and observers hoped the action would spur a permanent legislative solution for DREAMers, but a new law has not materialized. While several federal judges ordered that the program remain open for renewal applications, it was expected another conflicting judicial decision in August 2018 might lead to the DACA program’s permanent termination. Advocates recommended DACA-holders renew while it was still possible.

Brandon wanted to renew and had friends who had been going to private attorneys and paying over $1,500 to file renewal applications, an amount he couldn’t easily spare. His wife researched resources to renew and found a listing for World Relief Sacramento’s first free DACA renewal workshop.

“The ILS program has moved into a new direction with these workshops to help meet the tremendous need in the community,” shared Ted Oswald, the ILS manager at World Relief Sacramento. Thanks to a California state grant, the ILS program covers the $495 application fee for income-eligible individuals like Brandon, and prepares, reviews, packages, and submits applications, all for completely free. The workshops have been a success. “Over just three evenings, our small ILS team’s efforts have been multiplied by 10 amazing volunteers to serve over 60 DACA-recipients.”

Brandon attended the inaugural workshop with his wife and expressed his gratitude to the ILS team by email afterward. “The workshop touched my wife and I with your team’s kindness and dedication in helping me,” Brandon wrote. “Considering the political backlashes we receive daily, this has brought hope and “relief” into our lives.”

We hosted a volunteer appreciation block party, transforming the nondescript alley behind our office into a festive space decked out with string lights, gold confetti, balloons and colorful table settings. In addition to his official Director title, Kerry Ham was also the event’s unofficial grill master. He spent most of the day preparing chicken and steak for the 100+ staff and volunteers in attendance. In case you have not seen our office map, our staff hails from all over the world. So naturally, the menu was a potluck style international feast. Afghan musicians entertained our guests, children played corn hole and other outdoor games, and most importantly, staff were able to express their appreciation for and connect with volunteers.

Volunteering at World Relief is a unique experience. Good Neighbor Team volunteers, for example, commit to walking alongside and supporting refugee families for six months. During the block party, we had an open mic session where volunteers shared stories about working with refugee families, and most of these stories were less about the ways they helped our clients and more about the ways our new refugee neighbors changed their lives.

Thank you, volunteers! For the countless miles you have logged taking our clients to appointments, for the late night airport pickups to welcome our families, for your donations that help us furnish apartments, for opening up your homes, for your time, energy and support. We could not do our work without you!

Where do you go if your sister in your home country is being persecuted for her faith? If a teenage son who left his family behind to escape harm is now stranded in Europe while the rest of the family has been resettled to the U.S.? When you’re a first-generation immigrant and you want to take steps toward becoming a U.S. citizen?

You need trusted legal advice, and World Relief Sacramento is now here to offer it.

My name is Ted Oswald and I joined World Relief Sacramento in March as a managing attorney to launch a more comprehensive Immigrant Legal Services (ILS) program. At ILS we are working alongside our refugee resettlement colleagues and dramatically expanding our services through hiring full-time staff and placing a new emphasis on engaging volunteers from churches to better serve Sacramento’s diverse and growing immigrant population.

This exciting work reflects World Relief’s mission of empowering the local church to serve the most vulnerable, helping families, communities, and our country thrive.

Here’s how we do it, and how you can get involved.

In short, the ILS program exists to 1) serve low-income immigrants in need of legal assistance, 2) engage and equip legal professionals, Christian and otherwise, to serve their immigrant neighbors, and 3) offer relevant legal education to help vulnerable populations know their rights.

Some might ask, “Why invest in legal assistance for immigrants?” We see ILS as a vital means of fulfilling our biblical mandate to “Welcome the Stranger.” The affordable services we offer are vital for immigrants’ short and long-term integration into their communities. We can help individuals naturalize and become citizens, maintain legal residency and work permits, reunify families, avoid deportation, and protect immigrant victims of human trafficking, domestic violence, and violent crime.

Unfortunately, the services of private attorneys can be cost-prohibitive, sapping immigrants’ hope and the will to resolve complicated legal situations. Many immigrants resort to unscrupulous community agents who mislead and defraud, often jeopardizing their legal status.

ILS aspires to be a source of compassionate protection, empowering assistance, and sound counsel.

By offering consultations and services to our clients we take in the facts, offer a diagnosis, and then provide a solution, all in one place.

We also create transformative volunteer opportunities for attorneys, paralegals, law students, interpreters, and others who choose to take time from their busy schedules to offer consultations, intern, help run naturalization workshops, and complete the applications and petitions that are vital to positive immigration outcomes.

Finally, we partner with churches to offer seminars that help break down complicated laws and explain ever-changing immigration law and policy. This education is a way for churches to concretely minister to struggling immigrants inside and outside of their walls who are navigating the difficult transition to life in the U.S.

I’m passionate about ILS because I’ve seen the way it can transform lives and empower individuals, and how it represents an exciting opportunity to reach our communities and model Christ’s love. Please don’t hesitate to reach out to me if you are interested in learning how you or your church might partner in this new and exciting venture for World Relief Sacramento.

In it together,

Ted