New Mexico trains non-lawyers to help immigrants navigate legal system

The New Mexico Department of Workforce Solutions is offering a training program for non-lawyers looking to provide legal assistance to immigrant workers.

The 40-hour program, funded through a $25,000 private grant, coaches legal professionals who aren’t attorneys on how to help non-citizens with naturalization and work permit applications, said Leonardo Castañeda, director of NMDWS’s Office of New Americans.

The department is seeking to train more professionals to be able to help with what Castañeda says is an increase in immigrant workers of all statuses seeking legal counsel.

“I think there have been so many changes to rules around immigration that I think a lot of people are confused,” Castañeda said. 

Access to affordable legal services is one of the biggest barriers to citizenship or legal status for New Mexico’s nearly 131,000 foreign-born workers, he said. Some may qualify for humanitarian visas or green cards, but may not know how to start the application process and don’t have a legal professional available to help.

“There’s certain processes on immigration law that, in theory, you don’t need an attorney, but they’re still very complicated legal processes,” Castañeda said.

NMDWS just completed its first training with 12 people, he said, and the department has plans to launch a new cohort soon. 

The training is required for non-attorney legal professionals, such as paralegals, to become certified through the U.S. Department of Justice to provide immigration services, including naturalization and work permit applications, according to a news release. 

Participants don’t need to have a specific job within the legal profession, Castañeda said, but do need to work at an organization that has DOJ accreditation or is working toward it.

“There is a dearth of low-cost legal services for immigrants … who really do have an avenue of relief, but don’t often have access to legal services, either because there are no immigration attorneys in their communities or because they can’t afford them,” said Marcela Díaz, executive director of Santa Fe nonprofit immigrant rights group Somos un Pueblo Unido. A paralegal with the nonprofit recently completed the NMDWS training.

Díaz said she hears from immigrant workers, particularly in rural parts of the state, who think they may have a legal pathway to citizenship, but don’t know where to start.

“There are so many folks in New Mexico (who) are in a range of statuses that could avail themselves of some form of relief if they had access to the legal help and the legal services that they need,” she said.

Immigrants make up around 10.2% of New Mexico’s population and 12.8% of its labor force, according to an analysis of U.S. Census Bureau data by the American Immigration Council, a nonprofit advocacy group.

New Mexico’s population growth over the last five years was driven almost entirely by immigrants, according to a September report from NMDWS, leaving the state reliant on foreign-born labor.

“We know that immigrants can be a part of so many different emerging industries, and so it just makes sense that the Department of Workforce Solutions would be supporting workers in this way across the state,” Díaz said.