By Connor Adams Sheets
Haitian-American immigrants living in the United States can get free help applying for temporary protected status from U.S. Rep. Gregory Meeks (D-Jamaica), his office’s executive director Brian Simon said Sunday evening at a gathering of Haitian churches in Hollis.
The protected status was created in the wake of the earthquake that devastated Haiti Jan. 12 as a way to help many Haitians already living in the United States at the time of the quake by allowing them to remain here legally for 18 months and providing them with temporary work permits.
But some Haitian immigrants have been having trouble filling out forms and navigating the application status due to fear, lack of knowledge or language barriers, while others have paid predatory lawyers thousands of dollars to help them.
So Meeks has hired a lawyer to provide free law services to help Haitians at every step of the process.
“Contact the congressman’s office. Please don’t pay an attorney a bunch of money that won’t do anything for you,” Simon told a crowd of more than a hundred who attended the service at IS 192. “We have a lawyer there every Thursday who will help you fill out the application free of charge.”
Meeks’ second-floor office at 153-01 Jamaica Ave. offers the consultations Thursdays from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Staff will be on hand to speak Creole, French and Spanish with those who do not speak English. All applicants should be prepared to spend at least one hour at the office.
Meeks is also providing a free Saturday session with multiple attorneys at York College Feb. 20 for those who cannot attend on Thursdays.
Those who file their first immigration applications will have to pay required federal application fees, but all other assistance is free, Simon said.
Applicants must be “continuously physically present” throughout the period of the TPS and must not have been convicted of a felony or two misdemeanors, according to the U.S. Department of Homeland Security.
For more information, call Meeks’ office at 718-725-6000.
Reach reporter Connor Adams Sheets by e-mail at csheets@cnglocal.com or by phone at 718-260-4538.
