OCT 22 2021
Lemine, one of our amazing Case Managers who also manages Canopy’s Legal Services, shared an overview of the support services that he and his team provide for individuals and families in our community. Canopy offers a limited amount of legal services, most of which are focused on newly arriving neighbors who have come to the United States with Refugee status – through the Office of Refugee Resettlement – and also can be offered to others in need of legal immigration services.
The services we provide include assistance with applications for Family Reunification, Legal Permanent Residence (Green Card) applications, and applying for U.S. Citizenship, along with many other services, largely free of charge to the individual. While his work is extensive and far-reaching, we wanted to offer some very basic details about the immigration legal services that Canopy provides to give our community a better picture of how it all works:
Family Reunification
One of the primary legal services that Canopy provides is reunifying families who have been separated during their resettlement process. This service allows us to assist someone who arrives at our site as a refugee in resettling their family members, who may still be in their home-country, in our community with their relatives. This can often be a long, difficult process and our services can help to hopefully reunite families more efficiently.
Legal Permanent Residence
After one year of living in the U.S., those who resettled in NWA through Canopy are legally eligible to apply for Legal Permanent Residence (a Green Card). Lemine highlighted that this is a major step in the process as it allows a person to live and work permanently in the United States. We are so excited when we are able to walk through this big step in the resettlement process alongside our new neighbors!
U.S. Citizenship
Five years after someone arrives in the United States, we are able to help them apply for U.S. Citizenship. This process is a difficult one that includes testing of developed language skills and U.S. civics knowledge. This December Canopy will be helping the first neighbors we welcomed to NWA in 2016 in seeking citizenship!!
“We have nearly 20 clients applying for citizenship very soon…We should all celebrate as it marks a very big point for our organization and our clients have been working diligently towards integrating and becoming US citizens.”
Other Legal Service Recipients
Those with refugee status are the primary, but not the only people that Canopy is able to help with immigration and legal services. We also offer support services to others within five years of their arrival in the US including those who are parolees, those with permanent resident status, or those with a pending asylum case in the US. Lemine mentioned a program that Canopy assists with and is planning to continue helping with called CAM (Central American Minors) program. These cases specifically help to reunite families of minors from El Salvador, Guatemala, and Honduras in the United States. Canopy also assists with DACA (Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals) and TPS (Temporary Protected Status) cases.
We work with Lawyers across the Northwest Arkansas area on legal cases for individuals and families with various needs and immigration statuses. Lemine and his co-worker, Ariana, are working on a DOJ accreditation to eventually be able to represent Canopy cases in legal proceedings. We are also happy to work alongside other organizations and institutions in our area such as Arkansas Immigrant Defense, the University of Arkansas Law, and others to support these cases.
We are grateful for the impact Lemine & his team have in the lives of so many.
Lemine loves the work he does and paraphrased a quote he loves, saying “life makes more sense if you have a great impact on others’ lives”. He says he “feels accomplished when [he] helps others, especially through difficult things.” Lemine is passionate about helping others and supporting those who are starting fresh in our community. We could not be more grateful for all of the amazing work he does, the passion and care he puts into each interaction and case, and the important legal services he and his team provide for so many.
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