Print Issue: September 26, 2002

CSS Fills 'Huge Void' In Immigation Services

By Priscilla Greear, Staff Writer

ATLANTA - Call it Atlanta's ER of immigration law. One of the church's most visible ministries, immigrants from around the world line up at daybreak on West Peachtree Street to be seen for legal advice from Catholic Social Services' pro-bono immigration program. On an August morning clients include a Guatemalan man with his pregnant wife and two of their children seeking to reopen an asylum claim in the face of deportation orders. Another women needs to file to bring over her children from Liberia, but realized she's got years to wait, having missed her application deadline for residency. Then an Iranian refugee asks direction on getting disability due to his multiple sclerosis.

"These are the crisis cases," explains Sue Colussy, director of the program since 1988, of morning clients she and two other attorneys advise. The director, in between granting one client strapped for cash permission to pay later and reviewing a fat file for a Honduran lady who's been here since '85, says with a tough love attitude that some immigrants come in thinking their cases will get resolved quicker by going through the church. Currently there are about 2,500 open files. "I usually tell them 'this may be a church operation but there aren't any miracles.'"

Immigration attorney Jennifer Langford works with a Hispanic family in the archdiocese's immigration office. (Photos by Michael Alexander)

Some of the program's former clients might argue that statement, with testimony of how their aggressive advocacy helped them work through overwhelming immigration problems. The program with three attorneys and two immigration counselors serves immigrants, about half of whom are Hispanic, in the areas of family immigration, asylum cases and deportation defense. About 18 people are seen daily Monday through Thursday.

It has an 85 percent approval rating in its representation of asylum seekers in affirmative cases and 95 percent with domestic violence cases, "a real issue" in the Hispanic community, she said. Colussy in May received the Atlanta Phoenix Award for her dedicated community service and last year the State Bar of Georgia awarded the program the William B. Spann Jr. Award for their commitment to legal services to the poor and innovation in responding to the legal needs of the immigrant community.

Sue Colussy, immigration program director for Catholic Social Services, works with clients in her West Peachtree office.

Regarding her years of answering her "calling" through the low-cost program, Colussy, a Presbyterian with an undergraduate degree in philosophy and religion, sums it up: "I can't imagine being anywhere else."

But that wasn't always the case. Previously working as a Presbyterian director of religious education, she didn't enter law school until 38, then interested in becoming a labor lawyer. Talking in her matter-of-fact manner as if about undeniable facts of a case, she said. "It was not in my plan to go to law school, but the Lord has a way of changing things for you."

And although she's always been an activist and developed new programs through innovation, being everything from a past PTA president to an elder in her church, "when I went to law school I couldn't have pictured myself as a litigator. While immigration court is a little different than federal courts, I'm in there a lot and I'm pretty good at it."

Carolina Colin-Antonini, another immigration lawyer and former staff member, spoke of Colussy's steadfast dedication. "Sue has given up job offers and salaries you would not believe."

"She's no-nonsense and very effective and she really is an enabler. She enables you to go and take risks and makes decisions and gives you the credit. She's a great editor. She's a wonderful lady. Sue Colussy has trained almost every immigration attorney in town. That's where you really learn the issues," Antonini continued. "She is really one of the most selfless people I've ever met in my life. She's respected not only by those who work with us in the private bar but also by the INS."

Immigration and Naturalization Service district director Rosemary Melville affirmed that statement, recalling when she took her position two years ago, one of the first things she heard about was the strong relationship of the INS with the program. "They are so reputable and so excellent in providing the services they do and we surely rely on them a lot," she said. "With the integrity they have it helps us and it helps the community and it certainly is a good service."

"For as large an area as Georgia is there's really a problem that there aren't enough organizations as reputable and accredited as CSS is," she continued. "In Los Angeles (the INS) had a very positive relationship with Catholic Charities there. In Georgia they fill a void that is so huge in the community."

In the past year the CSS program has seen a big increase in Colombian asylum cases, having had about 30 in the last fiscal year. Colussy, who switches easily between English and Spanish, won one case for a woman divorced from a Colombian judge and her children, as rebels there have been kidnapping children of judges to influence court decisions. Attorney Jennifer Langford won another case for a former undercover police officer in Colombia who was in danger due to his work investigating the rebels. Langford, also bilingual, noted that many Colombians flee the general danger from the civil war there but don't have specific threats against them, which usually prevents them from qualifying to receive asylum, leaving them better off promptly applying for work permits. The attorneys believe that the U.S. government should extend temporary protection status to Colombians, as it has done to those fleeing other countries facing civil war.

"I equate asylum law with death penalty law because if you really believe your client is in that great of danger then their life may be in danger," Colussy said.

The CSS program helps many Hispanics receive residency through NACARA - or the Nicaraguan Adjustment Central American Relief Act - a relief act for Cubans and Nicaraguans who can prove through extensive documentation that they have been here since specific years in the 1990s. One problem they encounter in this work is Hispanics who've been misled by tax preparers on filling out their taxes. "They're right on the edge of the law. We have to do a lot, send them to CPAs to get their taxes redone," Colussy said.

They're also finding Hispanics are continuing to be misled by notarios, who give legal advice but aren't lawyers, taking advantage of the fact that in some Latin American countries notarios are "super attorneys." The problem persists even after last year the Georgia legislature passed a law requiring notarios to display signs stating they aren't qualified to give legal advice.

"They screw up people's lives incredibly," Colussy said of notarios. INS director Melville explained that immigrants who pay to get advice from notarios "are victimized and afraid to come forward and complain because they may be illegally here in the U.S. This is why we see a reputable organization like CSS as playing such an essential role providing legal information, telling them either they're eligible or not eligible for benefits. At least they'll have some good information on which they can make a decision."

As there is a major backlog of cases in the INS's asylum office, Colussy said some of their NACARA clients have been waiting several years for an interview with INS officers who come down from Arlington. They've even considered shuttling a busload of clients to Virginia for the interviews. "Some of them literally have not seen their families since 1990 or before and they really want to go home for a visit, but they don't dare. They've lost family members and parents have died, but they couldn't leave because they couldn't get back in and they've got families here."

Whatever their case, staff are sure to advise immigrants to let the INS know when they move, as a law was recently revived requiring them to report address changes within 10 days of relocating. They have posted yellow signs in English and Spanish to remind people: "If you do not do this you can be deported!"

The program also advocates for Hispanics at the CSS social service centers in Athens and Gainesville, where immigration counselor Richard Goodlette goes twice weekly. Regarding the possibility of expanding legal services, in the archdiocesan survey of Hispanic ministries 33 percent of Hispanics stated they need more legal services from the church, the highest social need expressed after English classes. Said Colussy, "We would love to be able to serve more people but financially even though I think we get what is incredibly good support from the diocese it's not enough to expand a lot. It supports what we do here well, but I suspect if we're going to grow we need to find other sources of income. We are more generously supported by the diocese than any other immigration program in the country that I know of and I really appreciate that but that being said . . . we are stretched to the limit in what we can take."

Noting that volunteers "dabbling" in immigration law can be dangerous, she said churches could support an ongoing (public defender) program financially rather than try to start a new program.

With its limited resources, the CSS program only takes on cases lawyers think they have a chance of winning, but aggressively follows through once they take them. Langford, after counseling the Guatemalan couple that they have little chance for asylum status having been in and out of the country illegally and as the civil war there is over, said that regarding unwinnable cases, "I feel it is less cruel to tell them this is not going to work than to give them the false hope, to tell them that they're better returning home and reestablishing their lives rather than getting caught in deportation. Part of my job is to let them know in my professional opinion this is not going to work," Langford said. "I'm sure (the Guatemalan) would have a better chance for making a living here than in Guatemala, but our laws don't protect people who come here for economic reasons or who break the law."

One area of many where immigrants face increasing restrictions involves getting a driver's license. It is getting increasingly difficult for both legal and undocumented persons to get them. "After Sept. 11 a lot of people are way too scared," Colussy continued. "We're not talking about terrorists, we're talking about Mexican field workers for heaven's sake. And it doesn't make any sense for people to have no drivers license because they're going to drive anyway. They've got to work, they've got to support their families."

Colussy has been serving throughout her career in the Presbyterian and Catholic churches. Pre-law school experiences include teaching pre-school to non-English speaking children, where she built on college Spanish. Having worked with refugees in the past, she began working with Sister Barbara Harrington at CSS in 1986, gradually becoming fluent in Spanish as she counseled Hispanics. "There was a time when I started here that people came and I knew their names and remembered their case immediately. Now I see somebody and two weeks later I can't remember that they were even here. The numbers are so big," she said. "When I started here it was me and one filing cabinet."

One of the most rewarding types of cases for CSS lawyers is getting women protection against domestic violence. At the CSS regional offices she also speaks at new arrival meetings on the issue. "I say to the Hispanic men arriving, 'if you beat your wife you will be deported and she will get her a green card' and they look at me like I'm crazy and I think the message is getting out. Women are getting out and getting help that keeps them safe."

As hard-working immigrants seek ways to plant roots and bloom in America, the CSS program in the current national climate appears more important than ever. "It's not a good time to be an immigrant," she said. "As it gets more and more restrictive your options become more limited."

With those restrictions, the sad side is the many people she just can't help. She recalled how immigrants who grew up here, after a 1996 law change, have to prove their leaving this country would cause extreme hardship not just on them but to a citizen or permanent resident to get suspension of deportation. "It's so sad. Kids grew up here and have no way to stay here," she said. "You wake up at night and think, '(there's) just maybe something.'"

But then there are the cases like a recent one where a judge withheld judgment on an elderly Somali women, preventing her deportation. "She just sat in the witness chair and cried and we said, 'oh come on, grant withholding.'" Hence the enduring satisfaction comes "when you really feel like you've saved somebody."